Judges

Judges 1-6

A big chunk 0f Scripture with a familiar theme -- Israel meanders away from God whenever there is no strong leadership present.

We begin with a recounting of the remaining Canaanites whom the Jews do not evict from the land, although most end up as servants. This lack of obedience in driving them out is evidence of a lack of faith among the people. The story of Caleb giving his daughter is rehashed, probably because Othniel shows up as a judge in 3:7 -- the first after Joshua and his generation are gone. Othniel, Caleb's nephew and son-in-law, rules for 40 years. While he is there, the nation is at peace. But when Othniel is gone, the Moabites move in and hold the Israelites for 18 years, until Ehud, the southpaw.

Eventually we learn why Scripture tells us that Ehud is a lefty, specifically for a bit of trickery against the portly King Eglon. The details of this assassination are remarkable. Even Ehud's escape is possible because the king's men think he's having an embarrassingly long stop in the restroom. Even at first glance, the king would not look wounded as the knife was pushed in until Eglon's fat closed in around it.

Shamgar is a brief mention at the end of chapter three. He is also mentioned in Deborah's song in 5:6. Perhaps Shamgar was the military leader and Deborah the judge? But then why would Deborah send for Barak? That deserves more study.

The Song chides many of the tribes of Israel for not being a part of the attack on Sisera. Reuben, Gilead, Dan... where were you when the fighting started?

At chapter six we begin the saga of Gideon. An unlikely hero if there ever was one, Gideon is constantly asking for signs of confirmation. Compare that with the Pharisees of Jesus' day being called a wicked and perverse generation for asking for a sign. Gideon was seeking to serve God. The Pharisees were looking for a miracle to debunk.

Gideon does manage to gather enough courage to destroy his father's idol to Baal and the Asherah poles, although he waited until night to do it in secret. Amazingly it is Gideon's father who stands up for him once the story gets out.

Judges 7-11

We resume the story of Gideon and the Midianites with God forcing the Israelites into admitting that their own strength was not going to win the upcoming battle. God pared the fighting troops down to 300 to take on the combined armies of the Midianites, Amalekites, and the other eastern peoples. In short, God was making sure that His people recognized this victory as a miracle -- something only possible because God was with them.

God was helping Gideon's faith all the way through. The altar, the fleece, the army selection, and now God tells Gideon if he's still feeling skittish about the whole battle to spy on the enemy at their campfire. Of course he hears of the prophecy of he and his army scattering his foes. Interesting symbolism that the dream was of a small barley loaf flattening a tent in the Midianite camp completely. The overheard interpretation was the last piece of the faith puzzle for Gideon, and he returned to rally the 300 for the fight. They do battle by breaking jars and blowing horns -- the confusion is what sets the enemy to fleeing. More tribes join in once the chase is on.

The family infighting begins with Ephraim, but Gideon rebuffs them with praise and modesty. Asking for help outside of the nation of Israel proves to be more complicated. The leaders of Succoth and Peniel each refuse to feed and provide for the 300 fighting men, exhausted from chasing the enemy back home. The town leaders even seem to taunt Gideon. Bad idea. He punished the elders of Succoth by apparently beating them with thorns and briars. Then he pulled down the tower of Peniel -- likely the source of pride, as well as a military lookout -- then killed all the men of the town.

Gideon is strong for a while, but his weakness is the ephod he makes from the plunder of earrings. Not only Gideon and his family were tripped up with this idol, but "all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it..." What a horrible end to the story. Even more horrible was after Gideon died, Israel went back to its infatuation with Baal. Still more horrible is the rising up of Abimelech, son of Gideon and a concubine, plotting to take power by killing all 70 of his half brothers on one stone. Well not quite all. One son, Jotham, hid and emerged to shout a taunt to Abimelech from atop Mt. Gerizim before going into hiding in Beer. (the place, not the drink.)

Finally it is God who turns the people against Abimelech after three years. Abimelech had another great military victory, but it ended in dishonor as he was struck on the head by a millstone dropped from a tower by a woman inside. Abimelech considered it shameful enough that he asked his armor-bearer to finish him off so no one could say that a woman killed him. Semantics don't change the truth. In 9:57, it is reported that Abimelech's end was the result of Jotham's curse.

Two short mentions of Tola, a judge for 23 years and Jair, a judge for 22 years begin chapter 10. Apparently nothing of significance happened on their watch. Judging from the normal behavior of the people, if there was a strong judge everyone was on their best behavior so we must assume that Tola and Jair were good judges. Next up after another cry from a judgeless Israel for help, is Jephthah, whose story begins chapter eleven.

Jephthah picked up a band of adventurers (probably mercenaries) and was recruited by the leaders of Gilead to lead the army against the Ammonites. Jephthah becomes the leader and begins by trying a little diplomacy with the Ammonite king. In response to that king's declaration that Israel was on Ammonite soil, taken by Joshua and company, Jephthah responds with a history lesson which is basically ignored by the king. So the battle begins.

Jephthah makes an unnecessary vow to God saying that if the Lord grants him victory, he will sacrifice to God the first thing coming out of the door of his house when he returns home from battle. To his dismay, that thing was his daughter, an only child. The girl understands Dad's situation and asks only for two months to be with her friends before she dies. Her father agrees and after those two months, Jephthah sacrifices his daughter to God. The author notes that this began a custom among young Israelite women to go out for four days in commemoration.

What to make of this brutal sacrifice. Well, a vow was a vow, especially one made to God. So Jephthah didn't hold back his only child, just as Father Abraham had done with Isaac. Still the fault lies in the foolish vow. The bearing of punishment by the girl isn't the worst that could have happened to her. Death never is the worst. Death without being reconciled to God is the worst. Still I wonder what must have been going through Jephthah's mind through the whole process, when he killed his daughter, and for the rest of his life.

Judges 12-16

One final episode with Jephthah begins chapter 12. The men of Ephraim became insulted that they weren't called into the fight with the Ammonites. For some reason they took great offense and threatened to burn down Jephthah's house with him in it. Jephthah claimed that he had called on Ephraim, but that they had ignored the call. The men of Gideon are called out to go to war against Ephraim. They surround Ephraim. Those who tried to escape were tested. For some reason, Ephraimites couldn't say "Sibboleth". We are not told if God orchestrated this test or if it was a matter of a regional accent. In any case Ephraim paid dearly for attacking Jephthah -- 42,000 Eprhaimites were killed.

After Jephthah came Ibzan with 30 sons with foreign wives and 30 daughters with foreign husbands (outside his own clan, that is). He led Israel for seven years. Next up was Elon's ten year reign. Then came Abdon for eight years. The text gives an interesting picture of Abdon's 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys! When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, it was seen as a sign of a king. Still it doesn't seem too impressive a sight to see the leader and his 70 offspring riding donkeys!

At chapter 13's beginning, Abdon is gone and Israel has left God again. So they have been taken over by the Philistines for 40 years. Enter Manoah and his unnamed wife from Zorah of the Danites. His wife was sterile, but is promised a son by the angel of the Lord. He is to be a Nazirite -- set apart to God, with a set of rules to live by. When the wife tells Manoah about the angel of the Lord's visit, he prays to learn how to raise the boy. God had to be pleased with such a prayer.

The wife gets another visit and she calls Manoah in also. The Angel gives the requested instructions, although He doesn't mention anything about the boy's hair in the recorded text. Manoah wants the Angel's name, still unaware of the identity of their visitor. The sacrifice is offered in front of the Angel, and the Angel ascends to heaven in its flames. Manoah finally figures out who had been sitting with he and his wife! His reaction, like so many others, is fear of dying. His wife pointed out that they would be dead already if that were so.

The story of Samson itself is odd (as is much of Judges). God is apparently using Samson to torment the occupying Philistines, and Samson is not only gifted in strength, but also has the presence of the Holy Spirit at most times. However, he still seems to be acting out of pure selfishness. God is using this flaw in Samson to accomplish His purposes.

Samson's bride is picked from among the Philistines over his parents' objections. Still the marriage is made. The story of the lion, its carcass and the honey is interesting in that there is so much detail given which seems unnecessary to us. Certainly this was written by someone living within a different culture, but we would normally miss that Samson gave the honey to his parents without telling them he retrieved it from a carcass. That was unclean, and giving it to his parents made them ceremonially unclean. Things like that seem so out of place in this book.

Samson makes a bet, sure that he will win, by posing a riddle to his companions about the honey and the lion's carcass. Four days into the bet, the men go to Samson's bride to get her to get the answer. They threaten her father's household and his property if she refuses to help. So she starts to whine to Samson, "You don't really love me..." and such to try to wheedle the answer from him. Samson's interesting answer to her is that since he hasn't told his own parents the answer, he certainly isn't going to share it with her! He has put his wife "in her place" so to speak. Finally on the last day Samson gives in and tells her. She tells the men and they solve the riddle. Samson knows exactly what has happened, so he went to town, killed 30 men and took their possessions and gave them to the men as payment of the bet. Then he stormed back to his father's house. In the meantime, the father of the bride gives Samson's wife to his best man from the wedding.

When Samson goes to visit his wife again, he finds that she has been given to "his friend" and is offered his wife's sister instead. Samson instead wants revenge (as usual) and burns most everything which can be burned by starting fires with torches tied to foxes' tails. Nobody could invent this stuff!

The Philistines want re-revenge so they try to capture Samson from the men of Judah, who know where Samson is. Samson agrees to go with them, bound. Yet when the Philistine see Samson, they run at him, Samson breaks the ropes easily then picks up a donkey skull which is conveniently lying around and uses it to kill 1000 Philistines. He even sings a little song about it afterward. He is worn out and pathetically calls out to God for water, which is provided for him.

When we hit chapter 16, we find the Philistines still after Samson, almost catching him as he sleeps with a prostitute in Gaza. Still Samson gets away early, tears down the city gates and carries them to a hill outside of town. The Philistines were terribly intimidated by this man they couldn't figure out how to outsmart, and that they couldn't overpower.

Enter Delilah. Samson's weakness for manipulating women gets him in trouble again. His weakness for nagging shows up again as well. The Philistines need to find some way to neutralize Samson's strength, so they enlist Delilah to get at the truth. Delilah sounds much like Samson's wife from chapter 14 as she asks for Samson's secret. He gives her three wild goose chases, apparently hoping she'll tire of asking. Her accomplices who had been trying to overpower
the strong man had apparently given up, as Delilah had to reassure them that the fourth time was the charm.

One would think that Samson would have seen this coming after three attacks. He figured out what had happened with the riddle easily enough. Still he indulged Delilah. Why? Selfishness?

This is the first we see a mention of the reason for Samson's strength when he "tells her everything" in 16:17. Interesting that Samson wore his hair in seven braids. Seven is one of those "biblical numbers" so I wonder about the significance of the number. In any case, the braids are shaved and Samson is captured. His eyes are gouged out and he is shackled with the strongest stuff available -- bronze shackles. The proud warrior is made into an entertainer, to amuse the leaders of the Philistines.

At the last banquet, Samson delivers a show for the enemy. One wonders what kind of a performance he would put on if he was still thought to have lost his strength. Still the show brings the house down (pun intended). He loses his life in what Samson called an act of revenge on the Philistines for the loss of his eyes.

In all the dedication to the Lord and in all the ways that the Holy Spirit came upon him in power, Samson sure had precious little to say about God. His prayers were selfish in nature. His actions were the same. He appears as a spoiled brat -- an athlete who was never told "no". And he was the leader of Israel for 20 years. Of course, who was going to defeat him or tell him "no"?

Judges 17-21

The most telling verse of Judges is repeated at 17:6... "In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit." It was always those times where everyone did as they saw fit that the Israelites got into the most trouble.

After Samson's death, we are introduced to a man named Micah who has apparently taken about 28 pounds of silver from his mother, then returned it. His mother decided to give it to God, yet her idea is to make an idol. That idol is cast and set up in Micah's house. A "young" Levite from Bethlehem enters the scene. As a aside, it's amazing how many times the little town of Bethlehem is mentioned in the Old Testament. In any case, the Levite is looking for a place to stay and Micah invites him to live with him and act as his personal priest for the idol god in his house.

I'm not sure why the Danites are still looking for land as an inheritance at this point in history. Perhaps they did not run out the Canaanites from their alloted portion and the Danites were themselves cast out.

The scouting party from Dan discovered Micah's stash when they recognized the voice of the young Levite. After scouting Laish, they organized their battle party of 60 warriors and went for the attack on unsuspecting Laish. On the way they stopped and took Micah's idols, ephod and even the Levite to serve as Dan's priest. Micah was outnumbered and gave up after a brief chase. The Danites continued and destroyed Laish and took the territory. They rebuilt the city and called it Dan and set up the Levite and his family as the tribal priests until the time of the captivity, which I would assume to mean the known captivity of Israel and not some smaller event, although I have no proof of that being the case.

The final three chapters of Judges is about as ugly as the Bible gets. Chapter 19 begins with a Levite and his concubine (interestingly not his wife). The woman was from Bethlehem, but the Levite lived in a remote part of Ephraim. The woman was unfaithful and eventually ran back to her father's home. Four months later, the Levite went to Bethlehem to bring her back.

For some reason, the father-in-law keeps stalling the Levite -- probably so that his daughter would remain with him a bit longer. Finally the Levite tires of the games and leaves, headed for home. He avoids stopping in what is now Jerusalem because the city is filled with foreigners, opting instead to walk as far as Gibeah where he, his concubine and his servant set up camp on the town square.

From here, the story of Lot in Sodom is eerily similar. A man from the Levite's home area comes and invites the travelers home with him for the night. Then a pack of evil men come around in some kind of sex-crazed frenzy and call for the man to send out the traveler to rape. As Lot had done, the man offered his virgin daughter as a substitute along with the man's concubine. Apparently there was no way to get this gang away from the house.

Finally the Levite sent his concubine out to the deviates and they brutally rape her until morning. She collapses trying to get back into the house. Her husband trips over her that next morning, picks her up, loads her on the donkey and takes her home with him. The text doesn't explain when she dies, but she must have been dead by the time he arrived home. He then cuts her body into 12 pieces and has the pieces sent to all the tribes, apparently to summon them to Mizpah for justice.

The other tribes go to war with Benjamin, although it takes the third bloody attack to finally rout them. The final battle for Gibeah sounds much like a battle back in Joshua with the same ambush ruse used. Six thousand Benjamites escape, but the rest are killed. As the result of a vow made during the assembly at Mizpah, the other tribes will not give the survivors wives, even though peace is finally made. Trying to give descendants to the Benjamite survivors becomes first priority. First, the virgins of Jabesh Gilead are taken because the men of that town had neglected to attend the assembly at Mizpah. All others in Jabesh Gilead were killed. They were still a good two thousand women short, so they instructed the remaining Benjamites to essentially kidnap some of the girls from Shiloh. This was done to skirt the vow made -- their fathers would not be "giving" their daughters, and thus no curse would come upon them.

I wonder about this whole debacle. The concept of justice seems quite odd. Of course no one is really any too innocent in all this. The concubine who was raped until she died was an unfaithful spouse who ran away from her husband. The Benjamites refused to turn over the offenders or give any justice to the Levite. Jabesh Gilead refused to take part in the battlefield justice. The whole passage is a mishmash of stubbornness and violence. God saw fit to punish the Benjamites for acting like the people of Sodom, yet he did not wipe the tribe off the face of the earth. One nagging thought is why the men of Benjamin were allowed to win two days worth of battles, killing thousands of Israelite warriors if God was fighting against them ultimately? What was the rest of the tribes supposed to learn from all of that?

Perhaps the biggest lesson is found in the repeated final verse of Judges. "In those days Israel had no king' everyone did as he saw fit."