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Judges is a book of the Bible; it appears in the Hebrew Bible and in the Christian Old Testament. Its title refers to its contents; it contains the history of judges who helped rule and guide the Israelites.
1 Meaning of the title
The book derives its name from the fact that it deals with the "Judges," a term which, according to its use in the book, designates those who dealt out justice to the oppressed people; it is used in the sense of a "rescuer". The word, however, means more than this: it means the leaders who took charge of the affairs of the tribes in case of war, and who assumed leadership of their respective tribes in the succeeding times of peace. In accordance with the needs of the time, their functions were primarily judicial.
2 Introduction/Prologue (1:1-3:6)
The introduction connects it with the previous narrative in Joshua as a "link in the chain of books" with Judges 1:1-2:8 being a summarised repetition of parts of Joshua. Judges starts off with the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan, however there are many Canaanite tribes still in the land who still resist them, so although they have entered the land they do not have full control of it. In Judges 1:1-2, the Israelites ask God who should fight against the Canaanites, and Judah is chosen ( Simeon also participates because it is was a smaller tribe whose territory was within Judah's area).
Therefore Judges 1:3-21 is an account of the military campaigns of the southern tribes of Judah and Simeon. They defeat the Canaanites and Perizzites and capture their leader Adoni-Bezek (Judges 1:4-7). Then the Judeans invade Jerusalem and put it the sword (Judges 1:8), advance on Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills (Judges 1:9), then continue advancing against the Canaanites that lived in Hebron, defeating Sheshai , Ahiman and Talmai (Judges 1:10). After this they advance on the Canaanites living in Debir (Judges 1:11). As this was a royal Canaanite city, it was seen as being an important city to capture, and evidently Caleb becomes impatient to capture it as he offers the hand of his daughter AchsahAchsah anklet, Caleb's only daughter (1 Chr. She was offered in marriage to the man who would lead an attack on the city of Debir, or Kirjath-sepher/ Kirjath-sannah. This was done by Othniel (q. who accordingly obtained her as his wife ( Joshua 15:16-19; in marriage to whoever defeats the city (Judges 1:12-13). Achsah is later given upper and lower springs, presumably in the Negev (Judges 1:14-15). The descendants of MosesSee also Exodus Moses or Moshe "Drawn", Standard Hebrew Moše Tiberian Hebrew Mošeh , son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. Legendary Hebrew liberator, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and historian. If he is a historical figure, he may have' father-in-law (either HobabHobab was the son of Jethro and thence the brother-in-law of Moses. He is said to have followed the Israelites to the promised land ( Canaan). or Raguel/ ReuelReuel or Raguel "Friend of/is God", Standard Hebrew Ruel Tiberian Hebrew Rguel also Standard Hebrew Duel Tiberian Hebrew Dguel . Biblical persons with this name are: (1. A son of Esau. 36:4, 10; 1 Chr. 1:35) (2. Another name of Jethro, "The priest of Midi - this is unclear) move to the Desert of Judah (Judges 1:16), which fulfills the promise Moses made in NumbersNumbers can mean: Number Book_of_Numbers. 10:29-31. The Simeonites and the Judeans attack and totally destroy the Canaanite town of Zepath , which they rename Hormah , the Hebrew word for "destruction" (Judges 1:17). Zepath/Hormah was a town in the Simeonite's territory. The Judeans then take the cities of GazaThe article is about the Middle Eastern city. For the province in Mozambique, see Gaza Province. The city of Gaza ( Arabic Gazzah Hebrew alphabet Standard Hebrew Azza Tiberian Hebrew Gazzh Azzh sometimes called Gaza City to distinguish it from the Gaza St, AshkelonAshkelon or Ashqelon ( Hebrew alphabet Standard Hebrew Ašqlon Tiberian Hebrew Ašqlon Arabic Asqaln Latin Ascalon was an ancient Philistine seaport on the east coast of the Mediterranian sea just north of Gaza. Ashkelon is also the name of a mo and Ekron, however though the Judeans take the hill country they fail to take the plains because the people "had iron chariots" (Judges 1:18-19). This is puzzling because vs 19 clearly states "The LORD was with the men of Judah." ( NIV) Hebron is captured and given to Caleb, who drives away the three sons of Anak (Judges 1:20). This fulfills the promise made to him by Moses in Numbers 14:24 (also recounted in Deuteronomy 1:35-36). In Joshua 1:21 the Benjamites attempt to drive out the Jebusites but they are unsuccessful.
Judges 1:22-36 is an account of the military campaigns of the house of Joseph. Spies are sent out to survey Luz (later renamed Bethel) and are shown how to enter it by a citzen of the city after they promise to spare the man and his whole family. They put the city to the sword, and the citzen they spared travels to the land of the Hittites and establishes a city he names Luz (Judges 1:22-26). Other tribes are unsuccessful; Manasseh is unable to drive out the Caananites of Beth Shan , Taanach , Dor, Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements (Judges 1:27); Ephraim is unable to drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer (Judges 1:29); Zebulun is unable to drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol (Judges 1:30); Asher is unable to drive out the Canaanites living in Acco, Siddon , Ahlab, Aczib , Helbah, Aphek or Rehob (Judges 1:31); Naphtahli is unable to drive out the Canaanites living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath (Judges 1:33); finally the Danites were confined to the hill country as the Amorites kept them from entering the plain and kept them from capturing Mount Heres , Aijalon and Shaalbim . In each of these cases, the book of Judges says that the tribes later subjugated the Canaanites into forced labour.
The story portrays the great tribulations of the time of the Judges. According to the Bible God inflicted these tribulations because the Israelites partially spared the Canaanites in spite of His command to the contrary (see Judges 2:1-5, especially verse 3). This was to have consequences later on.
For a time there was a period of relative stability while Joshua and the elders who served under him lived (Judges 2:6-7), however once Joshua died at the age of a hundred and ten a new generation of Israelites grew up and worshipped the Baals and the Ashteroths. As they had done this, God was provoked to anger, causing the Israelites to be plundered by raiders and made it so that they were never able to defeat their enemies when they went out to fight. The people were in "great distress". (Judges 2:8-15, NIV) Judges 2:6-10 is covered in more detail in Joshua 24. Judges 2:16-19 shows that God has compassion on the Israelites and raises up judges to save them from their enemies, however the people do not listen to the judges and refuse to obey God's commands. God raises up judges for them several times but each time the judge dies they go back to their old ways. Finally, in Judges 2:20-23, it is revealed that it was part of God's plan for the Israelites to be unable to drive out the remnant Canaanite tribes - he has left them there as a test to see whether the people would "keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did." (Judges 2:22, NIV) The nations left to test "all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan [were] the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians , and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath ." (Judges 3:3-4, NIV) Finally, in Judges 3:5-7 we find the Israelites marrying into foreign tribes (forbidden in Deuteronomy 7:3) and serving their gods.
