Book of Judges

The Book of Judges (Hebrew: Sefer Shoftim ספר שופטים) is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. It contains the history of the Biblical judges, the divinely inspired leaders whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as champions for the Israelites against oppression by foreign rulers, and models of the wise and faithful behaviour required of them by their God Yahweh following the exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan. The stories follow a consistent pattern: the people are unfaithful to Yahweh and he therefore delivers them into the hands of their enemies; the people repent and entreat Yahweh for mercy, which he sends in the form of a leader or champion (a "judge"); the judge delivers the Israelites from oppression and they prosper, but soon they fall again into unfaithfulness and the cycle is repeated. Scholars consider many of the stories in Judges to be the oldest in the Deuteronomistic history, with their major redaction dated to the 8th century BCE and with materials such as the Song of Deborah dating from much earlier, perhaps close to the period the book depicts.

Judges can be divided into three major sections: a double prologue (chapters 1:1–3:6), a main body (3:7–16:31), and a double epilogue (17–21).

The book opens with the Israelites in the land which God has promised to them but worshiping "foreign gods" instead of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and with the Canaanites still present everywhere. Chapters 1:1–2:5 are thus a confession of failure while chapters 2:6–3:6 are a major summary and reflection from the Deuteronomists.

The opening thus sets out the pattern which the stories in the main text will follow:

Once peace was regained, for a time Israel does right and receives Yahweh's blessings, only to relapse later into doing evil and repeating the pattern set forth above.

Judges follows on from the Book of Joshua and opens with reference to Joshua's death (Joshua 24:29; cf. Judges 1:1). The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges suggests that "the death of Joshua may be regarded as marking the division between the period of conquest and the period of occupation", the latter being the focus of the Book of Judges. The Israelites meet, most likely at the sanctuary at Gilgal or at Shechem (following on from Joshua 24:1–33) and ask the Lord who should be first (in order of time, not of rank) to secure the land they are to occupy.

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