JUDGES שופטים

Judges 2:16-19 – “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD’s commands.”

“Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.”

Judges 3:15 – “Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.”

Judges 10:15 – “But the Israelites said to the LORD, ‘We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.’”

Judges 11:3 – “So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.”

Judges 21:25 – “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”

Recurring throughout the book is the stereotyped formula: “The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord…and he sold them into the hand of….” After each period of subjection, the historian introduces another formula: “But when the people of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people.”

Clearly, the historian schematized the accounts of the judges according to an apostasy–deliverance pattern. This arrangement of historical materials was designed to influence a course of action for the deliverance of the Israelites held captive in Babylonia. In addition to the apostasy–deliverance schema, the historian takes the history of individual tribes and gives an “all Israel” scope.

This technique likewise reflects the book’s exilic perspective, for the deliverance of all Israel, he believes, is possible if the people return to their worship of Yahweh.

Babylonia is an ancient cultural region occupying southeastern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern southern Iraq from around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf). Because the city of Babylon was the capital of this area for so many centuries, the term Babylonia has come to refer to the entire culture that developed in the area from the time it was first settled, about 4000 BCE. Before Babylon’s rise to political prominence (c. 1850 BCE), however, the area was divided into two countries: Sumer in the southeast and Akkad in the northwest.

The history of Sumer and Akkad is one of constant warfare. The Sumerian city-states fought one another for the control of the region and rendered it vulnerable to invasion from Akkad and from its neighbor to the east, Elam. Despite the series of political crises that marked their history, however, Sumer and Akkad developed rich cultures.

The Sumerians were responsible for the first system of writing, cuneiform; the earliest known codes of law; the development of the city-state; the invention of the potter’s wheel, the sailboat, and the seed plow; and the creation of literary, musical, and architectural forms that influenced all of Western civilization.

This cultural heritage was adopted by the Sumerians’ and Akkadians’ successors, the Amorites, a western Semitic tribe that had conquered all of Mesopotamia by about 1900 BCE. Under the rule of the Amorites, which lasted until about 1600 BCE, Babylon became the political and commercial centre of the Tigris-Euphrates area, and Babylonia became a great empire, encompassing all of southern Mesopotamia and part of Assyria to the north.

The ruler largely responsible for this rise to power was Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 BCE), the sixth king of the 1st dynasty of Babylon, who forged coalitions between the separate city-states, promoted science and scholarship, and promulgated his famous code of law.

After Hammurabi’s death, the Babylonian empire declined until 1595 BCE, when the Hittite invader Mursil I unseated the Babylonian king Samsuditana, allowing the Kassites from the mountains east of Babylonia to assume power and establish a dynasty that lasted 400 years.

During the last few centuries of Kassite rule, religion and literature flourished in Babylonia, the most important literary work of the period being the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation. During this same time, however, Assyria broke away from Babylonian control and developed as an independent empire, threatening the Kassite dynasty in Babylonia and on a few occasions temporarily gaining control. Elam, too, grew powerful and ultimately conquered most of Babylonia, felling the Kassite dynasty (c. 1157 BCE).

In a series of wars, a new line of Babylonian kings, the 2nd dynasty of the city of Isin, was established. Its most outstanding member, Nebuchadrezzar I (reigned 1119–1098 BCE), defeated Elam and successfully fought off Assyrian advances for some years.

For several centuries following Nebuchadrezzar I’s rule, a three-way struggle developed among the Assyrians and Aramean and Chaldean tribesmen for control of Babylonia. From the 9th century to the fall of the Assyrian empire in the late 7th century BCE, Assyrian kings most frequently ruled over Babylonia, often appointing sub-kings to administer the government. The last ruling Assyrian king was Ashurbanipal, who fought a civil war against his brother, the sub-king in Babylon, devastating the city and its population.

Upon Ashurbanipal’s death, a Chaldean leader, Nabopolassar, made Babylon his capital and instituted the last and greatest period of Babylonian supremacy. His son Nebuchadrezzar II (reigned 605–562 BCE) conquered Syria and Palestine; he is best remembered for the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem in 587 BCE and for the ensuing Babylonian captivity of the Jews. He also revitalized Babylon, constructing the wondrous hanging gardens and rebuilding the Temple of Marduk and its accompanying ziggurat.

The Persians, under Cyrus the Great, captured Babylonia from Nebuchadrezzar’s last successor Nabonidus in 539 BCE. Thereafter, Babylonia ceased to be independent, passing eventually in 331 BCE to Alexander the Great, who planned to make Babylon the capital of his empire and who died in Nebuchadrezzar’s palace. After Alexander’s death, however, the Seleucids eventually abandoned Babylon, bringing an end to one of the greatest empires in history.

Merodach-Baladan II, (died c. 694 BC), was king of Babylonia 721–710 and for nine months in 703, who maintained Babylonian independence in the face of Assyrian military supremacy for more than a decade.

Commencing in 728 the king of Assyria also officially held the title of king of Babylonia. During that time Merodach-Baladan, a member of the Yakin tribe, was a district ruler in Chaldea.

During the unrest surrounding the accession of Sargon II of Assyria in 722, Merodach-Baladan entered Babylon and claimed the Babylonian throne, which had belonged to his forebear Eriba-Marduk. An attack by the Elamites two years later so weakened the Assyrians—though both sides claimed victory—that, as king of Babylonia, Merodach-Baladan remained unmolested by Assyria for the next 10 years.

Sargon’s inscriptions portray Merodach-Baladan as a usurper who oppressed Babylonia and relied on Elamite military power. On the other hand, Merodach-Baladan claimed to be the legitimate heir who had driven the Assyrians from Babylonia. Contemporary Babylonian documents indicate that temples were repaired, irrigation projects were carried out, and life was normal during his reign.

According to Assyrian accounts, Sargon marched south against Babylonia in 710. After defeating the Elamites and Merodach-Baladan’s other allies, he turned toward Babylon. Merodach-Baladan fled, and the leading citizens of Babylon brought Sargon unopposed into the city, where he officially became king of Babylonia. The next year Sargon captured and destroyed Merodach-Baladan’s capital, Dur-Yakin.

Judges chapter 1: After Joshua’s death, the Israelites ask the Lord who should go up first to fight the Canaanites. Judah was the first tribe selected. The tribe of Simeon helps the tribe of Judah drive enemies off the land. Ephraim and Manasseh attempt to clear their land as well but do not wipe out all the former inhabitants. The other tribes are unable to drive all the Canaanites off their allotted inheritance.

Judges chapter 2: The Lord confronts the Israelites about not destroying the former inhabitants including their false idols. The Lord declares that he will no longer help the Israelites in their quest to take all of the Promised Land. The Lord hands the Israelites over to raiders and sends judges to defend the people against the raiders.

Judges chapter 3: A list of nations that remained because the Israelites refused to drive them out. The Lord delivers the Israelites over to Aram Naharaim who rules over Israel for eight years. The Lord chooses Caleb’s brother Othniel as first judge to deliver the Israelites from the outside raiders.

The Israelites do evil again and God subjects them to Eglon the Moabite king. Ehud from the tribe of Benjamin is chosen to lead the Israelites out of bondage to Moab. Shamgar replaces Ehud as judge over Israel.

Judges chapter 4: After Ehud died, the Israelites did evil again. The Lord gives them over to Jabin, king of Canaan. God raises up Deborah and Barak to lead the Israelites out of the hand of Jabin. A woman named Jael kills the Sisera, the Canaanite army commander.

Judges chapters 5, 6, and 7: In Judges 5 there is the Song of Deborah. Then in Judges 6, the people of Israel do evil again and the Lord gives them over to a band of Midianites. Gideon is chosen to lead the people out of bondage to the Midianites. Gideon pulls down an Asherah pole and builds an altar to the Lord. Finally, in Judges 7, Gideon defeats the Midianites with only 300 men.

Judges chapter 8: Gideon is criticized by the Ephramites for not calling them to help fight the Midianites. The men of Succoth refuse to give food to Gideon and his fighting men. Gideon captures two Midianite leaders and executes them. Gideon makes an ephod for himself. Gideon dies.

Judges chapter 9: Abimelech, son of one of Gideon’s concubines, kills his other brothers and governs over Israel for three years. Abimelech has a problem with the people of Shechem who choose a man named Gaal to lead them. Zebul the governor of Shechem sides with Abimelech. Abimelech defeats Gaal and the people of Shechem. A woman drops a millstone on Abimelech’s head and he dies.

Judges chapter 10: Tola replaces Abimelech as judge of Israel; Jair replaces Tola; Israelites do evil again by serving the gods of other peoples; god becomes angry with the Israelites and gives them over to the Ammonites and Philistines. The Israelites cry out to God and confess their sins of idol worship. The Israelites get rid of their idols and prepare to fight the Ammonites.

Judges chapter 11: Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. Jephthah was rejected by his brothers and sent away. The Gileadites call Jepthah back to rescue them from the Ammonites. Jephthah sends a letter to the king of the Ammonites concerning Israel’s right to possess the land east of the Jordan.

Jephthah makes a hasty vow to secure the Lord’s favor in battle. The Lord gives the Ammonites over to Jephthah and his army. In accordance with his hasty vow. Jephthah is forced to sacrifice his only daughter to the Lord.

Judges chapter 12: The men of Ephraim fight against Jephthah and the Gileadites for not calling on them to help with the battle against the Ammonites. Ibzan, Elon, and Abden follow Jephthah as judge over Israel.

Judges chapter 13: An angel appears to a Danite woman and tells her she will have a special child who is to be a Nazirite. The angel appears again to her husband Manoah and gives them instructions about how to rear the boy. The woman gives birth to the special son and names him Samson.

Judges chapter 14: Samson demands that his parents get him Timnah , a young Philistine, to be his bride. Samson rescues his parents from a lion which he tore apart with his bare hands. Samson eats honey he found inside the carcass of the lion. Samson is given 30 companions to whom he attempts to trick with a riddle.

Samson promises them he will give each one a new set of clothes for solving the riddle. Timnah nags Samson for seven days until he tells her the riddle. Samson kills 30 men and gives their clothes to his 30 companions. Burning with anger, Samson left his new wife with her father and her father gave her to Samson’s friend.

Judges chapter 15: Samson goes to Timnah’s home to retrieve her, but her father blocks him from seeing her. Samson uses foxes to burn the Philistines’ crops. The Philistines burn Timnah, her father, and his house for Samson’s offense. Samson attacked the Philistines and slaughtered them. Samson led Israel for 20 years.

Judges chapter 16: Samson takes another Philistine woman Delilah as his wife. Delilah nags Samson into revealing the secret to his strength. Samson is captured by the Philistines. The Lord helps Samson defeat the Philistines one last time by giving him strength to destroy the Philistine temple.

Judges chapter 17: A man named Micah living in the hill country of Ephraim makes a carved idol out of silver as well as a shrine and an ephod. Micah hires a Levite from Benjamin to be priest in his shrine.

Judges chapter 18: The Tribe of Danites search for a place to settle down and send five warriors to spy out the land and explore it; The five Danites recognize the young Levite working for Micah and ask him to inquire of the Lord for them.

The five warriors discover Laish and send it to the Danite clan. On the way to Laish, the five warriors steal the carved image, the ephod and take the young Levite with them. The Danites conquer Laish and set up idols for their gods.

Judges chapter 19: A Levite from the Ephraim hill country took a concubine from Bethlehem; the concubine ran away to her father’s home and the Levite retrieved her. On their way back home, the Levite and his concubine stop in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin where they stayed with an old man.

Wicked men came to the old man’s house and demanded to have sex with the Levite. The Levite gave them his concubine and they raped her all night until she died. The Levite took her to his home in the hill country of Ephraim, cut her body up with a knife, and sent the body parts in all areas of Israel as a witness against what the Benjamites had done.

The main events in Judges 20 and 21: In Judges 20, the Israelites attack and slaughter the Benjamite men for their wickedness and evil deeds. Then in Judges 21, wives of the Benjamites get new husbands. In those days, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.