The Book Of JUDGES
Judges 21:25 "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
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CHAPTER 10:
Judge #6: Tola (Issachar) Verses 1-2: We are told very little about Tola, only his tribe and his home territory. He’s from Shamir, which is somewhere near mount Ephraim. (v.1) We are not even told which heathen nation God used to chasten Israel in this cycle, only that Tola judged Israel for a total of twenty-three years. (v.2) Judge #7: Jair (Gilead) Verses 3-5: We’re not told much about this judge either. Like Gideon, he is of the tribe Manasseh, but from those that settled on the western side of the Jordan. The name “Havoth-jair” (v.4) is translated literally as “tent settlements of Jair”. He is judge for twenty-two years, and hails from Camon. The description in verse 4 of his thirty sons riding on donkeys and the thirty cities that belong to them indicates their elevated social status. Both were symbols of royalty in the ANE. Verse 6: The list of false gods is lengthy. In addition to the familiar names of Baal and Ashtaroth, the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines are mentioned for the first time. All of these gods are similar in description and character, and all are part of the pantheon of fertility gods and goddesses that were common to the ANE at this time. The Moody Bible Commentary adds this note: “Dagon of the Philistines was probably not a fish god, as has sometimes been thought. The name “Dagan” is the common Semitic word for “grain,” suggesting that Dagan/Dagon may have been a West Semitic fertility god. In fact, he is included in the literature of Mesopotamia.” The god of the Ammonites was called “Milcom”, a variation of the name “Molech”, the Canaanite deity that required child sacrifice as part of its worship. The god of the Moabites, Chemosh, also demanded child sacrifice, which means that Israel was practicing this regularly in their cycles of apostasy and disobedience. The author underscores this point at the end of this verse: “…and forsook the LORD, and served not Him.” Verses 7-9: “The anger of the LORD was hot against Israel…”, and this time it’s the Philistines and the Ammonites that attack the nation. The Ammonites conquer the tribes west of the Jordan (v.8) before crossing the river to attack Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. (v.9) The Philistines, presumably, attack from their territory along the eastern coast. Verses 10-16: Instead of the usual summary of Israel’s cry to the LORD, the author records here the actual scene of dialogue between God and His chosen people. Israel recognizes the reason for the LORD’s chastening, acknowledging their sin of idolatry and disobedience. (v.10) God’s response is to remind them of His mighty works on behalf of Israel up to this point: deliverance from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Zidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites. (v.11) That last name is unfamiliar, but perhaps it refers to the Midianites. Each time, the LORD says, you cried out to me “…and I delivered you out of their hand.” (v.12) But each time Israel played the harlot by turning away from God to serve false gods, and now He tells them “…I will deliver you no more. (v.13) Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.” (v.14) The LORD has had enough of Israel’s insincere repentance. Nevertheless, the men of Israel continue to plead with God, begging for His deliverance on their behalf. They confess once more, “We have sinned…” (v.15), and they throw themselves upon God’s mercy. “…do Thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee…”. But it’s not just words. They tear down the idols and the groves, and renew their obedience to the law of Moses. (v.16) Their confession of sin followed by their actions causes the LORD to have pity on them in their misery. For this current generation, at least, the repentance is sincere. There is more than just an outward change of behavior. Their hearts have been convicted and changed as well. Verses 17-18: The Ammonites gather their forces and set up camp in Gilead. Israel responds in kind, setting up camp in Mizpeh. (v.17) The men of Gilead now wait upon the LORD, wondering which man He will choose this time to lead them to victory. (v.18) CHAPTER 11: Judge #8: Jephthah (Manasseh) Verses 1-3: Jephthah is the second judge to hail from Gilead, who was a son of Manasseh (Numbers 26:29, Judges 10:3) As with Jair, Jephthah comes out of the half tribe that settled west of the Jordan. The fact that Jephthah’s father is not named specifically in verse 1 emphasizes Jephthah’s status as an outcast because of his mother’s occupation. For that reason he was disinherited by his half-brothers (v.2), and so he fled to Tob (v.3) where he made a name for himself by becoming “…a mighty man of valour…”. (v.1) Jephthah had gathered unto himself a following of “vain men” (v.2), similar to those hired by Abimelech. But the difference here, of course, is that Jephthah did not have to buy the loyalty of his men. He earned it by demonstrating quality leadership and performing heroic deeds, as evidenced by that author’s use of that phrase in verse 1. Verses 4-11: The fact that the elders of Gilead are forced to turn to an outsider and an outcast for help speaks volumes about the sad state of affairs in Israel at this time. Jephthah’s status and fame as “…a mighty man of valour…” (v.1) indicates that he must have built himself a small but powerful army of men who were the strongest military force in that area. And when the Ammonites begin attacking the Israelites, the elders of Gilead send messengers to Jephthah asking for his help. (v.5-6) Jephthah is, understandably, resentful and wary of the offer. (v.7) But the elders persist, and so Jephthah strikes a bargain with them: if he is able to defeat the Ammonites then he will be Israel’s ruler. (v.8-9) The elders agree, and the agreement is confirmed in a vow before the LORD. (v.10-11) Verses 12 – 29: Jephthah’s first act as leader is to send messengers to Ammon requesting their reasons for going to war against Israel. (v.12) The Ammonite king claims that Israel seized land that didn’t belong to them, and the only way to restore peace is to give it back. He cites the territory that lies between the rivers Jabbok and Jordan which had once belonged to the Ammonites. (v.13) (Numbers 21:24) But Jephthah schools the Ammonites in recent history, pointing out that Israel had sent requests to Edom, Moab, and Ammon during their journey after fleeing Egypt and requested peaceful passage through those lands. (v.15-19) (Numbers 20:14, Deuteronomy 2:18-19, 26) All of those kings denied Israel passage, and Sihon, king of the Amorites, even went to war against Israel instead of simply letting them pass by peaceably outside their borders. (v.20) Thus God gave Israel the victory over the Ammonites and Israel possessed their land which includes all the territory between the rivers Arnon, Jabbok, and Jordan. (v.21-22) Therefore, says Jephthah, if God has given that land to Israel, who are you to defy Him by taking it back? (v.23) Jephthah goes on to mock the false god of the Ammonites, Chemosh, by asking if he has granted any land to the Ammonites? (v.24) He then reminds the Ammonites of Balak, the Moabite king who had foolishly defied the LORD God of Israel by hiring Balaam to curse them. (Numbers 22:2, 5-6) Not only that, the Ammonites had three hundred years to come re-conquer their land, so why now are they coming against Israel? (v.26) In other words, it didn’t matter to the Ammonites for all that time that Israel had possessed their land, so why suddenly does it matter now? Jephthah closes his rebuttal with a challenge to the Ammonite king: Israel has done only what God had commanded them to do, and it’s the LORD that will now act as righteous judge in this dispute. (v.27) The king, of course, doesn’t heed Jephthah’s words (v.28), and so Jephthah gathers his army and sets out to meet the Ammonites in battle. (v.29) Verses 30-40: Jephthah makes a rash and foolish vow to God, promising that whatever comes out of his house when he returns from battle will be sacrificed unto the LORD if He will give Israel the victory this day. (v.30-31) God, of course, gives Jephthah and his army the victory over the Ammonites. (v.32-33) But He had already promised this to Israel and Jephthah from the beginning when Jephthah accepted the request of the elders of Gilead. (v.11) Furthermore, verse 29 confirms that “…the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah…”, so there was no need for this second vow. God was already on Israel’s side and had given them permission to fight the Ammonites. Furthermore, Jephthah had no way of knowing whether it would be his daughter or his livestock that would come out to greet him when he returned home, so that makes his vow all the more baffling. When he sees his daughter come running from the house, joyous at his victory (v.34), Jephthah blames her for his distress! (v.35) In great sorrow, he explains the vow he made to the LORD, and she understands why he must honor it. (v.36) She is his only child (v.34), and that’s what makes this foolish and rash vow all the more devastating. She will never marry or bear children (v.39), and for that reason she requests 2 months to mourn this fact before returning to her father’s house to serve the LORD for the rest of her life. (v.37-39) It’s those three verses that confirm the fact that she was not offered literally as a human sacrifice, as many Biblical scholars have erroneously claimed. Instead, she lived the rest of her life as a single woman devoted to full time service to God. Though the author doesn’t give any detail about what that service was, we can logically presume that it would have been at the tabernacle at Shiloh, if that was even still in use during these cycles of Israel’s great apostasy and idolatry. This account of Jephthah and his vow becomes so well known in Israel that the women go out every year at a certain time for four days to remember Jephthah’s daughter and lament her sacrifice. (v.40) Jephthah’s story is a sobering lesson in that we must be careful what we promise to God. (Ecclesiastes 5:2, 4-5) Vows are never to made lightly as God takes them very seriously. It’s also necessary to point out here that we should not bargain with God. As I mentioned earlier, God had already promised the victory to Jephthah, so there was no need for him to make such a foolish vow, especially if he thought it was earning God’s favor. Gideon made the same mistake with his constant testing of the Lord regarding the fleece. (Judges 6:36-40) Instead, we should simply pray, “LORD, thy will be done. I give myself completely to you for your service.” God will direct us and the events in our lives for our good and His glory as He sees fit. Period. CHAPTER 12: Verses 1-7: Once again, the tribe of Ephraim is complaining about missing out on all the action, just as they did with Gideon. (v.1) (Judges 8:1) Jephthah reminds them that he did actually call for their help, but they ignored him. (v.2) But whereas Gideon was able to appease the elders of Ephraim with tactful diplomacy, the same apparently doesn’t work here. The men of Ephraim insult the Gileadites by calling them fugitives because they settled on the other side of the Jordan with Manasseh. (v.4) Because of this, Jephthah leads his men in war against Ephraim. The soldiers of Gilead are able to take control of the passages that bridge the two sides of the Jordan, and they stop any man fleeing from the battle. (v.5) Any man that claims he is not of Ephraim is put to a linguistic test. (v.6) If he is unable to correctly pronounce the word “Shibboleth”, he is killed. Apparently, the Ephraimites had a specific way of pronouncing that word, and they were unable to form the “sh” sound. Instead, it came out as just “s”. (v.6) The total number of Ephraimite soldiers slain that day is 42,000. Jephthah rules Israel for only six years and, upon his death, is buried in Gilead. (v.7) Judge #9: Ibzan (Zebulun) Verses 8-10: The Bethlehem mentioned here is not the famous one in Judah since that one is always referred to in scripture as “Bethlehem in Judah”. This Bethlehem is about seven miles east of Mount Carmel in the north. The fact that Ibzan sends his thirty daughters abroad to be married, as well as seeks thirty women from abroad for his sons (v.9) indicates that he is probably trying to unite the nation after the devastating civil war between the Gileadites and Ephraimites. Judge #10: Elon (Zebulun) Verses 11-12: Elon rules Israel ten years. Judge #11: Abdon (Ephraim) Verses 13-15: The town of Pirathon is in Ephraim, and the description in verse 14 echoes that of Jair and his sons in chapter 10. Abdon rules Israel for eight years. All three of these judges were not military leaders like Jephthah or Gideon. Instead, based on the scant details given here, we can presume they were administrative governors, overseeing the nation in what seems to have been a relatively peaceful period of twenty-five years.
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 Era of the Judges. Courtesy of the Moody Bible Atlas. A total of twelve judges are described in this book, six major and six minor. The six major ones are Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. Their stories make up the bulk of this book. (Judges 3-16) The six minor ones are Shamgar (3:31), Tola (10:1-2), Jair (10:3-5), Ibzan (12:8-10), Elon (12:11-12), and Abdon (12:13-15). The accounts of Micah and his priest (chapters 17-18) and the Levite and his concubine (chapters 19-21) are meant to show the appalling level of anarchy and depravity to which Israel as a nation had fallen. During those years there was no judge at all and “…every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
Verses 1-8: The author continues the point he made at the end of chapter 2. Verse 1 makes it clear that God used Israel’s disobedience to not only test them but also punish them for their sin. The nations that Israel failed to drive out are listed in verses 3 and 5: the Philistines, Sidonians, Hivites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, and Jebusites. Verse 2 gives a third reason that God used these foreigners: to teach the sons of Israel how to fight. One of the other consequences of the peace and rest that God gave the previous generation that conquered the promised land under Joshua was that their sons did not know proper warfare. Not only did their fathers not teach them of God and His law, but they also failed to continue to train their sons in the art of war. As a result, the fathers and sons take for wives the daughters of those nations previously listed and also give their daughters and sisters as wives to the sons of those heathen. (v.6) This causes exactly what God had warned His people would happen: they turn away from Him and begin worshiping the false gods of the Canaanites. (v.7) We know from other passages of the OT, especially that of Leviticus, that that worship included all forms of sexual immorality and perversity (i.e. homosexuality and bestiality) as well as child sacrifice. That’s what the author means in verse 7 when he says, “…the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD…”. As a result, “…the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel…”, and He punishes them by allowing the army of King Chushan-rishathaim (translation: “Cushan of double evil”) of Mesopotamia to invade and conquer them. (v.8) His rule over them lasts eight years. Judge #1: Othniel (Judah) Verses 9-11: Othniel is the younger brother of Caleb (v.9), and though his exact age isn’t stated in the text we can logically infer that he is well into his eighties based on what we know of Caleb from the book of Joshua. (Joshua 14:10) A phrase that is repeated often in the OT is “…the Spirit of the Lord came upon him…” (v.10), meaning that the Holy Spirit indwelt them in order to give them the ability they needed to do whatever task God has assigned to them. (Numbers 27:18, 1 Samuel 11:6, 2 Chronicles 15:1) In this case, God gives Othniel and the Israelite army victory over King Chushan-rishathaim and his army. Othniel judges Israel for forty years, during which time the people remember the Lord and obey Him. Thus the land has rest until Othniel dies. (v.11) Judge #2: Ehud (Benjamin) Verses 12-30: the cycle begins anew. As soon as Othniel dies the people of Israel forget God and fall back into sin. (v.12) This time God uses Eglon, king of Moab, to chasten His chosen people. Both the Moabites and the Ammonites (v.13) are descendants of Lot (Genesis 19:36-38), and the Amalekites are descended from Esau. (Genesis 36:10-12) The city of palm trees referenced in verse 13 is Jericho. (Deuteronomy 34:3, Judges 1:16, 2 Chronicles 28:15) But that city, which had been destroyed by the Israelites nearly a century earlier, is still in ruins. What this verse is most likely referencing, therefore, is that Eglon sets up his headquarters near the ruins of Jericho, and that includes the palace where he is eventually assassinated by Ehud. After eighteen years of oppression by Eglon (v.14) Israel repents of their sin and cries out to God for deliverance. (v.15) Ehud is a Benjamite, the son of Gera, and one of his unique physical traits is that he is left-handed. The Moody Bible Commentary has this comment on verse 15: “Archaeology demonstrates that the left-handed were not considered a serious military threat. Figures on monuments in victorious military poses are almost always right-handed.” This helps explain why Eglon did not consider Ehud a threat when he arrived with the Israelite’s tribute. (v.15) After giving the king his present Ehud tells him he has a secret message for him, and this causes Eglon to send his bodyguards out of the room. (v.19) Ehud also dismisses his fellow Israelites, and now the two of them are alone in Eglon’s summer parlor. (v. 18, 20) Verse 17 states that Eglon is obese, and he is sitting when Ehud approaches him with the statement, “I have a message from God unto thee.” (v.20) Ehud then draws his dagger and stabs the king in his stomach. The dagger is described in verse 16 as being a cubit long, which is about 18 inches including the handle. It sinks so far into Eglon’s belly that it gets stuck, and he bleeds to death. (v.21-22) Ehud makes a hasty exit, locking the doors behind him. (v.23) After Ehud departs the palace, Eglon’s servants approach the parlor door, but when they find it locked they surmise he’s using the toilet. (v.24: “…covereth his feet in his summer chamber.”) But sometime later, when the king has still not emerged from his chambers, the servants grow fearful and they unlock the door. King Eglon’s body is on the floor of his parlor. (v.25) Ehud successfully escapes to Seirath where he gathers Israel’s army at mount Ephraim. (v.26-27) God gives them the victory over the Moabites whose army is about ten thousand mighty men. (v.28-29) After this, Israel has peace and rest for 80 years. (v.30) Judge #3: Shamgar (Tribe unknown) Verse 31: The name “Shamgar” is not Hebrew, according to Strong’s concordance, and the name “Anath” was derived from a Canaanite goddess who was the sister and wife of Baal, according to the Thomas Nelson Bible commentators. She was worshiped as the goddess of love and war, and so this verse has caused problems for many Biblical scholars and theologians. Besides the fact of his non-Israelite first name, the commentators also dispute the mention of the Philistines here since it seems to contradict established historical records that claim the Philistines didn’t arrive in Canaan as an established people and nation until much later than the time period of these early judges. Add to this the fact that Shamgar is mentioned in Judges 5:6, which would make him a contemporary of Deborah and Jael, and the logical conclusion seems to be that Shamgar was not a judge at all, technically speaking. None of that, however, matters in the final analysis. God’s word states clearly in this verse that Shamgar “…slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.” Enough said. We don’t need to dissect and dispute and try to second guess God’s word with man’s “wisdom”. God said it, so that makes it so. Period. Shamgar is the third judge, and he delivered the Israelites from their enemy, the Philistines, with only an ox goad. According to the Moody Bible Commentary, this “…was a long stick with a point at one end for poking the ox and a shovel at the other for doing necessary work around the ox. Sharpening either or both ends would produce a formidable weapon in the hands of a stout peasant warrior.” Whether or not he was an Israelite is irrelevant. He was chosen by God to fulfill a divine purpose, and he carried out his mission accordingly, same as all the other judges recorded in this book. |
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