Judges Survey of the Old Testament: The Prophets Fall 2005

Download as a PDF file Listen to the mp3

[Next: The Cycle of the Judges]

Introduction

Background

Name: The title “Judges” is used in both the Hebrew scriptures as well as the Greek and English translations. The term “judge” (Hebrew: shaphat) is used throughout the book to describe a national leader who delivered the nation from foreign invaders, served as an administrative ruler and mediated disputes.

The book of Judges specifically lists twelve men and one woman who served as judges over Israel. In addition, in 1 Samuel both Eli and Samuel are considered to be the last judges of Israel.

Author: The author is anonymous. Some scholars suggest that Samuel was the author. However, given Samuel's concern about the monarchy (1 Samuel 8:10ff), this seems unlikely given the purpose of the book [1].

Date: In Judges 11:26, Jephthah states it has been 300 years since Israel first entered the Promised Land. In Acts 13:20, Paul indicates a 450 year time frame from Israel's desert wandering to the time of the monarchy. 1 Kings 6:1 states that it is 480 years from the Exodus to the building of the temple under King Solomon. Most scholars agree that Solomon's temple was completed around 959 BC, we can deduce that the events of the book took place over a period of four centuries from 1375 to 1043BC [2]. This period is known as “the time of the judges.”

The book itself was probably written after the rise of the monarchy, but before David's taking of the city of Jerusalem (Joshua 1:21)

Audience: The nation of Israel living in the early days of the monarchy.

Structure

The book is divided into three sections:

• The Prologue (1:1 – 3:6) describes the events leading up to the time of the Judges, including Israel's conquest of Canaan under Joshua and Joshua's death.
• The Body of the book (3:7 - 16:31) describes events taking place under six judgeships. The events leading up to the establishment of each of these judges follows a specific pattern, which is outlined in 2:10-2:23. This will be discussed later.
• The Appendix (17:1 – 21:25) describes two events which illustrate the depths of Israel's anarchy and moral depravity. The appendix is not chronological. These events likely took place in the early time of the judges.

Purpose

Judges was primarily written as a justification for the monarchy. This book demonstrates that Israel was unable to govern herself under the kingship of Yahweh (Judges 8:22-23, 1 Samuel 8:6-7), and would now need a human king to administer the reign of God [3]. The book repeatedly emphasizes that this time of moral decay and foreign oppression took place in the day when “there was no king in Israel” (Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25). Under a King, Israel would be united in her defense against foreign aggressors and would return to following the Torah.

Judges also illustrates the consequences of forsaking Yahweh and His covenant (Judges 2:11-15). The nation had violated the Mosaic covenant (Judges 2:20), and as a result God made it difficult for Israel to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan (Judges 2:21-23).

Theme

The theme verse is Judges 21:25:

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)

The Prologue (1:1 – 3:6)

The book of Judges begins where the book of Joshua leaves off; that is, with the death of Joshua. Under Joshua Israel had entered the Promised Land and found great success driving out the inhabitants of the land (1:1-26). But the nation did not complete its job of driving out the nations, leaving large sections of land under the control of the Canaanites (1:27-36). Because of their failure to complete the conquest, these nations would “serve as a snare” to Israel, leading them away from obedience to God's covenant with them and into idolatry (2:1-5).

It appears that under the leadership of Joshua, Israel remained faithful to God and prospered. However, after Joshua's generation passed away, the nation began to forget God.

All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. (Judges 2:10)

Israel began worshipping the God's of their unconquered neighbors (2:11-13) and the nation plunged into a four century period of political and moral chaos. As a result, God would no longer give the nation an easy conquest of those nations (2:20-21) and would instead raise up foreign oppressors.

Footnotes

1. Herbert Wolf. “Judges” Expositor's Bible Commentary . Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1998. Electronic edition, STEP file).
2. Gleason L. Archer. “Chronology of the Old Testament.” Expositor's Bible Commentary. Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1998. Electronic edition, STEP file).
3. Wolf.

[Next: The Cycle of the Judges]