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CHAPTER 7 – Judges: Approx. 1364 B.C.-Approx. 1079 B.C.

Judges is the seventh book of the Bible. The title of the book in the Hebrew Bible is Shophetim which is translated “judges.” The English title comes down to us from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate which has the title Liber Judicum, “The Book of Judges.”

Authorship

Ancient Jewish tradition is that Judges was written by Samuel, the last judge and a prophet of Israel. It was either written before Samuel’s death which occurred before 1011 B.C. or, as indicated by the book’s internal evidence, no later than 1004 B.C.

Summary

The book of Judges covers about 300 years of the history of Israel starting from Joshua’s death in approximately 1375 B.C. and going up to approximately 1079 B.C.

The book opens with an account of the efforts of the tribes to drive out the remaining Canaanites in the land and the resulting failure due to their unfaithfulness to God. After this is the statement that all of the generation that crossed over the Jordan River died and there arose a new generation that knew not God nor what God had done for Israel.

Judges then records that this new generation did evil in God’s eyes and forsook God. They followed the gods of the Canaanites such as Baal and Ashtaroth, thus provoking God to anger. God, therefore, allowed the Canaanites to oppress Israel and the Israelites were greatly distressed.

Notwithstanding Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, and because of the groanings of the people of Israel under their oppressors, God raised up judges who delivered Israel from their enemies all the days of the life of these judges.

But when the judge was dead, the people corrupted themselves more than before by following other gods and they would not turn from their own doings and their stubborn way. Therefore, God would not drive out the Canaanite nations in the land hastily, but left the nations to test Israel to prove whether they would obey God’s commandments or not.

This then is the summary by the author of Judges of Israel’s history over the period covered by the book and the interpretation of this history. After this is an account of repeated cycles of relapse by Israel into idolatry, followed by the consequent oppression by their enemies, the rise of a judge to deliver them and judge them until his death, when the cycle of sin would begin again.

The first judge recorded by the book of Judges is Othneil who delivers Israel from the Mesopotamians from the northeast. Next comes Ehu who delivers them from the Moabites from the southeast. After this was Shamgar who delivered them from the Philistines from the southwest.

He is followed by Deborah and Barak who throw off the oppression of the northern Canaanites. Then comes Gideon who repels the Midianites from the east.

After Gideon’s death, his son Abimelech by his concubine, kills 70 of his brothers with only Jotham, Gideon’s youngest son, escaping death. Abimelech is made king and he rules for three years, when a rebellion rises up against him.

Abimelech attempts to quell the rebellion and in the siege of a city, a woman severely wounds him in the head. To prevent anyone from saying that a woman killed him, Abimelech orders his attendant to kill him and so he dies.

Then comes the judges Tola and Jair. They are followed by the judge, Jephthah, who defeats the warring Ammonites from the east. Before the battle, Jephthah vows that if God gives him victory, he would offer to God as a burnt offering the first thing from his household that meets him on his return. His daughter, an only child, meets him first on his return and Jephthah does to her according to his vow.

During the reign of Jephthah, the tribe of Ephraim are dissatisfied with his arrangements for war with the Ammonites and a civil war breaks out between the tribe of Ephraim, west of the Jordan River, and the tribes east of the river. Jephthah was the victor over Ephraim.

Then comes the judges Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. They are followed by the judge, Samson, who possessed unusual physical strength given him by God. Samson through his sinful ways had a number of encounters and escapades with the Philistines who eventually captured him and blinded him in his two eyes.

In the end, Samson repents of his sins and takes revenge on the Philistines by taking hold of the two middle pillars of their temple and pulling them down so that the temple collapses upon him, killing him along with more than 3,000 Philistines.

The book of Judges ends with an account of two events. The first event is the record of the idolatry of an Israelite man named Micah, and the departure of the Levite, his priest, with people from the tribe of Dan who take Micah’s objects of worship. Also, in this account is the killing of the inhabitants of the city of Laish by the Danites who then settle there in their place.

The second event is the sexual abuse of a Levite’s concubine by the people of the tribe of Benjamin from the city of Gibeah, and her consequent death. Also, in this account is Israel’s war with Benjamin regarding the death of the Levite’s concubine. This war resulted in leaving only six hundred men of Benjamin alive, and thus Israel circumvents their own oath so that they obtain wives for the men of Benjamin, in order to prevent the tribe of Benjamin becoming extinct.

The book of Judges concludes with the observation that there was no king in Israel and everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.

Themes

• The tendency of all humanity to idolatry.
• The pervasiveness of humanity’s lack of sincere repentance.
• God’s forgiveness and mercy towards humanity.
• Satan at work to cause Israel to be disobedient to God.

God as Revealed in the Book

• God’s gives godly leaders to humanity to bring about pure worship of God.
• God’s attentive ear to the distress of humanity.

Connections with the Rest of the Bible

God’s desire for humanity is that “they…do no iniquity [wickedness]: [but] they walk in his [God’s] ways.” Psalm 119:3. However, Israel, like all humanity, “tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies [about how sinful human beings can become holy]: But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers.” Psalm 78: 56, 57.

Spiritual Applications

Pray to God sincerely and ask God to help you to do His will, believing that God will help you, and thus you will be enabled to make the spiritual applications noted below:

• Worship God and do not be turned aside from God to idolatry.
• Sincerely repent of your sins.

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