Chapter 1
Key themes:
- Joshua is dead.
- Judah continues conquest.
- But the Israelites fail to do a full conquest, and there still are a lot of Canaanites living in their midst.
- A lot of recaps/similar passages found in Joshua.
Equivalence between
- Joshua 15:16-19 and Judges 1:12-15 (Achsah being given into marriage to Othniel)
- Joshua 15:63 and Judges 1:21 (Jebusites in Jerusalem)
- And other…
Chapter 2
Key themes:
- By not driving out all the Canaanite people from the land, Israel disobeyed the command.
- The Israelites started worshiping idols (Baals and the Ashtaroth), and because of this, they couldn’t stand their enemies. Their strength was the hand of the Lord, that was against them because of their evil.
- The Lord raised Judges, who saved the people, when the people followed the judge, but even so, the people did not convert.
- Whenever a judge died, the people behaved worse than their fathers.
Judges 2:22-23 provide a reason on why God did permit / let (God’s perfect vs permissive will in action here) Israel’s failure in not conquering all of the people: to test if Israel would follow and stay true to the Law and commandments.
Allegorically, this can be seen as the reason why God allow for temptations in our life. Connecting to the New Testament, in the Lord’s Prayer we ask for God to not let us fall into temptation, not to not have temptations at all.
After here, we are going to have a cycle of Israel sinning → An enemy conquering Israel → The people suffer and call God → Judge rises and frees Israel → Israel has peace → Israel sins again.
Chapter 3
Key themes:
- List of enemy nations left (Judges 3:3).
- Not clear if the enemies dominate all of Israel or just a part.
- Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia dominates for 8 years. Defeated by Othniel, the 1st judge. 40 years of rest.
- Eglon the king of Moab (the fat king), along with the Ammonites and Amalekites, dominates for 18 years. Defeated by Ehud, 2nd judge. 18 years of rest.
Judges 3:1-2 indicate another reason why the canaanite nations were not fully defeated: so that the new generations learn warfare. Not a substitute for trust in Yahweh, but important.
Allegorically, just as winning the temptations make us stronger and more holy, though they are never a substitute for God’s grace. The free cooperation with God’s grace make us stronger and sanctify us.
Chapter 4
Key themes:
- Jabin king of Canaan dominates for 20 years.
- Deborah, a prophetess was the judge. She sent Barak son of Abinoam to build an army to fight Sisera, the leader of the army of Jabin. The Lord would give the army into Barak’s hand, but Sisera would be defeated by a woman’s hand.
- Barak defeats the army, but Sisera flees to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite.
- Jael seems to welcome him, but kills him driving a peg through his temples with a hammer.
Questions:
- Why would Jael kill Sisera?
Chapter 5
Key themes:
- Song of Deborah that tells the story of her period as judge and the overthrow of Jabin as ruler of the Hebrews.
- Peace lasted for 40 years.
Chapter 6
Key themes:
- Midian conquer Israel for 7 years.
- Gideon, later renamed to Jerubbaal (let Baal contend against him) is called to deliver Israel from the midianites.
- He destroys an altar to Baal and an Asherat and builds an altar to God instead.
- He calls men from Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they follow him.
Chapter 7
Key themes:
- There were a lot of men in Gideon’s army, and the Lord said that they would think they won because of their strength. So the Lord instructs Gideon to send some men home, so that the Midianites’ defeat would be clearly seen as sign from God.
- Thus, with only 300 men, Gideon is able to defeat the Midianites.
Judges 7:6-8 Has the 300 of Sparta copied this?
Chapter 8
Key themes:
- Gideon hunts the final army and kings of the Midianites, Zebah and Zalmunna.
- After liberating the Israelites, they had 40 years of rest. They asked for Gideon to establish a hereditary rule over them, but he denies it.
- After Gideon dies, they do idolatry again, worshiping Baal-berith.
- Gideon has 70 children, one of them Abimelech, born out of a concubine.
Baal-berith is a kind of Baal?
Chapter 9
Key themes:
- Abimelech becomes king with the support of Shechem.
- Abimelech kills all his brothers, except for Jotham, who was hiding.
- The curse of Jotham on Abimelech and Shechem and Beth-millo.
- The reign lasted 3 years.
- Wars and slaughter promoted by Abimelech and his death (woman throws a rock on his head).
Chapter 10
Key themes:
- New Judges: Tola son of Puah, Issachar, 23 years; Jair the Gileadite, 22 years.
- Idolatry again.
- Oppression from the Philistines and the Ammonites.
Chapter 11
Key themes:
- Jephthah, son of Gilead, was a bastard son born of a harlot. And because of this, he was expelled from his home.
- Through hardships, he became a mighty warrior.
- When the Ammonites were attacking Israel, the elders of Gilead went to Jephthah for help. He resents this because they hated him before, but they make a covenant: if Jephthah defeats the Ammonites, he will rule over Gilead.
- Jephthah made a vow to the Lord if He delivers the Ammonites into his hand (Judges 11:30-31): to offer to the Lord, in a burnt offering whoever (who, not what) first pass through his house’s door when he comes back.
- Jephthah defeats the Ammonites.
- When he comes back, his daughter, his only child passes through the door.
- The daughter spends two months bewailing her virginity, mourning the fact of her motherlessness.
- Jephthah “did to her according to his vow” (v. 39)
Questions:
- What happened to the daughter?
- Likely offered in sacrifice. But not in God’s will, as this was incentivized by the pagan practices of the time, and the Lord had already utterly prohibited and despised it. Even though Jephthah is the protagonist of the story, this wasn’t and should not be interpreted as condoning human sacrifice.
- Another likely answer would be her total consecration to the Lord as a virgin. This would explain the mentioning of her virginity and her mourning it. This would also fulfill Jephthah vow of making the Lord’s whoever passed the door. This would require, however, an explanation of how the burnt offering vow was fulfilled.
- This tragic story shows the pervasive and destructive effects of idolatry, and shows how even worship and thanksgiving to the Lord can be misdirected.