Hebrew Bible: Judges

Judges

Daniel Talent -- 10/05/2011

Content -- a focus on narratives rather than history or teaching.

   -- categorized as a hagiography, a biography of a holy people (but not the judges!)

   -- stories may have been passed down orally, yet they were written around 722 BCE, after the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians

   -- may have been complied by (D) authors (the in-text editing complies with (D))

Background -- post-Exodus; "land and children" not yet fulfilled; kings of other nations ruled over city-states

Themes -- Israel has its own identity!  The judges are constantly wrestling with what this concept means.

   -- people disobey and receive salvation again and again

   -- cycles of sin and redemption!  sin:  worshiping foreign deities; redemption:  victories

   -- Israel has a right to the land

Who were the judges?

"Shophet" in Hebrew

military tribal leaders with judicial authority; not exactly role models... 

possibly only leaders of individual tribes

God's role:  using judges and others as agents for his will

What were the tribes?

mentality of "one big family"; judges and family leaders ruled over each tribe

Some of the Judges

Ehud

   -- a left-handed Benjamite 

   -- antagonist:  King Eglon of Moab (area southeast of the Dead Sea)

   -- assassinated Eglon by sticking a dagger and losing it with him, and he was deceptive because he pretended to be paying tribute

   -- this is quite an interesting read!!

Deborah

   -- name means "bee"

   -- only female judge; prophetess and advisor

   -- sings a traditional song, recorded in the text

   -- probably doesn't actually fight in the battle with Barak (other judge who leads army to battle against King Jabin)

   -- antagonist:  Sisera, commander of Jabin's army

   -- the hero, a non-Israelite woman named Jael, hammered a tent peg into Siser's temple

Gideon

    -- threshes wheat in a wine press, since the Midianites had threatened them and took the land (?)

   -- an angel commanded him to fight against the Midianites

   -- Gideon is famous for "putting out the wool" to test God to make sure he is with him--signs of divine favor

   -- he goes into battle against the Midianites and reduces his army to 300 people, using guerrilla warfare to defeat their army

   -- he refuses kingship but his son Abimelech (whose name meant "song of king") wanted to be king, but he was cursed since he killed all 70 of his brothers and died by a millstone dropped on his head 

   --he sets up an image, but later people would be condemned for worshiping

Samson, a cross-cultural classical hero

   -- although he was not pious, he was a Nazarite (devoted to the LORD)

   -- he probably had dreadlocks, which were the source of his strength (part of Nazarite vow)

   -- he loved foreign (philistine) women

   -- his wife Delilah was mean and deceptive, having him succumb to the Philistines

   -- tears down the temple of the pagan god Dagon by the Spirit of the Lord

Israelite Civil/Tribal War

Tribes allied against Benjamin tribe, and they had no wives.  So they pillaged and took someone else's wives for them.  Anarchy/no king at the end of the book.  Hospitality important, just like Sodom story.