Book of Judges

Gideon's men blow their trumpets.

Book of Judges (Hebrew: Sefer Shoftim ספר שופטים) is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. It appears in the Hebrew Bible and in the Christian Old Testament. It contains the history of Biblical heroes known as "judges" (soferim — not to be confused with modern judges), and of their times. The Book revolves around the legends of five major judges and one shortlived kingship (that of Abimilech), with six mindor judges listed only in passing. The stories all concern leaders of the northern tribes in the area which later became known as the Kingdom of Israel.

The story of two additional judges, Eli and Samuel, are told in the first of the Books of Samuel. Two stories at the end of the Book deal not with the judges themselves but with incidents that took place during the time period in question: the migration of the tribe of Dan to its place in the north, and a war between Benjamin and the other tribes.

The Period of Judges

The biblical Period of Judges follows immediately upon the story of Israel's exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. The Period of Judges thus does not correspond with that covered by the Book of Judges. It includes part of Joshua's time, plus the period of Eli and Samuel.

Traditionally the judges ruled over the whole of Israel like the kings. However, this actually occured only occasionally. Their influence usually did not extend beyond the bounds of their own tribe and possibly a neighboring tribe or two. [1] Nor should there necessarily be thought of as having ruled sequentially. Rather, some may have been active at the same time, with a later editor placing the stories in their current order and adding the details concerning the length of their reigns. The consensus of scholarly opinion now dates the period of the judges to roughly 1200—1050 B.C.E.

Only a few of the "judges" are described as engaging in judicial activities. They were primarily warriors. Some were also prophets or priests. The last judge, Samuel combined all of the above-mentioned functions and is credited with uniting the tribes of Israel into a national federation with its own king.

Although twelve judges are listed in the Book, only five are dealt with in detail — the so-called "Great Judges." The Book also contains an appendix of two stories dealing with inter-tribal relations. The first explains how the tribe of Dan conquered the area of Laish and set up its particular form of Yahweh worship there. The second deals with a major war between the tribe of Benjamin and the other Israelite tribes.

The Judges

• Othniel — Won renown by taking the town of Debir and marrying the daughter of Caleb, Joshua's lieutenant. The information about Othniel (Judges 1:11-15) appears to have been taken from its earlier mention in Joshua 15:15-19.

The assassin Jael invites Sisera into her tent.

• Ehud — A left-handed man, who, when sent on a mission to bring tribute to the King of Moab, assassinated him with a hidden sword. He then led the Israelites against Moab, reportedly killing 10,000 Moabites and making the nation a tributary of Israel.
• Shamgar — Killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.
• Deborah— A prophetess, and the only female judge. Headquartered between Bethel and Ramah, she challenged the overlordship of a Canaanite king called Jabin and his military commander Sisera, who was slain by a female assassin named Jael. The lengthy poem known as the "Song of Deborah" commemmorates the battle and is considered one of the most ancient parts of the Bible.
• Gideon — An unlikely choice for a hero, the reticent Gideon brought glory to God by winning victory over the Midianites with only a small force. The first judge to rise to truly national prominence, he is said to have sired seventy sons through many wives. Gideon turned down the kingship but — in an act reminiscent of Aaron's creation of the golden calf — fashioned for himself a golden ephod (a sacred breastplate) which reportedly became an object of idolatrous adoration in his hometown of Orphah.
• Abimilech — The anti-judge who would be king. When none of his legitimate sons assumed leadership after his death, Gideon's illegitimate son Abimelech mounted a rebellion, slaying all but one of Gideon's heirs. He was then crowned king in Schechem, where kingship is still recognized as a legitimate by the Samaritans. He reportedly governed "Israel" as king for three years. Although he is given a full chapter in the Book, the biblical editors clearly disapprove of him. He is thus not counted among the true judges.
• Tola — Of him little is said except that he governed for 20 years in the hill country of Ephraim after the death of Abimelech.
• Jair — Ruled in the area of Gilead with his 30 sons as lieutenants.
• Jephthah — A tragic figure, Jephthah was the son of a prostitute who rose to power by leading the Gileadites in battle against the Ammonites. With the Holy Spirit upon him, Jephthah vowed to sacrifice "whatever comes first out of my house" upon his return if God would give him victory. Jephthah won a decisive battle, but when he returned to his home in Mizpah, it was his only daughter who greeted him with an ironically joyous victory dance. Unlike in the story of Abraham's binding of Isaac, there is no last-minute reprieve for Jephthah's daughter. After her sacrifice, Jephthah became embroiled in an inter-tribal war against the Emprhaimites, who had refused to join him in battle against Ammon and denigrated the Gileadites as a renegades. His reign lasted six years.
• Ibzan — A man of Bethlehem who had 30 sons as well as 30 daughters, and ruled for seven years.
• Elon — A Zebulunite who ruled for ten years.
• Abdon — Ruled eight years and had 40 sons.

Samson in chains.

• Samson — The most famous judge, but certainly not the most successful. Samson's birth was miraculous, and he had amazing physical powers related to his keeping of the Narzarite vow to avoid strong drink and never cut his hair or beard. Against his parents' will, he married a Philistine woman, but slew thirty of her kinsmen at their wedding party after she revealed the secret of a riddle he had posed. The father of the bride then gave her to another. Samson retaliated by burning the Philistines' fields. The Philistines avenged this act by killing Samson's beloved, prompting Samson to further violence. Later he slew a thousand of them single-handed with the jaw of an ass. These exploits displayed his great strength but also his fatal weakness for untrustworthy women. In the final episode, it is the beautiful Delilah who betrays him to his enemies. With his hair cut and his powers gone, the Philistines take him captive and put out his eyes. Samson's revenge —destroying the temple of the Philistine god Dagon — kills manhy Philistines, but does nothing to liberate his people. He judgeship is said to have lasted 20 years.

The Appendices

Two intriguing stories are appended to the those relating to the twelve judges.

In the first, (ch. 17-18) a wealthy Ephraimite named Micah creates several valuable sacred objects and hires a Levite to serve as seer/priest in his household. A large group of migrating Danite tribesmen, however, persuade the Levite to join them, taking the artifacts with them. They succeed in conquering the territory of Laish, later called Dan, and set up a tribal sanctuary there. In verse thirty, possibly representing a different version of the story, the priest of the Danites is identitified as Moses' grandson, Johnathan. The story serves both to explain the origins of the Danite priesthood and to denigrate the Danite shrine as idolatrous.

The second is a story of another Levite and his concubine, whose murder results in a civil war. In a scene uncannily similar to the story of Lot's visitors in Sodom, the men of the area, who are Benjaminites, demand that the Levite be brought out to them so that they can "know" him (sexually). The Levite's host offers the men his own virgin daughter and the Levite's concubine instead, and the mob ends up settling for the Levite's concubine. They brutally rape and torture her, and the next morning her husband discovers her dead. He returns home and divides her body in twelve pieces, sending one to each of the Israelite tribes, in a grisly call to national vengeance. The other tribes join in a war against Benjamin. In this exceedinly bloody battle, the Benjaminites initially prevail, but the Israelites ultimately gain the upper hand. After the battle, the Israelites pledge not to intermarry with the Benjaminites. Believing that all twelve tribes must survive, however, they decide to provide wives for the remaining Benjaminites. Apparently, the editors have included two versions of how this was done. In the first, the Israelites massacred the adults citizens of Jabesh-Gilead — who refused to participate in the war — and force their daughters to marry Benjaminite men. In the second, the Israelites instruct the Benjaminites to kidnap wives from among the girls participating in the spring festival at Shiloh.

The Book concludes with an editorial comment that is repeated four times during the narrative: "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." (See Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25.)

Authorship and Textural Criticism

While the authorship of Judges has traditionally been ascribed to Samuel, the great majority of modern scholars have come to a much more complex conclusion. The is evidence of more than one literary source within some of the major stories, such as the insertion Song of Deborah into the narrative and the two explanations of how the Benjaminites obtained wives after their war with the other tribes. Many believe each of the Great Judges' stories once stood on its own and was later woven into one. Language marking the transition from one story to another displays a later perspective, speaking of why a certain custom persists "to this day" and mentioning that "in those days Israel had no king." The following is a more detailed examination of the process:

Introduction. Some passages (1:12-15, 2:6-9 and 3:7-11) of the introduction are almost identical to ones in the Book of Joshua. On the other hand, part of the text which surrounds them (1:1-11, 1:16-2:5) presents a summarised overview of the events in Joshua. The majority of critical scholars believe that that first part of the introduction (1:1-2:5) was a late addition to the text, added sometime after the Deuteronomist version of Judges (7th c.) was constructed. Hence 2:6-3:7 is viewed as the original introduction by the Deuteronomist, who wove together and edited the earlier stories in accord with his viewpoint of providential history.

Main Text. The main text is believed to contain further compositional structure. The Deuteronomist is believed to have combined together six earlier separate texts, one for each of the original Great Judges, among whom Abimelech was once included. That Abimelech was once so regarded in supported by the fact that Samaritans recognize him as a true king. On the other hand, the reject Eli and Samuel as false judges who instituted a false kingship in Israel and Judah.

The text is believed to have been further altered by the addition of passages concerning Minor Judges (10:1-5 and 12:8-15) in order to make the total number of Judges add up to twelve. The presence of 3:31, placing in insignificant Shamgar in the list of Judges, is thought to have been added in order to compensate for the fact Abimelech was evil and thus not among the twelve.

Three of stories contain partly duplicate accounts: that of Deborah, Gideon, and the Benjaminite wives. The parable of Jotham (9:7b-20), is thought to be later addition into the original tale of Abimelech, inserted to challenge his legitimacy. The parable itself, however, may have had an early origin.

In addition, the Samson narrative (13-16) contains two distinct cycles. The first a series of tableaux concerning his romance of an unnamed Philistine woman and subsequent problems arising from it. The second is the tale of his relationship with Delilah, which begins with him standing between two gateposts at dawn, and ends with him standing between two temple pillars in the evening. It is debated whether these two cycles were collected separately from each other originated from one author.

In addition to such parallel narratives, the story of Jephthah (11:1-12:7) is often suspected to have been subject to later editing in three locations, though the reasons for the first two are not at all clear

• According to 11:1-2, it is Jephthah's own brothers which expelled him, whereas according to 11:7 it is the elders of Gilead
• The message to the Ammonites at 11:12-27 is written as if directed at Moabites.
• 11:35-40 has the appearance of abridging a more extensive original text, glossing over the existence in the text of a tradition of human sacrifice to Yahweh, which is mentioned fairly obviously at 11:31.

Appendices. The appendices cover two stories from the time of the Judges, but say nothing of the Judges themselves. The also seem to cover events occurring at the beginning of the period of Judges rather than at its end. Moreover, the narrative preceding the appendices continues smoothely in 1 Samuel, implying that the appendices have been inserted by a later editor.

The story of Micah and his Idols (17-18) is thought by some scholars (e.g. Ernst Bertheau, Karl Budde, Rudolf Kittel, and Carl Heinrich Cornill) to be composed from two distinct accounts. Whether this is so or not, the story is notable in that it describes a cult and priesthood at Dan which is mentioned nowhere else in the entire Hebrew Bible.

The other story of the appendices (19-21), concerning the Levite and his concubine, is notable in that its main characters are not named, leading some to speculate that it is anonymous. Others speculate that it may relate to the ruining of the tribe of Benjamin by the war between David and the house of Saul. Some have also argued that the brief Book of Ruth was once part of the appendices of Judges (or their source), owing to its style, linguistic features and setting.

See also

• Tanakh
• Bible
• Biblical canon
• Documentary hypothesis
• Deuteronomic Cycle

External links

• Original text:
  • שֹּׁפְטִים - Shoftim - Judges (Hebrew - English at Mechon-Mamre.org)
• Jewish translations:
  • Judges at Mechon-Mamre (Jewish Publication Society translation)
  • Shoftim - Judges (Judaica Press) translation with Rashi's commentary at Chabad.org
• Christian translations:
  • Online Bible at GospelHall.org
  • Judges at The Great Books (New Revised Standard Version)
  • Judges at Bible Gateway (Various versions)
  • Judges at Wikisource (Authorised King James Version)
• Articles:
  • Book of Judges article (Jewish Encyclopedia)
  • The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran (Chronology for Israel's Period of the Judges 1412 B.C.E. to 1039 B.C.E.)

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