by Stephen Rodgers
JUDGES IN 10 WORDS OR LESS
“Israel goes through cycles of sin, suffering, and salvation.”
TITLE
The title of the book takes it’s name from the unique leaders that God provided for His people (Judges 2:16-19). The Hebrew word means “deliverers” or “saviors” (Deut 16:18; 17:9; 19:17).
The book of Judges recounts the stories of the first 12 of these judges. There are three more: Eli and Samuel (who came later), and God Himself (Judges 11:27).
AUTHOR & AUDIENCE
The author of Judges is unknown, although late Jewish tradition ascribes it to Samuel (Baba Bathra 14b-15a).
The audience would have been the generations of Israelites after the time of the Judges who needed to be reminded of their ancestor’s rebellion against God and their need for a divine leader and deliverer.
DATE
Pinning down the exact date that Judges was written can be a bit difficult, but best estimates would be that the majority of the text was written after 1043 BC (since the author refers to a time before a king, implying experience with a king in Judges 17:6, 18:1, and 21:25) but before 1004 BC when David captured Jerusalem (Judges 1:21).
Just to further muddy the waters, the conditions described in Judges 17-21 suggest a time after the Davidic dynasty had been established, leading some scholars to believe this is a later addition to the book as a whole. However, these allusions can be harmonized with a traditional time and date of authorship.
BACKGROUND & SETTING
John MacArthur aptly describes Judges as “the tragic sequel to Joshua.” Following the events in Joshua wherein the people of Israel obeyed God and were blessed, the events in Judges describe cyclical periods of time wherein they disobey God and are punished. Eventually the people repent and cry out to the LORD, who sends them a Judge to deliver them from whatever enemy He has been using to punish them for their disobedience. Typically this involves civil or military deliverance, although in a few cases it involves spiritual deliverance as well.
This cycle repeats throughout the entire book with minor variations.
HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL THEMES
Three themes consistently surface throughout Judges:
- God’s Faithfulness – Throughout the repeated cycles of disobedience/punishment/repentance/deliverance God is seen to consistently judge and forgive sin.
- Compromise Brings Destruction – The disobedience of Israel is often predicated on compromising God’s commands and standards
- The Need for Godly Leadership – The fragmenting of the Israelite authority structure and the failure of accepted leaders – parents (Judges 2:6-10), priests (Judges 17:1-13), and judges (Judges 8:27) – underscores the need for Godly leadership, which was fulfilled later in the form of Davidic kingship and ultimately in the kingship of Christ.
INTERPRETIVE CHALLENGES
Generally speaking, the challenges involved in reading the book of Judges have to do with the content of the book itself, most notably issues of violence, role models with questionable morals, illicit sexual activity, a degrading depiction of women, and a writing style that occasionally seems to include exaggeration or fabrication.
Somewhat ironically it is precisely because the book contains all of these elements that it is generally accepted to be a straightforward account of events rather than an embellished one. Where the book an attempt to present a more “sanitized” version of history and events, then the author would not have included the embarrassing and shameful incidents that surprise and alarm even modern readers.
It should also be noted that while the author of Judges honestly records the sins, crimes, and foibles of its characters, the blame for that sin is never placed on God. Rather it is entirely clear that God is the innocent one, while the so-called “innocents” are truly guilty and deserving of judgment.
LITERARY FEATURES
The ESV Study Bible again offers an excellent analysis, so I will simply quote it at length:
The format of Judges is a collection of individual “hero stories;” together, they tell the history of Israel during a specific era. Like Genesis, Judges pictures a mixture of good and bad behavior: the judges are not idealized, nor is their portrait uniformly negative. Mingled with the hero stories are brief units of historical facts about judges whose stories are not told in detail. The famous Song of Deborah (Judges 5) is poetry, while the story of Samson (Judges 13–16) meets the usual criteria of literary tragedy.
The pattern introduced in Judges 2:11–23 shapes the plot: (1) the Israelites do what is evil in the sight of God; (2) God allows the nation to be conquered and oppressed by a neighboring nation; (3) the people cry to God; and (4) God sends a judge to deliver them (see chart). Then the cycle repeats itself. In addition to this cycle, the book is structured on the premise of a double plot. The overall story is one of national descent into lawlessness and apostasy; but within this national narrative lies a collection of stories that celebrate the heroic exploits of judges. Even though they had severe flaws, four of these judges are mentioned among the heroes of the faith (Hebrews 11).
OBJECTIONS
Objections to Judges were dealt with largely in the INTERPRETIVE CHALLENGES section above.
However, it should be noted that one point of discussion is reconciling the chronology of the time between the Exodus and Solomon’s fourth year, which the Bible records as 480 years (1 Kings 6:1). If one reads Judges as a purely sequential chain of events, then arriving at this number is difficult. The probable solution is that Judges does not portray a strict chronology, but rather that some periods recorded in the book were actually concurrent with other periods in the book. This would mean that Paul’s estimate of “about 450 years” in Acts 13:19 was just an approximation, as the language would seem to imply.
Some object that this solution relies on a forced reading of the text, but quite frankly Judges appears to be thematically organized rather than chronologically organized anyways. The sequence of events in the book focuses on geographical regions that are tied to tribal inheritances: southern (Judges 3:7-31), northern (Judges 4:1-5:31), central (Judges 6:1-10:5), eastern (Judges 10:6-12:15), and western (Judges 13:1-16:31), which simply isn’t consistent with a strict chronology.
NOTABLE QUOTABLES
- Judges 2:16
- Judges 7:2
- Judges 21:25
DID YOU KNOW?
- A number of references to family size in Judges would seem to indicate the practice of polygamy (Judges 10:4; 12:14; 12:9). However, polygamy as a practice has never met with God’s approval (see articles here and here).
Other Works Referenced
- Apologetics Study Bible, “Judges Introduction”
- Archaeological Study Bible
- ESV Study Bible, “Introduction to Judges”
- MacArthur Study Bible, “Judges”
- NET Bible, Judges
- NIV Study Bible, “Judges”
- Reformation Study Bible, “The Book of Judges”
- Know Your Bible
- Driscoll, A Book You’ll Actually Read On the Old Testament
- Knight, The Layman’s Bible Handbook