| ReadBibleAlive.com Introduction to the Books of the Bible |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Judges
BOOK : Judges Description : historical book recounting early years in the Promised Land Author: possibly Samuel Date written : the events were somewhere between 1350 & 1080BC Chapters : 21
Brief Synopsis: • Gets its name from the fact that in the early years of their life in the land they were ruled or overseen by judges (Kings came after the last of the judges, Samuel – see 1 Sam) • Judges sees a frequent cycle: turning away from the Lord, being oppressed by enemies, crying out to the Lord, the Lord ending a deliverer and some years of peace.
Outline :
NB. In the table below, ‘minor' judges are clearly those of whom little is said, while ‘major' judges are those of whom much is said.
Key Verses :
Failure to clear the land 1:19-21
The
LORD was with the men of Judah . They took possession of the hill country,
but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they
had iron chariots. As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who
drove from it the three sons of Anak. The Benjamites, however, failed
to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this
day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites
NB.
In the following verses to the above there are a number of instances where
Israel did not manage to remove the Canaanites
2:1-5
The angel of the LORD went up from
Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led
you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I
will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant
with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars. 'Yet
you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I
tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be [thorns]
in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you." When the angel
of the LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people
wept aloud, and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices
to the LORD.
The Disobedience Cycle 2:6-23
After
Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the
land, each to his own inheritance. The
people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua
and of the elders who outlived
him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.
Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred
and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath
Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. After that
whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another
generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for
Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served
the Baals. They
forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of
Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around
them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and
served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In
his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered
them. He sold them to their enemies all around ,
whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out
to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as
he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. 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. Therefore
the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation
has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has
not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the
nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see
whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers
did." The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive
them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.
3:7-11
The Israelites did evil in the eyes
of the LORD; they forgot the
LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he
sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim,
to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.
But when they cried
out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel
son of
Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them. The
Spirit of the LORD came upon him,
so that he became Israel 's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim
king of Araminto the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the
land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz
died.
6:6-10
Midian so impoverished the Israelites
that they cried out to the
LORD for help. When
the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, he
sent them a prophet, who
said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought
you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the
power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them
from before you and gave you their land. I said to you, 'I am the
LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land you live.' But you have not listened to me."
6:11-14
The angel of the LORD came and sat
down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where
his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from
the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he
said, "The LORD is with
you, mighty warrior."
"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why
has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondersthat our fathers
told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt
?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of
Midian." The LORD turned to him and said, "Go
in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not
sending you?"
21:25
In those days Israel had no king;
everyone did as he saw fit.
Concluding Comments
Additional Bible Studies on this site:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||