Judges: An Introduction

– 7 Min Read

Unlike the Bible’s first five books, The Book of Judges does not receive its title from the book’s first line. Technically, this book should be named “The Book of Saviors” or “The Book of Deliverers.” The Hebrew word שָׁפַט (šāp̄aṭ) is found in The Book of Judges 21 times. It is often translated as “judge” in our English Bibles and can also be rendered “governed.” But the Hebrew word יָשַׁע (yāšaʿ) is also found 21 times in The Book of Judges and it means “to save, to be delivered.” These two Hebrew words are often found together.

Then Yahweh raised up judges (šāp̄aṭ) who saved (yāšaʿ) them from the hands of those who plundered them.
…18 Now when Yahweh raised up judges (šāp̄aṭ) for them, Yahweh was with the judge (šāp̄aṭ) and saved (yāšaʿ) them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge (šāp̄aṭ)…

– Judges 2:16,18 (LSB)

This pattern is repeated throughout the entire book. The Israelites forsake YAHWEH, The Lord brings trouble upon them through those who occupy the land, the Israelites cry out to God, YAHWEH hears their prayers, and then sends them judges, or better understood, “saviors” to deliver them. We see this in; 3:9,15; 4:3; 6:14-37; 7:2,7; 10:1-14.

The Book of Judges is set in post-wilderness (after Exodus) and pre-monarchic Israel (before 1 Samuel). We gather this from the Book’s opening line: “Now it happened after the death of Joshua…” (1:1). If The Book of Joshua describes the “Conquest of the Land,” then The Book of Judges describes “Settling in the Land.” What little settling there is in the land it is never to the standard God commanded.

If there is no longer a viceregent of God (Joseph, Moses, Joshua) to lead the Israelites and we have not yet arrived at the monarchic era (Saul, David, Solomon, etc.), then one would assume for God to establish a new type in His story of redemption. God has always dealt with His people federally thus far, so one would naturally conclude He would continue to do so.

But in The Book of Judges, it is slightly different. It is not so much through viceregent-prophet-priest-kingly type leaders that God works through in this era but through twelve militaristically minded saviors. However, we will see actions done by some of the twelve that harken back to their typological counterparts. As we all know, the number “twelve” is significant in the Bible. There were The Twelve Tribes of Israel and The Twelve Apostles. There are also Twelve Judges, (we are not to count Abimelech).

Five of them are merely mentioned by the author without any serious consideration. Scholars believe that the author mentions these five to complete the significant number, (12), but were not elaborated upon because they did not serve to help his overall thesis of the Book. These five can be found in 10:1-5 and 12:8-15. Only the essential facts are given about these five, except for some fun facts like, “sons riding on donkeys” (10:4).

The author is classically ascribed to being Samuel, as well as the author of the Book of Ruth. Though there has been modern scholarly work to change that, it remains to be the consensus amongst most scholars.

Through The Book of Judges, we get a closer look at the land of Canaan. We see the diversity of the land in all the different peoples and societies. We see the Perizzites, Jebusites, Amorites, Philistines, Sidonians, Hivites, and Hittites dwell in the land. We also run into the Ammonites and Midianites who periodically come into the land due to the instability. We can remember that Egypt is still in a state of ruin and weakness, so no superpower state is ruling over the area at large.

We see “kings” mentioned often throughout The Book of Judges, but we quickly determined them to be more like marauders and warlords rather than legitimate kings. The Book of Judges is the “Wild West” of the Old Testament. There appears to be no law of the land, even though God gave them laws and instructions at Sinai as part of the Mosaic Covenant (Deuteronomy).

The last line in the book reads “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25). This is repeated throughout the book (see also 17:6; 18:1; 19:1). This is not only characterized by the people but by the judges themselves. Time and time again we will see how these appointed “saviors” fall short of the call and have moral failures.

The book begins with the people receiving a great head start from their leader Joshua and then ends with Israel almost committing genocide against the tribe of Benjamin (see 20-21). The book spans about 410 years, between Joshua’s death and before the events of 1 Samuel [1]. We date Joshua’s death around 1376 BC and David’s reign at around 1010 BC.

A helpful table of the calculation of years can be found in the NAC by Daniel Block.

The Israelites disobeyed the commands of God by allowing the Canaanites to remain in the land. Instead of running them out, the Israelites coexist in the land with them. We cannot help but miss Joshua as we read through this book. Joshua was never meant to be king but we are left longing to see one. This was something that was already spoken to Israel and instructions, along with expectations, were given to them by God. Deuteronomy 17 lays out the future laws concerning kings and how they are to rule over Israel in the land of Canaan.

As most scholars and commentators point out, the book can be broken down into three parts: Chapters 1–2 “Introduction”, Chapters 3–16 “The Twelve Judges”, and Chapters 17–21 “The Complete Moral Failing of Israel”.

Israel was to not be like the other nations, in fact, they were supposed to eradicate them from the land. Instead, they break their covenant with God and become just like the pagan nations. In the second chapter, we read of this explanation.

Then the angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, 2 and as for you, you shall cut no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not listened to My voice; what is this you have done?

– Judges 2:1-2 (LSB)

God promised to remain faithful to keep His covenant promises as long as Israel obeyed the stipulations of the covenant. This is contrasted when God tells them not to cut covenants with any of the pagan nations that live in the land. They are only to be concerned with the covenant between them and their God, not any other covenant or commitment. The covenant God had with them was of course broken by the Israelites repeatedly.

The Book of Judges highlights many things. The importance of leadership is definitely one of those things. This book, (the second in order of the 12 Historical books), leaves a longing in Israel for a king. But not a king like Abimelech, nor even a king like David, but a good, righteous, perfect king. The Book of Ruth comes right after The Book of Judges to show us the ancestry of David. It is with David whom God cuts another covenant. In that covenant, God would establish David’s throne through David’s seed (Jesus).

The Book of Judges is violent, graphic, and filled with all kinds of evils. It is definitely a book we can sympathize with, not because it necessarily speaks to us personally or the church corporately, but because it speaks to us nationally and politically. We too long for the coming King who will judge the nations, drive out the enemies, and restore peace to God’s people.

It reminds us that Jesus fulfills this role. He is the perfect and true Judge (deliverer & savior). He will come and judge the living and the dead from a great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). I look forward to studying The Book of Judges with you. May God bless us on our journey.

Works Cited

[1] Miles V. Van Pelt, A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament: The Gospel Promised, (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 2016), 178