Judges Preface                                                                    Preface and Acknowledgment

P reface: I began this book back in the middle of the year 1999 and finished (more or less) in the middle of the year 2000. When I began writing this, I had already finished exegeting several books of the Bible, and several other portions of books, only one of which I was satisfied with the final result (the book of Joshua). The reason I began this approach of personal exegesis is that I was no longer being fed at church, and have thus far not found a single church which deals with God’s Word in the detail and with the respect that I think is appropriate. After years of faithful church attendance, I began to do a great deal of the study for myself, until my church attendance decreased considerably and my personal study increased even more. This was not a choice I made lightly nor altogether consciously, nor is it a choice that I recommend to any other believer. Christians, apart from other Christians, tend to become antinomian or, at the very least, goofy and dogmatic. We are a group effort; however, there are times that a person has to leave the group for awhile—but that time is related to group effort, and that’s where I am at this time. If you just flat out stop going to church, citing what I have written here and your unhappiness with your present church, you are a damned idiot who is just looking for any way out. There are outstanding study aides out there. To name two: the late J. Vernon McGee has a broadcast found in almost every single city in the United States and several places abroad where he goes through the Bible in five years, hitting every book, and a vast majority of the verses. Every believer should find where McGee is and listen faithfully for at least five years, if not ten. A second resource, if your church is not giving you what you need, is Bob Thieme. His tapes from the mid 60’s through the mid 70’s are extraordinary. You may not like him personally (which I didn’t for about the first year that I listened to him), but he does some of the best Bible teaching that I have ever heard. One need not have financial concerns, as these tapes are sent out as needed, without regard to one’s financial ability to support his ministry. I first heard about Bob when I was a very poor student in California. I listened to his tapes, was pissed off at him for several months (although I continued to listen), and listened to an hour of Bible teaching every single day for about the next twenty years. Not once during that time did I find myself added to some strange quasi-Christian mailing list as a result of my association with his ministry; nor did he even once send me a letter telling me the desperate straights that his ministry was in, and could I just send him whatever was in my heart. For a long time, I was unable to support his ministry, and later, I was able. I always received his tapes faithfully, regardless.

A cknowledgment: Don’t think that I just got this whiff of inspiration and sat down to write and what resulted was this book of Judges. I first of all had twenty years of teaching under the ministry of Robert B. Thieme Jr., for which I will be eternally grateful. He set me straight on hundreds of doctrines and pointed me in the right direction when it came to Biblical exegesis. What has impacted in particular with regards to this book is his teaching of dispensations. Now, EVERYONE in the community of believers is a dispensationalist. I have found that no matter how much a believer holds to the false doctrine of covenant theology, you can push that believer in to a corner where he will finally admit that some things were done differently in the Old Testament than are done now. That is the most fundamental tenant of theological dispensationalism, and all believers with any kind of an opinion will agree to this, if you push them hard enough (which I have done). From there, it is simply a matter of degree.

W hat you should do: the problem with most cults or believers who begin with the Old Testament is that they become confused in our relationship to the Law of God. Bob’s teaching kept me from falling into that sort of trap. If you are a brand new believer who wants to read the Bible for yourself, you should never, ever start in the book of Genesis. The place for the unbeliever or the new believer to start is at the very beginning of time, which is the book of John, the third book of the New Testament. From there, a study of the book of Romans would be imperative. However, even more importantly, it is imperative for a new believer to find a place where God’s Word is taught faithfully, regularly (three times a week is too few times), and primarily verse-by-verse. If your pastor does not do a great deal of verse-by-verse teaching, you are in the wrong church.

N ow, it would be impossible to name all the shoulders that I stand upon, primarily because I don’t know their names. However, I would venture to guess that I am standing on the shoulders of probably 2000-5000 believers who devoted their life to studying, to teaching, to archeology, to the written word; they no doubt had a great barrage of people who prayed on their behalf, acting as blockers for a quarterback. A great pastor might receive all the attention and admiration of his congregation, but what you never see is the hundreds and thousands of prayers offered on his behalf by ten times as many people which allow him to proceed. Any pastor who thinks he stands on his own is a fool. You may never know the names of the people who prayed on your behalf, or the blocking that they did on your behalf, but God knows, and these prayers will become a part of the permanent record in heaven.

L et me be specific in terms of the people whom I know that I am beholden to. Had it not been for Bob Thieme’s ministry, even though rarely I quote him throughout my exegesis, I doubt that I would even be doing this in the first place. Even if I had proceeded without his original direction, my exegetical approach would be a sorry shadow of what it is today. When quoting the Bible, I primarily use the NASB, judging it to be one of the very best of the recent translations, hitting a tremendously well-placed midpoint between ultra literal and understandable. I rarely quote from it word for word, and for this I apologize. Often, when using the NASB, I give my bastardization of it. I tend to replace Lord with Jehovah, shall with will, and I take several other liberties as well. My intention is not to denigrate this excellent translation, nor to obfuscate the passage at hand, but to facilitate understanding. If a person is to own but one Bible, this should be it. I am also deeply beholden to Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible, Rotherham’s The Emphasized Bible, Owen’s extremely helpful Analytical Key to the Old Testament (my Old Testament crutch), the NIV as well as over a dozen other English translation of the Holy Scriptures. When it comes to commentaries, I have been lucky to have stumbled across Keil and Delitzsch’s Commentary of the Old Testament, McGee’s radio broadcasts converted into book form and Barnes’ Notes. I would have been able to do nothing without my BDB Lexicon or Gesenius’s excellent lexicon; and I have been so thankful for the use of Wigram’s The Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance of the Old Testament. Obviously, I used Strong’s Concordance as well. I can’t let this go without mentioning The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible; ©1976, which has been an outstanding resource for a lot of the nitty gritty material. In fact, for this study, I used roughly 100 different books and translations, and I tried to do my best to give credit where credit was due. I will list all of the authors from whom I specifically drew in the Bibliography section of this book; but my point is, I am standing on the shoulders of at least these 100 men (and any translation or book may have had multiple contributors). All of these men had training, had a Christian background, and learned what they learned from other teachers and authors who likewise stood upon the shoulders of hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated men. And this is only an allusion to the people whom I can see, so to speak. Behind this are the prayers and financial support of thousands upon thousands of believers whose names will not be known to us until eternity. My point in all this is that we are a team effort. And when it comes to something which I have stated dogmatically and unequivocally that you disagree with, just get over it and move on. You will find out I was right in eternity, and you may even come to that conclusion before that.

T ranslation: You may wonder how I have the nerve to present a translation of my own, and I wonder that myself sometimes. I am not a Hebrew scholar. I rely heavily upon the aides which have been made available to me which deal with the Massoretic text and the Hebrew pertaining thereto. I use Owen’s Analytical Key to the Old Testament, and write a translation based upon that (I recall many of the Hebrew words by their BDB number). Both his translation, the BDB number, and the information given about each word helps me piece together a translation. Then I check my translation against Young’s and often against Rotherham’s. When it comes to serious and sometimes not so serious disagreements, then I go to the various Lexicons and to The New Englishman’s Concordance, as well as to several grammar books, and discuss the options from there. And, of course, there are times when a work is clear, but I like to bring it up so that it will be easy to work with it the next time that we see it. There are also nuances which I just feel are apropos to deal with and therefore, do so. Many people will find this aspect of this book tedious, and I fully understand, as I put forth the study and the work in the first place, so I know how difficult it can get. However, this is God’s Word, and care must be given to its rendering. Part of my thinking here is that at some point in time, in the future, we of the church will be raptured and God will use some of this information for the Jewish evangelists who follow us.

F inally, one of the things which I need to mention, is that I will comment on other commentaries, other translations and other misinterpretations. I do this not to rain on someone else’s parade, but in the interest of accuracy. Most believers own one, maybe two Bibles, and come to think of them as the greatest Bibles around. Some are brought up with the KJV, and think we should rely on no other (the old saying is: if it was good enough for the Apostle Paul, it’s good enough for me). However, there are innumerable times where the KJV has an antiquated, undecipherable translation, or times when it is based upon an inferior manuscript—if we want the truth, we have to dig for the truth. The result, at times, is a Bible verse that we have memorized, liked, and might even be true, but is not what we find in the original language. My intention is to arrive at the most accurate translation possible, with an eye toward textual criticism. Now, many Bibles nowadays also offer commentary. The Scofield Reference Bible (which is the Bible I cut my teeth on), contains abbreviated notes and basic and advanced doctrines throughout. 99% of the time, Scofield is dead on accurate; however, when he isn’t, I will let you know. Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible, a tremendous work which is difficult to find, is one of the most helpful when it comes to alternative readings—however, it is by no means complete, and there are one or two footnotes which are entirely wrong (e.g., Judges 19:3, where he suggests that the Levite would bring her back, her referring to his mistress’s heart). Furthermore, there are even times when the CEV or the TEV (of all translations) point out an important textual note which Rotherham misses. And when it comes to the NIV Study Bible—this is an outstanding value; there is a running almost verse-by-verse commentary throughout the Bible—however, there are times that they are wrong. If you have an NIV Study Bible, then I will let you know the few places where they are mistaken and I will, of course, explain why.

Gary Kukis

July 4, 2000

Introduction

Background

Spiritual Background

The Relationship Between the Tribes of Israel

Historical Value

Personal Application

Name of the Book

The Hebrew Word for Judge

The Names of the Judges

The Political Establishment During the Time of the Judges

The Holy Spirit and the Judges

The Power of God in the Book of Judges

Brief Synopsis

The Structure of the Book of Judges

Unity and Diversity

The Time Frame of the Book of the Judges

Linear Chart

The Compressed Time Line

Time Line

Comparative Chronology Chart

Time-Line and Geographical Chart

The Office Held by the Judges

Tribal Background of the Judges

Location of the Various Judges

Synopsis

For the Itching Ears

Israel’s relationship to God during the Book of the Judges

The Time Period During Which Judges Was Written

The Authorship of the Book of Judges

The Authorship Chart

Style of Writing and Translation

The Vocabulary

Literary Style

The History of the World at that Time

Idolatry

The Authority and Canonicity of the Book of Judges

Reference by the book of Judges to Previously Written Scripture

References to the Book of Judges by Other Writers of Scripture

Specific Scriptural References to Historical Figures from the Book of Judges

General Scriptural References to Judges

Textual Criticism

Order and Location in Hebrew Canon

The History which was Left Out of the Book of Judges

Comparing the Heroes of the Judges to the Spiritual Heroes found in the Old Testament

Extra-Biblical Commentary

Seeds Planted in the Book of the Judges

An Outline of the Book of the Judges

Nelson’s Outline

The Outline of Keil and Delitzsch

Literary Structure

The Purpose of the Book of Judges

General Archeological Information

Famous (or, Interesting) Verses

Judges at a Glance Chart from Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps & Charts

Final Question

I ntroduction: Judges is one of the most unusual books in the Bible. It takes its name from the twelve men and one woman, most of whom are referred to as judges and/or deliverers. This is a book rarely studied as a unified whole. Although most people know about several different characters in this book, they don’t really know their significance or how they are tied to Israel. Both the authorship and the time period and the sequencing of this book is under question, and these issues will be covered in lurid detail in this introduction, as well as throughout the entire study. Furthermore, this is a time during which Israel is at its most degenerate. One of the reasons that we know that Israel is quite degenerate is that we have very few instances of Christ figures or parallels with the New Testament. What was marvelous through the book of the Law and the book of Joshua is that there were many instances which foreshadowed the coming of our Lord. We do not find that very often in the book of Judges. All we have is the general notion of a deliverer, and some parallels between our Lord and Samson and Gideon.

Keil and Delitzsch give a very good introduction to this book: It was rather a transition period, the time of free, unfettered development, in which the nation was to take root in the land presented to it by God as its inheritance, to familiarize itself with the theocratic constitution given to it by the Mosaic law, and by means of the peculiar powers and gifts conferred upon it by God to acquire for itself that independence and firm footing in Canaan, within the limits of the laws, ordinances, and rights of the covenant, which Jehovah had promised, and the way to which He had prepared through the revelations He had made to them. This task could be accomplished without any ruler directly appointed by the Lord. The first thing which the tribes had to do was to root out such Canaanites as remained in the land, that they might not only establish themselves in the unrestricted and undisputed possession and enjoyment of the land and its productions, but also avert the dangers which threatened them on the part of these tribes of being led away to idolatry and immorality. In other words, God gave Israel enough to run with the program. Israel will fail at the very first and she will not remove the Canaanites from the land. And lest some revolutionary or racial purist mistakenly apply this concept, and begin to remove the Canaanites from his periphery, this was a unique time and a unique place. God had clearly identified the Canaanites to be removed. Today, there is no nation operating as a theocracy; and there is no nation which has Canaanites in their land who must be removed. Therefore, you do not get to remove those who have different beliefs than you, those who have a different culture or skin color from you, or those whose moral values are not the same as yours. The kind of separation which must be maintained is from false doctrine.

Background: Barthel: After Joshua’s death the Israelite conquest had begun to lose momentum. As might be expected, the Israelites found themselves living in uneasy proximity to the various other tribes they had not succeeded in exterminating or driving off. We covered in great detail in the book of Joshua just how degenerate these other peoples had become, which information came from secular history. The Bible nowhere really justifies the decimation of the indigenous peoples of the Land of Promise in humanitarian terms. God told the Jews to wipe them out and the Jews followed that mandate in part. The remaining peoples continued to cause problems for Israel, both internal and external. Even though the Jews fell into great apostasy during this time period, it was nothing by comparison to the peoples who previously controlled this land.

Spiritual Background: The book of Judges is a book which describes a bleak period in the time of Israel’s history. Scofield claims that the incidents which occur in this book fall into a four-fold cycle of rebellion, retribution, repentance, and restoration. The NIV Study Bible describes the history of this book as recurring cycles of disobedience, foreign oppression, cries of distress, and deliverance. Israel rebels against God, God delivers Israel into the hand of another nation, Israel regrets her actions, and then God delivers her from subjugation. But then, Israel falls again. To quote Scofield: Joshua is a book of victory and Judges is a book of defeat.

One of the evils of contemporary theology is known as Covenant Theology, which takes a rather uninformed, and short-sighted view of Israel. According to this view, Israel somehow morphed itself into the Church, and we, as the Church, as the true seed of Abraham, are heirs to the promises of God, and that the racial Jew and the nation Israel have faded almost completely from the spiritual horizon (with the exception of the handful of Jews who believe in Christ Jesus). This is completely wrong and off base, and the book of Judges is one of the books which reveals God’s faithfulness throughout the great apostasy of Israel. Israel strays far from God, yet God is always there to bring her back. We, the Church, gentiles, have only been grafted in as wild olive branches (Rom. 11). The nation and the people of Israel have a future with God (Rev. 7). In the book of Judges, we begin to understand God’s faithfulness .

God had already promised in His Word that He would place Israel under increasing discipline whenever she strayed from Him. In Lev. 26:14–46, even before the Israelites entered into the land, God warned them of discipline to come, which was dependent upon their relationship to Him. In Deut. 28, Moses writes down the blessings and the cursings which Israel will read from the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal—the cursings of Deut. 28:15–68 foreshadow the times of the judges.

The Ark of God will be mentioned but one time in this chapter. The advice of Phinehas, the spiritual leader for Israel, will be sought but one time in this book. Even though there are a few men who are guided by God in this book, for the most part, Israel is in rebellion against God, choosing it’s own path. A popular refrain in this book is In those days is: There was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25). Although this appears to cry out for a king to rule over them, what Israel needed was to obey the Law given them by God already. Israel needed to seek out God and to obey God. Instead, Israel more or less made its way as time went along. Some of the incidents found in this book are appalling and you must realize upon beginning this book that it is a simple history of the time of the Judges. There is no reason to think that every incident recorded in this book is condoned by God. Furthermore, these are two separate thoughts. The fact that there was no king in Israel (Judges 17:6 18:1 19:1 21:25) simply sets the time period for us. By this, we know where these books belong in time. The second phrase (Judges 17:6 21:25) simply tells us what the spiritual conditions were at that time.

The Relationship Between the Tribes of Israel: Early on in time, the various tribes of Israel acted in concert. Under the leadership of Joshua, all the tribes—including those who had conquered their own inheritance (Reuben, Gad and East Manasseh)—participated in the taking of the rest of the land. They all responded as a group when the evil position was taken by the tribe of Benjamin in Judges 20 (Judges 17–21 occurred early on during the days of the judges). However, we do find strained relationships. In chapters 17 and 19, we have wandering Levites for hire, which is not in accordance with Scripture. The Danites give up on securing their own territory, given them by Joshua, and take a land belonging to a peaceful people in the north (Judges 18). The tribe of Benjamin quickly falls into degeneration, accounting for the horrible set of events in Judges 19–21. When Deborah and Barak battle against the Canaanites, there were warriors from the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, East Manasseh (Machir), Zebulun and Issachar. However, several tribes were conspicuous in their absence: Reuben, Gilead (the tribe of Gad), Dan and Asher did not participate in the war against the Canaanites.

At the beginning of chapter 1, Judah and Simeon begin to take their own territory, which was the correct thing to do. However, from this point on, we note a separation between Judah and the other tribes. In fact, even though Judah begins well, by the days of Samson, they turn on Samson rather than risk the consequences of resisting the Philistines (Judges 15:9–13). There is no animosity, per se, between Judah and Samson, or Judah and any of the tribes of Israel—just a separation which will eventually manifest itself in a northern and southern kingdom. Ephraim becomes pissy toward the other tribes, as we see in Judges 8:1, which could have erupted into a serious incident. Gideon approaches this tactfully, which keeps things under control (Judges 8:2–3). Nevertheless, there are specific cities which Gideon comes into contact with (Succoth and Penuel) which cause him grief (Judges 8:6–9).

In Judges 12, Ephraim again becomes pissy—this time with Jephthah, and a small civil war between Gad and Ephraim breaks out in Israel. The separation of their tribes becomes quite apparent, as their are sounds which the Gadites can pronounce which the Ephraimites cannot (Judges 12:5–6).

Historical Value: ZPEB: The Book of Judges illuminates the political, social, and religious condition of Israel during the vital period between the Conquest and the institution of the monarchy. The manner in which this is done allows the reader to capture the atmosphere of the period in a way that would be impossible in a formal history. It provides a dramatic illustration of the effect of apostasy upon every aspect of life. The root cause of Israel’s decline was that the covenant relationship with the Lord, with its requirement of absolute and loyal obedience to His commands, was broken. This led to disintegration in the political, religious, social, and family spheres and to a sharp increase in immorality. The Book of Judges serves as a reminder that a nation cannot live on its past glories. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Prov. 14:34).

Personal Application: How pertinent is this book to us? Very. In the United States, our churches have fallen into deep apostasy, as have the believers in them. We have a huge number of believers who have no concept of right and wrong, whose understanding of the Bible is extremely weak. Most do not know how they get out of fellowship or how to get back in. The role of the pastor-teacher has become more of a cheap, third-rate psychologist. People say, “If we could just change this or that and put in this party or that party, everything would be fine.”...[that] is perfect nonsense. What we need today is to get back to a spiritual foundation. That is where we went off the track, and that is where our troubles began. The book of Judges is filled with the same cycle: Israel falls into great spiritual apostasy, which causes her to fall under great oppression; when she calls out to God, God answers and God delivers her, and even provides some prosperity. Then Israel falls into spiritual apostasy again.

Name of the Book: I was asked once why this book was called Judges. Israel, from the time of Joshua’s death, did not have a king. Although it may be argued that Moses and Joshua functioned as kings, neither had that title and both considered themselves channels of God’s authority. Even portions of the Law dealt with having a king, although Moses nowhere assumes that title himself (Deut. 17:14–20). What is most fascinating about that passage is that this is brand new information given by Moses. Moses is not quoting what God had told him here nor is he quoting history—Moses is looking down the corridors of time and warning Israel what is proper and improper with regards to having a king. However, I digress. What we have over this period of about 300 years is a time when there are regional judges who have the authority in Israel. This authority is not quite the same as a king would have. They do not levy taxes, nor to they make laws themselves. They are simply to enforce the laws which are on the books (the Law of God) and to make judgements for difficult matters (as Moses did in Num. 36). However, the primary responsibility of the judges was to deliver Israel during times of trouble. Then Jehovah raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them (Judges 2:16). The authority of some of the judges extended over all of Israel; while other judges enjoyed a very regional limitations on their power. Whereas, Joshua naturally assumed the power and authority which belonged to Moses, and even though none of the judges developed or consolidated their power base through violence against other possible judges, none of them assumed the authority of Joshua or Moses.

The Hebrew Word for Judge: shâphaţ (ט ַפ ָש) [pronounced shaw-FAHT], which means to judge, to govern. This is often found as a masculine plural, Qal active participle, and it is written shôph^eţîym (םי.ט פֹש) [pronounced showf-TEEM]. The Qal active participle is often used to refer to one’s occupation or activity in life; so the proper rendering is those judging, judges, governors. Shâphaţ is the most general term for a leader or ruler. Therefore, this could have just as easily have been rendered governor and this book could have been called governors. We must look beyond our understanding of someone who settles disputes and maintains justice in the land, to one who also liberates or delivers. We first find this word applied to Jehovah God in Gen. 18:25. The Greek word used in the Septuagint is κριται and the Latin word used in the Vulgate is liber judicum; in both instances, the emphasis is upon justice, although the Hebrew allows for a wider application. Strong’s #8199 BDB #1047. The judge ruled over regional areas and their power was not absolute. Gideon helps us understand their limitations. After Gideon had delivered the nation from Midian, Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son’s son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.” But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you; Jehovah will rule over you.” (Judges 8:22–23).

The Names of the Judges: There were six major judges (Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson) and six minor ones (Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibjan, Elon and Abdon). The difference between a major and a minor judge is essentially the amount of time which is spent on them. A minor judge is generally mentioned in passing and given 1–3 verses. A major judge will have an event or several events of his life covered in anywhere from a half of a chapter to three chapters. We are the ones who differentiate between major and minor judges; there is no such Biblical differentiation. Two men will rise up at the end of this time period and in another book: Eli, the priest, a Levite; and Samuel, who will be called both a judge and a prophet—their story will be found in 1Samuel.

The Political Establishment During the Time of the Judges: Quite frankly, there was no political establishment during the days of the judges. Of all that Moses and Joshua taught, one thing that they did not teach is what sort of governmental structures had to be put into place; nor was there a successor to Joshua as there was to Moses. In other words, Israel was given direction and responsibility, but Israel was not given any particular political structure to put into place.

Israel had just finished a campaign to conquer the Land of Promise, and there was a military machine in existence with established leaders, as well as a chain of command. Early on, that military machine would go into action as a unit (e.g., Judges 20); however, as time went on, fewer tribes participated in wars—even those which affected them (Judges 5:15b–18). There were elders—men who had been around for a long time, and had wisdom—their opinion of various matters was valuable (mentioned in Joshua 23:2 24:1). We had the High Priest, who could determine God’s will through lots or employing Urim and Thummim. Furthermore, throughout this book, there will be men whom God calls, and the Holy Spirit empowers (e.g., Judges 6:11–14, 34). Finally, the true authority over Israel was God, Who made His will known through His Law and through those who represented Him (principally, the High Priest). Israel did not follow His Word, and remove the remainder of the Canaanites from the land; she did not obey His Law with regard to Sabbaths and feast days; and the book of Judges records only one spiritual leader being consulted one time.

Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge tells us a little about these judges: The shophetim were not judges in the usual sense of the term; but were heads or chiefs of the Israelites, raised up on extraordinary occasions, who directed and ruled the nation with sovereign power, administered justice, made peace or war, and led the armies over whom they presided. Officers with the same power, and nearly the same name, were established in New Tyre, after the termination of the regal state; and the Carthaginian Suffetes, the Athenian Archons, and the Roman Dictators, appear to have been nearly the same.

You may wonder, just exactly what is the difference between a judge and a king? Jamieson, Fausset and Brown answer this succinctly: There was no regular, unbroken succession of judges. Individuals, prompted by the inward, irresistible impulse of God's Spirit when they witnessed the depressed state of their country, were roused to achieve its deliverance. It was usually accompanied by a special call, and the people seeing them endowed with extraordinary courage or strength, accepted them as delegates of Heaven, and submitted to their sway. Frequently they were appointed only for a particular district, and their authority extended no farther than over the people whose interests they were commissioned to protect. They were without pomp, equipage, or emoluments attached to the office. They had no power to make laws; for these were given by God; nor to explain them, for that was the province of the priests--but they were officially upholders of the law, defenders of religion, avengers of all crimes, particularly of idolatry and its attendant vices.

The Holy Spirit and the Judges: One aspect of the book of Judges which is more difficult to understand than others is the operation of the Holy Spirit in this book. The Spirit of Jehovah is mentioned seven times in this book (Judges 3:10 6:34 11:29 13:25 14:6, 19 15:14). We would expect the Holy Spirit to be associated with Othniel, Gideon and Jephthah; however, the other four passages associate God the Holy Spirit with Samson, who is perhaps the lamest spiritual hero of Scripture. God used Samson to keep the Philistines in check and God gave Samson the power to do so, despite his self-centeredness and immorality. God the Holy Spirit did not rest upon Samson his entire life; just for a few brief instances in order to accomplish His will. For those brief moments, Samson was spiritually empowered. And when God empowers an individual, that man is invincible for that time of strengthening.

Despite the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these men, the judges will be seen to be generally very flawed men. Othniel, Deborah, Gideon and Jephthah will be the greatest historical figures from this book, although none of them compares to Moses, Joshua or to their antecedents, Samuel and David.

The Power of God in the Book of Judges: The book of Judges shows us that God will accomplish his ends, despite the apostasy of the people. He uses great armies, as in Judges 4 and 20, as well as small, combat units (Judges 7), as well as individuals (Ehud or Samson). He still has control over the elements (Judges 5:20–21). Furthermore, God’s character is intact—He is longsuffering toward the Jews, despite their repeated movement toward apostasy. Every time that they called His name, He came to their rescue. Our patience would have given out the second or third time—God’s patience continued.

Brief Synopsis: The book of Judges deals with the history of Israel between Joshua and the prophet Samuel. During this period of time, there was no king over Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Judges ruled over specific areas and their power was not absolute.

The Structure of the Book of Judges: The book of the Judges can be easily broken down into three parts: at the beginning, we have an introduction to the time period of the judges, which tells us, in general, what the various tribes accomplished over this time period, how the people behaved in general and how God dealt with Israel (mostly, He gave them judges to rule over them). The second part of this book, from the middle of Judges 3 to the end of Judges 16, gives a chronological history of the judges over Israel. One might call this Israel’s foreign relations. This details the relationship between Israel and her surrounding nations. In these chapters, we have the actual judges, for which this book is named. A couple of them stand out as great men (Barak and Gideon) and others merely have a few great moments (Samson). At the beginning of Judges 17, we begin to examine Israel’s domestic situation. What did Israel do as a nation within its own borders? Herein are two different incidents which occurred during this time period. These incidents give us insight into the lives, actions, and spiritual thrust of the people of Israel during that time.

Part 1 of the book of Judges can be broken down into two sections. In section 1, we find out essentially how each tribe did with regards to its assignment to conquer the Land of Promise. This chapter encompasses the entire time period of the Judges. In Judges 2, we have a warning to Israel (vv. 1–5), the time period (after the death of Joshua—vv. 6–10), followed by the pattern for the middle part of the book of Judges (vv. 11–23).

The lengthiest portion of the book of Judges is part 2, where we have the list and history of all of the judges (chapters 3–16). Right in the middle of the book of Judges, in the middle of this section, we have the story of Gideon and his bastard son Abimelech, from Judges 6:1–9:57, which should be considered a unified literary unit in the book of Judges. On one side, we have the ruler Israel should have desired—Gideon; and on the other, the ruler that Israel deserved, Abimelech. This duo is bracket by the stories of Deborah and Jephthah. Deborah is descended from Ephraim, a son of Joseph and is from the west side of the Jordan. Jephthah is descended from Manasseh, the other son of Joseph, whose tribe is located primarily east of the Jordan. These two accounts are further bracketed by the stories of Ehud, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Samson, from the tribe of Dan. The tribes of Dan and Benjamin are located between Judah, which is in the south, and Ephraim and Manasseh, which is in the North. On each side of Gideon/Abimelech, we have certain parallels. Prior to Gideon, we have the phrase, and the land remained undisturbed for “X” years. After Abimelech, we no longer find that phrase. Whereas, Gideon was able to avoid a civil war with Ephraim (Judges 8:1–3), Jephthah was unable to maintain internal peace (Judges 12:1–6). Lone savior, Ehud, was able to effect a deliverance of Israel from under the control of Moab through the death of one man; lone savior, Samson, despite his superhuman strength, was unable to effect deliverance from the Philistines, despite the fact that he killed a tremendous number of Philistines.

The outline and structure of Judges is better done in Judges 12:7, which I will mention again at that time.

With Judges 12:7, we begin a new formula for the span of the career of a judge. And so Jephthah judged Israel six years. This same formula is repeated in Judges 10:2, 3 12:7, 8, 11, 14 15:20 16:31. The verb is Qal imperfect of shâphaţ (ט ַפ ָש) [pronounced shaw-FAHT], which means to judge, to govern. The NIV uses the verb led. Strong’s #8199 BDB #1047. Prior to this, the formula was: And the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim [or, whomever] eight years (Judges 3:8b; see also Judges 3:14; also see Judges 4:3 6:1) later followed by: And the land rested forty years (Judges 3:11a; see also Judges 3:30 5:31 8:28). Originally, we had a statement of subjugation, the introduction of a deliverer, and this was followed by a time where the land rested. That latter verb was the Qal imperfect of shâqaţ (ט ַק ָש) [pronounced shaw-KAWT] and it means to be quiet, to be undisturbed, inactive. Strong’s #8252 BDB #1052. As you will note with the two Hebrew words, this was somewhat of a play on words.

Now, I realize that, for most of you, these differences seem insignificant, but you are wrong. Firstly, the book of Judges sets up a shadow of our Lord, our Great Deliverer, our Great Judge, Who was and Who is to come. We first found ourselves in subjugation. For Israel, this was to Rome. For us, this was to Satan and our old sin nature. Jesus Christ came as our Savior, our Deliverer, to lead us out from our being oppressed. He offered Israel rest; he offers us rest. In between our Lord’s first and second advents, we have rulership of this world by Satan. In the book of Judges, in between the changes of terminology, we have rulership by the evil Abimelech (Judges 9). None of the formulas for judging, saving or resting appear in this chapter. He simply rules over Israel for 3 years (Judges 9:23). In our Lord’s second advent, He will return to judge, to govern, to rule, as did the judges. There will still be our enemy who will return to plague us at the end of the Millennium, whom our Lord Jesus Christ will defeat and cast into the lake of fire. In other words, the very language used here is expressive of our Lord’s first and second advents—the very words used here set up an outline of what is to come (by the way, I don’t know if any expositor has noticed this before).

Secondly, it helps us with authorship. The book of Judges appears to be easily broken down into four or five sections: Judges 1–2, which gives us an introduction; Judges 3–8, where we have the formula and the land rested for “n” years; Judges 9—the rulership of Abimelech; Judges 10–16, where the judge judges for so many years; and, finally, the last portion of Judges, where we have an anecdotal history of some of the things which occurred in Israel during the time of the Judges 17–21.

Unity and Diversity: One of my sources noted, as I had, the diversity to be found in this book—they commented upon the diversity of the contents, referring to the subject matter—and that is easily extended to vocabulary and writing styles. However, there is a unity in that all the contents witness in one way or another to the political, social, moral, and religious decline in the period between the death of Joshua and the institution of the monarchy. The first chapter reveals that only Judah and Simeon began to conquer the land given them by God; in the second chapter, we have the degeneracy cycle that Israel repeatedly went through. From the third to the sixteenth chapter, we see Israel almost in a moral free fall. Finally, in the last few chapters, we look at Israel apart from her leaders, and the people are every bit as corrupt and confused as the gentiles who oppressed them.

The Time Frame of the Book of the Judges: We are about to enter into the most difficult portion of the study of the book of Judges, which is dating the various events and judges found in this book. The end result will be, after easily a dozen hours of work, I will be able to give you some numbers which will be accurate within perhaps 20 years and numbers that you can hang your hat on. The easy part is, generally, speaking most of the events which took place in the book of Judges occurred between 1400 and 1100 b.c. Furthermore, there is no reason to assume that the entire book is in chronological order. For instance, the death of Joshua is mentioned in Judges 1:1 and in 2:6–8, but appearing in the English as though they are chronologically placed. The NIV places the death of Joshua as being around 1390 b.c., and therefore the bulk of the events of this chapter occur after that.

One of the things which I intended to do was to teach much of the Old Testament in chronological order, owing that predilection to my Gentile thinking. Doing so with any precision has become extremely difficult, particularly with the book of the Judges. What Reese, in his Chronological Bible does is intersperse Joshua 23–24 with Judges 1–3 with some 1Chronicles thrown in. In fact, what he does is absolutely nutty. Not that what he did was a bad idea or a poorly executed one; it is just difficult to do, and, at times, very difficult to follow. The Narrated Bible, also a chronologically arranged Bible, and a bit easier to follow, in several places chooses the order of the book of Judges over chronological order. Therefore, I am teaching the book of Judges in the order in which we find it, even though it is reasonable to place portions of the first three chapters back with the book of Joshua; and to intersperse some of the incidents found in Judges 17–21 with Judges 1–3. Furthermore, to add to your confusion, let me point out that the book of Ruth precedes Judges 4–17. However, the Jew did not have a linear mind, nor was the literature put together in a linear fashion. In fact, if such a thing occurred, it would take from the inspiration of Scripture. It is natural for the book of Ruth to cover what it does apart from the books of Joshua, Judges and Samuel. This is how a normal person would have composed it. Since the book of Joshua and the book of the Judges were likely composed by different sets of people, there is logically going to be some overlap. Furthermore, the book of the Judges introduces a set pattern which Israel was a part of. The first several chapters of Judges bear out this pattern. After that pattern is covered, then some individual incidents which occurred during the time of the judges is presented. It does not fall categorically into Judges 1–16 and therefore is not place in there, even though it falls into that time period.

Let me rephrase all that. At the end of Judges 2 and the beginning of Judges 3, we will have a pattern set up. The pattern will deal with the unfaithfulness of Israel, followed by the oppression of a foreign power, followed by the raising up of a judge, followed by the deliverance of Israel via that judge. Given this pattern, then it would make perfect sense to immediately jump into the history of Israel which illustrates that pattern. That is how the book of Judges is set up—it makes perfect literary sense.

At the end of this book, we have several incidents (including the book of Ruth) which God the Holy Spirit thought important for us to know about. In these incidents, we get an idea as to what some of the people were like and how some of the tribes acted. This is provided by way of, oh, by the way, here are some illustrations as to the degeneracy of this people. Two of those incidents, the two included in the Book of the Judges, are fairly easy to place in time. The first incident involves the tribe of Dan going northward and taking a piece of property from a peaceful people (Judges 17–18). The second incident involves the rape and murder of a woman in a city of Benjamin and Israel’s reaction to this incident (Judges 19–21). Phinehas is mentioned in the second occasion, placing this pretty close to the beginning of the book of Judges. However, in Judges 20:1, we have the phrase, from Dan to Beersheba, which is a phrase that takes in all of Israel by naming the most northern and most southern part of Israel. The tribe of Dan did not occupy the far north until Judges 17–18, which, therefore, places it prior to 19–21 and therefore, also at the beginning of the time period of the judges.

What I am going to launch into is a rather detailed examination of the time period taken up by the historical incidents of the book of the Judges. I will not pretend to hit these years exactly right. If I can get us within 20 years of the reasonable time period, I will be happy.

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