Book of Judges

This article is about the biblical book. For other uses, see Judge (disambiguation).

The Book of Judges (ספר שופטים, Sefer Shoftim) is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the Books of Samuel, during which biblical judges served as temporary leaders. The stories follow a consistent pattern: the people are unfaithful to Yahweh and he therefore delivers them into the hands of their enemies; the people repent and entreat Yahweh for mercy, which he sends in the form of a leader or champion (a "judge"; see shophet); the judge delivers the Israelites from oppression and they prosper, but soon they fall again into unfaithfulness and the cycle is repeated.

Contents

Judges can be divided into three major sections: a double prologue (chapters 1:1–3:6), a main body (3:7–16:31), and a double epilogue (17–21).

Prologue

Further information: Judges 1

The book opens with the Israelites in the land that God has promised to them, but worshiping "foreign gods" instead of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and with the Canaanites still present everywhere. Chapters 1:1–2:5 are thus a confession of failure, while chapters 2:6–3:6 are a major summary and reflection from the Deuteronomists.

The opening thus sets out the pattern which the stories in the main text will follow:

1. Israel "does evil in the eyes of Yahweh",
2. the people are given into the hands of their enemies and cry out to Yahweh,
3. Yahweh raises up a leader,
4. the "spirit of Yahweh" comes upon the leader,
5. the leader manages to defeat the enemy, and
6. peace is regained.

Once peace is regained, Israel does right and receives Yahweh's blessings for a time, but relapses later into doing evil and repeats the pattern set forth above.

Judges follows the Book of Joshua and opens with a reference to Joshua's death. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges suggests that "the death of Joshua may be regarded as marking the division between the period of conquest and the period of occupation", the latter being the focus of the Book of Judges. The Israelites meet, most likely at the sanctuary at Gilgal or at Shechem and ask the Lord who should be first (in order of time, not of rank) to secure the land they are to occupy.

Main text

Map of the tribes of Israel

The main text gives accounts of six major judges and their struggles against the oppressive kings of surrounding nations, as well as the story of Abimelech, an Israelite leader (a judge [shofet] in the sense of "chieftain") who oppresses his own people. The cyclical pattern set out in the prologue is readily apparent at the beginning, but as the stories progress it begins to disintegrate, mirroring the disintegration of the world of the Israelites. Although some scholars consider the stories not to be presented in chronological order, the judges in the order in which they appear in the text are:

• Othniel (3:9–11) vs. Chushan-Rishathaim, King of Aram; Israel has 40 years of peace until the death of Othniel. (The statement that Israel has a certain period of peace after each judge is a recurrent theme.)
• Ehud (3:11–29) vs. Eglon of Moab
• Deborah, directing Barak the army captain (4–5), vs. Jabin of Hazor (a city in Canaan) and Sisera, his captain (Battle of Mount Tabor)
• Gideon (6–8) vs. Midian, Amalek, and the "children of the East" (apparently desert tribes)
• Abimelech (9) (who is traditionally counted as a king not a judge, and is considered evil) vs. all the Israelites who oppose him
• Jephthah (11–12:7) vs. the Ammonites
• Samson (13–16) vs. the Philistines

There are also brief glosses on six minor judges: Shamgar (3:31), Tola and Jair (10:1–5), Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon (12:8–15). Some scholars have inferred that the minor judges were actual adjudicators, whereas the major judges were leaders and did not actually make legal judgements. The only major judge described as making legal judgments is Deborah (4:4).

Epilogue

By the end of Judges, Yahweh's treasures are used to make idolatrous images, the Levites (priests) become corrupt, the tribe of Dan conquers a remote village instead of the Canaanite cities, and the tribes of Israel make war on the tribe of Benjamin, their own kinsmen. The book concludes with two appendices, stories which do not feature a specific judge:

• Micah's Idol (Judges 17–18), how the tribe of Dan conquers its territory in the north
• Levite's concubine (Judges 19–21): the gang rape of a Levite's concubine leads to war between the Benjamites and the other Israelite tribes, after which hundreds of virgins are taken captive as wives for the decimated Benjamites.

Despite their appearance at the end of the book, certain characters (like Jonathan, the grandson of Moses) and idioms present in the epilogue show that the events therein "must have taken place… early in the period of the judges."

Chronology

Judges contains a chronology of its events, assigning a number of years to each interval of judgment and peace. It is overtly schematic and was likely introduced at a later period.

Manuscript sources

Four of the Dead Sea Scrolls feature parts of Judges: 1QJudg, found in Qumran Cave 1; 4QJudg^a and 4QJudg^b, found in Qumran Cave 4; and XJudges, a fragment discovered in 2001.

The earliest complete surviving copy of the Book of Judges in Hebrew is in the Aleppo Codex (10th century CE).

The Septuagint (Greek translation) is found in early manuscripts such as the Codex Colberto-Sarravianus (c. AD 400; contains many lacunae) and the Fragment of Leipzig (c. AD 500).

See also

• Tanakh
• Biblical canon
• History of ancient Israel and Judah

Bibliography

• Alter, Robert (2013). Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-39324027-6.
• Amit, Yairah (2004). "Judges: Introduction and Annotations". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 508–57.
• Bacon, Gershon; Sperling, S. David (2007). "Judges (Heb. שופטים), Book of". Encyclopaedia Judaica. 11 (2nd ed.). pp. 561–66.
• Brettler, Marc Zvi (2002). The Book of Judges. Psychology Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-415-16216-6.
• Davies, Philip R. (1995). In Search of "Ancient Israel": A Study in Biblical Origins. A&C Black. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-85075-737-5.
• Davis, John J.; Wolf, Herbert (2002). "Judges: Introduction and Annotations". In Barker, Kenneth (ed.). Zondervan NIV Study Bible (revised ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. pp. 326–63.
• Eynikel, Erik (1996). The reform of King Josiah and the composition of the Deuteronomistic history. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10266-8.
• Guest, P. Deryn (2003). "Judges". In Dunn, James D. G.; Rogerson, John William (eds.). Commentary on the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0.
• Hughes, Jeremy (1990). Secrets of the Times: Myth and History in Biblical Chronology. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-56762930-2.
• Knight, Douglas A (1995). "Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomists". In Mays, James Luther; Petersen, David L.; Richards, Kent Harold (eds.). Old Testament Interpretation. T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-29289-6.
• Knoppers, Gary (2000a). "Introduction". In Knoppers, Gary N.; McConville, J. Gordon (eds.). Reconsidering Israel and Judah: recent studies on the Deuteronomistic history. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-037-8.
• Knoppers, Gary (2000b). "Is There a Future for the Deuteronomistic History?". In Thomas Romer (ed.). The Future of the Deuteronomistic History. Leuven University Press. ISBN 978-90-429-0858-1.
• Malamat, A. (1971). "Chapter VII: The Period of the Judges". The World History of the Jewish People. 3. Givatayim, Israel: Rutgers University Press. pp. 129–63.
• Matthews, Victor Harold (2004). Judges and Ruth. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00066-6.
• Miller, J Maxwell (1995). "The Ancient Near East and Archaeology". In Mays, James Luther; Petersen, David L.; Richards, Kent Harold (eds.). Old Testament Interpretation. T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-29289-6.
• Moore, Megan Bishop; Kelle, Brad E. (2011). Biblical History and Israel's Past. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-80286260-0.
• Niditch, Susan (2008). Judges: a commentary. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22096-9.
• Perdue, Leo G (2001). "Preface: The Hebrew Bible in Current Research". In Perdue, Leo G. (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to the Hebrew Bible. Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-21071-9.
• De Pury, Albert; Romer, Thomas (2000). "Deuteronomistic Historiography: History of Research and Related Issues". In Albert de Pury; Thomas Romer; Macchi, Jean-Daniel (eds.). Israël constructs its history: Deuteronomistic historiography in recent research. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84127-099-9.
• Soggin, Alberto (1981). Judges. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22321-2.
• Spieckerman, Hermann (2001). "The Deuteronomistic History". In Perdue, Leo G. (ed.). The Blackwell companion to the Hebrew Bible. Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-21071-9.
• Telushkin, Joseph (1997). Biblical Literacy: The Most Important People, Events, and Ideas of the Hebrew Bible. New York: William Morrow & Co.
• Thompson, Thomas L. (1 January 2000). Early History of the Israelite People: From the Written & Archaeological Sources. Brill. p. 96. ISBN 978-90-04-11943-7.
• Van Seters, John (1997). In search of history: historiography in the ancient world and the origins of biblical history. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506013-2.
• Walton, John H. (2009). "The Deuteronomistic History". In Hill, Andrew E.; Walton, John H. (eds.). A Survey of the Old Testament. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-22903-2.

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
• Book of Judges (G-dcast interpretations)

Christian translations

• Judges at Bible Gateway (various versions)
• Judges at Wikisource (Authorised King James Version)
• Bible: Judges public domain audiobook at LibriVox Various versions

Articles

• Book of Judges article (Jewish Encyclopedia)
• Cook, Stanley Arthur (1911). "Judges, The Book of" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 538–540. A detailed description from an Anglican point of view.

Brief introduction

• Book of Judges
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.

Book of Judges History books
Preceded by Joshua	Hebrew Bible	Succeeded by Samuel
	Christian Old Testament	Succeeded by Ruth