\n<\/p>\n
Intro\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019re listening to the Bible for Normal People, the only God-ordained podcast on the internet. I\u2019m Pete Enns.<\/p>\n Jared\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n And I\u2019m Jared Byas.<\/p>\n [Intro music]<\/p>\n Pete\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Welcome, folks, to this episode of the Bible for Normal People<\/em>. Before we begin, just a reminder that my latest book Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming<\/em> is out there in the world waiting patiently for you to read. My soul really went into this book, it\u2019s about my reflections on my own personal experiences that, over the years, have changed how I think about God, Jesus, the Bible, and faith. So if that interests you\u2014and why wouldn\u2019t it? Please check it out.<\/p>\n Now, today, I am going to ruin for you the book of Judges, by which I mean, talk about it with one eye open to the literature itself, and the other to scholarly conversations about the book. Let\u2019s get right into this, shall we?<\/p>\n [Teaser clip of Pete speaking plays over music] Judges is not written as a book that just Chronicles historical events. Judges paints a picture of how disloyalty to Yahweh leads to conflict, either from within the tribes themselves or from outside forces. It is shaped as a recounting of past stories, but arranged in such a way as to build up to the grand conclusion: \u201cWe need a king.\u201d<\/p>\n [Ad break]<\/p>\n Pete\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, this book, Judges, follows right after the book of Joshua. And it takes us from Joshua\u2019s death, which we saw at the end of Joshua, to the story of the monarchy, which begins in First Samuel\u2014the next book. This is the period of time in between the death of Joshua and the beginning of the monarchy, when Israel existed as a loose confederation of tribes that were marked by things like kinship loyalties and geography. They\u2019re not a nation yet, it\u2019s that in between period.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the book of Judges is so called because it tells a story of\u2026 Well, a number of individuals collectively referred to as judges. But, what is a judge? Well, the one notion we should strike from our minds right away is that these judges oversaw legal disputes or some such thing. The only judge who acts this way is Deborah. So it seems that the term \u201cjudges\u201d is more of a general term used to describe people who perform different functions such as a military commander, or warrior, even priests and prophets. And not to complicate things unnecessarily, but these people are only called judges collectively in chapter 2:16-19. Elsewhere, they are described more by their role. And these judges arose to deal with some conflict either among the tribes of Israel or with outsiders, like the Moabites, for example. So, bottom line, a judge is basically a tribal leader who arose to deal with some threat or conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, if you do the math, according to the book of Judges this period lasted about 400 years. Which is comparable to the 480 years between the Exodus and the building of the temple that\u2019s mentioned in 1 Kings 6:1, the extra 80 years, the 80 year difference in 1 Kings is needed to account for the reigns of Saul and David, so 40 years each. But both numbers, 400 and 480, seem to be idealized numbers. They\u2019re nice, round numbers that are meant to convey God\u2019s divine oversight and biblical numbers do function that way. So that\u2019s the story there. But from an archaeological point of view, the period between the Exodus and the time of Saul\u2019s reign as Israel\u2019s first king is probably closer to 200 years. Why? Well, because there is clear evidence of a dramatic increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n So hang with me here, folks, this is a bit of archaeology, but it\u2019s super interesting. There\u2019s evidence of the dramatic increase in Canaanite Hill Country settlements around 1200 BCE, which we already looked at in our Joshua episode, which was episode 224. Now, this increase of population is consistent with a new population entering Canaan, which in this case would be basically the Israelites. Now, it\u2019s, in truth, way more complicated than I just laid out. But this will do for our purposes. The point is simply this, that any Israelite presence in Canaan allows really only for about a 200 year span, not a 400 year span. Okay, so what? Well, one legitimate way of solving this little problem is to suggest that the periods of the individual judges as we read them, you know, one after another in the book of Judges, that these reigns of these judges overlap rather than follow a strict chronology of one after the other. And I think this is very plausible, especially since we\u2019re dealing with tribal authorities rather than a true national entity, right? So we can imagine the various tribes dealing with some issues simultaneously, not chronologically. Also\u2014and we\u2019ll get to this more in a minute\u2014at the end of the book, namely chapters 17-21, they seem to deal with matters that happen toward the beginning of the story of Judges\u2014not the end. In other words, adhering to a strict chronology in Judges doesn\u2019t seem to be the writer\u2019s intention. And this brings us to the main point of the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n Okay, so here it is. Judges paints a picture of how disloyalty to Yahweh leads to conflict, either from within the tribes themselves or from outside forces. These various judges for the most part, they deliver the Israelites from harm. And this cycle of disobedience followed by conflict, followed by deliverance at the hands of a judge, and then back to disobedience\u2014this is seen in almost all of these stories. And the episodes themselves generally paint a bleaker and bleaker picture as we keep reading, resulting in the horrible events of the closing chapters\u2014which we\u2019ll get to, believe me, I\u2019m not gonna leave that not talked about. Okay?\u2014So, the overall point of the book is to paint a not-terribly-flattering picture of this period of the tribal confederation. Well, why? Well, in order to prop up the need for a monarchy. In fact, the very last verse of Judges drives the point home, here it is. \u201cIn those days, there was no king in Israel, all the people did what was right in their own eyes.\u201d That\u2019s 21:25. See there\u2019s utter chaos, we need a king. Specifically, we need a king from the line of David. And back to that in a few minutes, there\u2019s a lot happening here, the book of Judges.\u00a0<\/p>\n Okay, so let\u2019s get into it a bit more by looking at an outline of the book. And as many of you will know, I love outlines. And the simpler the better for gaining a big picture, sort of a working knowledge of a biblical book, especially a long one. So basically, the book of Judges has a three part structure: the introduction, which begins at the very beginning, chapter one, verse one, and it goes to chapter three verse six. The second part is the stories of the 12 judges themselves. And that runs from 3:7 through the end of chapter 16, and then some really bad stuff at the end that makes you want to puke. That\u2019s chapter 17-21. So let\u2019s take each of these three parts and blow them up a bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Okay, so first, the introduction. Scholars generally agree that there are actually two introductions to the book of Judges. The first runs from 1:1 to 2:5. And what does it do? Well, it recounts Israel\u2019s failures in getting rid of the Canaanites completely. As we saw in the Joshua episode, already there we see a tension between the idealized portrayal of the conquest in the first half of Joshua, where the Canaanites are just exterminated, and the more sober account beginning in chapter 13 where we read that much of the land still remains unconquered, there\u2019re Canaanites still there. Well, this first introduction recounts the successes and failures of the individual tribes to subjugate, and not for the most part annihilate, but to subjugate Canaanites living in the hill country. The failure of complete success over the Canaanites is chalked up to disobedience to God. So as punishment, Canaanites will be a constant source of trouble for the Israelites. Okay, that\u2019s the first introduction.\u00a0<\/p>\n The second introduction begins at 2:6 and it runs through 3:6. It begins with recounting the death of Joshua, and the aftermath of disobedience on the part of the next generation. Now, you may remember that Joshua\u2019s death was already recounted in the book of Joshua. And the opening words of Judges assumes that he\u2019s dead. The book begins after the death of Joshua, he\u2019s dead. He died already. He\u2019s still dead. But here in the second introduction, [hums] his death is recounted again, as if for the first time. Sometimes in the Hebrew Bible repetitions like this suggest the editorial merging of two traditions\u2014which is something we have seen throughout the Hebrew Bible beginning already with Genesis. So this is not a big deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now the second introduction is typically labeled \u201cDeuteronomistic.\u201d Now we ran across this idea in the Joshua episode, but let me lay it out very quickly here. Joshua through 2 Kings, not the book of Ruth, that\u2019s not included. But Joshua through 2 Kings are called the Deuteronomistic History, because some of the main themes of the book of Deuteronomy are found fleshed out here in the stories. In fact, it seems like the book of Deuteronomy is really the theological basis for these books, Joshua through 2 Kings. So the main theme that we see here in Judges is that obedience results in blessing, and disobedience results in punishment. And the main way that Israel disobeys God is by worshipping foreign gods, and\/or by adopting elements of foreign worship for the worship of Yahweh. And both are major no-no\u2019s in the book of Deuteronomy. So the point here is that this second \u201cDeuteronomic Introduction,\u201d as it\u2019s called, it lays out the pattern that we\u2019re going to see throughout much of the book of Judges: obedient people prosper, then they\u2019re punished after falling into some sort of apostasy. Which is followed by God\u2019s using Israel\u2019s enemies to oppress them as punishment, which leads to repentance on the part of the people and then deliverance at the hands of one of the judges. Now, this reward and punishment dualistic thing is typical of the Deuteronomistic history. Although, you know, not to get into this whole thing, but it is questioned in parts of the Hebrew Bible as well, namely Job, Ecclesiastes, and some of the Psalms, like the lament Psalms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, that\u2019s not the topic we\u2019re going to discuss here. Here, I just want to say this, that this Deuteronomic element in Judges is understood by scholars to reflect the exilic or post-exilic reworking of Israel\u2019s story. It\u2019s an indication that this book is not written at a time when things were happening but much later, with some serious reflection. And I hope that part will become clearer as we move on. Okay. Now another thing about this second introduction is how it explains the continued presence of the Canaanites. Now, in 2:20-21, it\u2019s the result of Israel\u2019s disobedience by worshiping foreign gods which matches well with what the first introduction says in chapter 2:1-5. But the second introduction adds two more elements to this, two more reasons. The first is that the Canaanites are there to be a constant test for the Israelites, so God can see whether they actually mean it. So you know, keeping the temptation in front of them to see how serious they are. And secondly, the reason that the Canaanites are there is so that those who have had no experience of battle can get in some practice reps. They\u2019re sort of like, you know, tackling dummies or something on a football team. Anyway, this second intro ends with the Israelites intermarrying with the indigenous peoples of Canaan, which is another major no-no, you just don\u2019t do that. And this rebellion against God is what launches the stories of the judges themselves, which begins the second part of the outline, starting at 3:7 and running through chapter 16. That\u2019s the bulk of the book of Judges.<\/p>\n [Ad break]<\/p>\n Pete\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n So here are the judges we meet in part two: Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar. Great names. And then Deborah, who gets two chapters, and she\u2019s followed by Gideon and his route of the Midianites, and that\u2019s in chapters 6-8. And next is an interruption in the story. Gideon\u2019s horrid son Abimelek (this is chapter nine) tries to establish [gasp!] a monarchy with him at the helm. Isn\u2019t it always that way? So he died when a woman dropped a millstone on his head and crushed his skull. That sad story is followed by tales of the remaining judges, Tola, then Jair\u2014who get five versus total\u2014then Jephthah\u2014who gets quite a bit\u2014then Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon\u2014which all of them get four\u2026Or eight verses rather, in total. And then finally Samson, who gets four chapters. Which is the longest in the book. So with Gideon, Jephthah, and Deborah, we have Samson and they get a good chunk of airtime in this portrayal of these judges.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now let me say a few words about these judges one at a time, and some we can say a lot about and some we can\u2019t say very much about at all. So, the first Othniel, he delivers the idolatrous Israelites from the hands of King Chushan Rishathaim of Aram. And that second word \u201cRishathaim\u201d means \u201cdoubly wicked,\u201d which likely means that\u2019s not his real name. Like, he\u2019s not going to be named that. That\u2019s the name given to him by the Israelites because you know, they\u2019re telling the story. Anyway, that\u2019s a short little story.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next is Ehud\u2014which is one of my favorite short stories in the whole Bible\u2014Ehud, who, what does he do? He delivers the Israelites from the hands of King Eglon of Moab. Now, Moab is next door to Israel on the other side of the Jordan River. And just like with Chushan Rishathaim of Aram, Eglon was being used by God to punish Israel for disobedience. So anyway, we\u2019re told that Eglon is fat, and Ehud, we are told, is left handed, and he strapped a sword onto his right leg. Now, who cares? Well, most warriors are right handed, which would mean strapping the sword onto the left leg, you could sort of reach over and grab it. So this gives Ehud an element of surprise, which he\u2019s going to act upon very shortly. So while Eglon was sitting in his cool roof chamber, Ehud thrust the sword into Eglon\u2019s body so deep, that the hilt of the sword also got buried in Eglon\u2019s very fat body and we are further told that, \u201cThe dirt came out,\u201d at least that\u2019s according to the New Revised Standard Version, the Hebrew isn\u2019t completely certain. But a plausible interpretation is that Ehud killed Eglon, while he was sitting on the john (the cool roof chamber) and then he pooped himself. Okay, so I think this is supposed to be funny. And yeah, the Moabites were defeated and Israel had rest for 80 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next is this guy Shamgar, who gets one verse at the end of chapter three. What did he do? Well, he killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad, which is a cattle prod, it\u2019s a long stick with a poker at the end to just prod the cattle to keep moving, right? Now it\u2019s hard to know what to do with this guy Shamgar. Shamgar is not a Semitic name, and the next verse, 4:1, picks up with what happens after Ehud\u2019s death\u2026 So Shamgar seems to be stuck here, for some reason, and it interrupts the flow of the story. Some scholars think that this guy was added to round out the number of judges to 12, an important Hebrew number, but frankly, who knows. I will say though, that Shamgar is mentioned in the very ancient poem in chapter 5\u201a more in a second. So this might be some way of getting him some airtime too.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, chapters four and five are about Deborah. And this time the Lord hands the rebellious Israelites over to King Jabin of Canaan, whose military commander was Sisera. Remember that name! Anyway, Deborah is referred to here as a \u201cprophetess\u201d who also settles disputes among the people. So she commands Barak\u2014this guy, Barak\u2014to lead an offensive to draw Sisera out and adds that, \u201cThe Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.\u201d Well, who is this woman? Well, it\u2019s not Deborah. No, no, no. You see, Sisera\u2019s army is routed and he flees into the tent of Jael and she is a woman. She\u2019s the wife of Heber, the Kenite. And the Kenites were allies of Jabin. So safe place to go right? So Jael went out to meet him, invited him into her tent, and made him nice and cozy with a blanket and some milk and as soon as Sisera fell asleep, what happened? Ladies, you know the story, I hope you do\u2014Jael drove, with a mallet, a tent peg into Sisera\u2019s temple, clear through his head and into the ground. See, the enemy whom God summoned by the way to punish Israel, this enemy gets clobbered for doing just that, and a good time was had by all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the dominant role played by two women here is definitely worth mentioning. The killing of Commander Sisera by a woman is meant to both mock the Canaanites I think, and also to speak to how the Lord is orchestrating this whole thing. And as for Deborah, her role as a prophet and leader, who apparently could command Barak to go to war, is one of only four women in the Hebrew Bible identified as a prophetess. Miriam, Moses\u2019s sister, being perhaps the best known. And this whole story has Exodus overtones. For example, the panic the Lord throws Sisera\u2019s army into\u2014this is in chapter 4:15. It reminds us of the Lord doing the very same thing to the Egyptians in Exodus 14 at the Red Sea, they are struck with panic. Women also play a prominent role in Exodus, the Israelite midwives, Moses\u2019s sister, Moses\u2019s mother, and Pharaoh\u2019s daughter, all in Exodus too\u2014they thwart Pharaoh\u2019s intention of killing the children, the male children, which would include Moses. So, Deborah\u2019s role here continues that theme of women playing major roles in Israel\u2019s development, in Israel\u2019s move into the promised land.\u00a0<\/p>\n And if anything, just knowing that should temper our assumptions about, you know, the patriarchal mindset of the Bible. Now it\u2019s there, it\u2019s definitely there, but not all the women were barefoot and pregnant homemakers as some like to picture them. Something else we have to mention here is that this is a twice told story. Chapter four being the narrative version, and chapter five being the older, poetic version. We see the same sort of thing in the Exodus story in chapters 14 and 15. You have a narrative depiction of the event, followed by the poetic version of the Red Sea crossing. Scholars consider the poem here in chapter five to be one of the oldest pieces of Israelite literature, dating perhaps to about 1200 BCE, that\u2019s 200 years before the monarchy and roughly near the time period when the stories are placed historically.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, this poem is, I think, super interesting for a number of reasons\u2014Most of which we can\u2019t get into or this would become a podcast on Judges 5. It basically recounts Deborah mustering the tribes, calling the tribes together to help them in their battle, but only six respond. One of those tribes is referred to as Machir\u2014which is the only reference to Machir in any the tribal list in the Hebrew Bible\u2014It is, however, a part of Manasseh, which is a huge northern tribe, but referring to it as Machir is interesting and might suggest an older name for the tribe. Now four, or it might be five tribes, don\u2019t respond. I say four or five, because one tribe there mentioned is Meroz which is not a known tribe. So we\u2019re not really sure what\u2019s going on there. But anyway, some respond, some don\u2019t. But here\u2019s the really interesting part. Judah, Simeon, and Levi are not mentioned at all. Now, Levi is understandable, because he has no actual territory, he wouldn\u2019t be called on to fight. But Judah and Simeon do, their territory is in the south. So, the tribes in this poem are all Northern. But why leave off the southern tribes? Why not call them? Good question, folks. Very good question.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s just say that scholars here see a window onto an early stage of Israel\u2019s tribal confederacy, because this is such an old poem, right? One conclusion is that the North seems to have had a long held identity as its own thing, which may help explain how the division of the monarchy into north and south, after the death of Solomon\u2014this is around 930 BCE, a good bit after this period we\u2019re talking about. But that explains how that North-South division could have happened so neatly. See, not unlike the American Civil War, the North-South division didn\u2019t just happen haphazardly. Right? There was a history of distinction in America between North and South that predated the later conflict of the Civil War. So, when America did go to war, it did so with pre-existing northern-southern identities. Now another possible interpretation, going a little further than the one I just gave, is that early on in Israel\u2019s history, there actually were no southern tribes, at least not before the monarchy. The whole history of the north and south that we read about in later books of the Hebrew Bible would therefore be a creation of the southern tribe of Judah, which alone survived exile and then alone returned to the land to write their story. It\u2019s well known, and we\u2019ve covered this in other episodes, that Judah, the lone surviving tribe of the twelve, got to leave its imprint on the ancient story of their people. Judah\u2019s prominence in the Hebrew Bible, especially in Genesis, is a product of how the winners told the story, but we don\u2019t see that here. We don\u2019t see that in Judges chapter five. Judah is not even in the picture. It seems to be an older reflection.\u00a0<\/p>\n See, just a quick side note here\u2026 I\u2019m forever telling my students that when it comes to studying the Bible, you can\u2019t talk about anything without talking about everything. There are so many interconnected parts to this complex, heavily edited collection of writings that we call the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It just keeps you busy. And it\u2019s hard to talk about anything without bringing all these other layers into it. Okay.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two more quick things about this poem\u2014I\u2019m really spending time here because it\u2019s the topic of a lot of scholarly conversations. First, Yahweh here is depicted as a warrior, as he is in Exodus 15, that poetic version of the Exodus story. Like the nations around them, the earliest picture of Yahweh we get from these ancient poems is of a warring deity, and this deity\u2019s home, Sinai, is said to be in the South, in Seir, that\u2019s the second point I want to make. So Seir is in the south, it\u2019s in the region of Edom. And this early memory is very close to the tradition that we saw already elsewhere, namely, in the book of Exodus, that places Sinai in Midian\u2014which is just a little bit further south of Edom. So I think that\u2019s really interesting. We have, you know, a location of Yahweh\u2019s mountain to the south, around Edom, south of Edom, maybe implying Midian\u2014and that\u2019s just an interesting piece of early reflection on the part of these Israelites where Yahweh\u2019s home was sort of always known to be way down there. And then finally, if you\u2019re up for it, if you\u2019re up for some pathos actually, read verses 24-31\u2014this is the end of chapter five, and how Jael\u2019s act is described, but also how Sisera\u2019s mother is back home, looking out the window, pining for her boy to come home and he never does. It\u2019s actually quite evocative.\u00a0<\/p>\n All right, the next story is a long one with a few moving parts. And this is a story of Gideon chapter 6-8 and Gideon\u2019s deliverance of the Israelites from the Midianites, into whose hands the Lord had delivered the Israelites for doing \u201cevil in the sight of the Lord,\u201d that\u2019s 6:1. Namely, for worshiping the gods of the Amorites\u2014and the Amorites are a subgroup of people living in Canaan, we have to worry about that. So, to deliver them from the Midianites, God calls Gideon, who is soon renamed Jerubbaal. Why? Because he tore down the altar of Baal\u2014\u201dBale\u201d as it\u2019s sometimes pronounced\u2014this altar that his father had erected. Now, he proves to be quite the resourceful commander. They are outnumbered by the Midianites, but Gideon routed them by playing a little trick on them. He divided his 300 men into three groups, each holding a trumpet in one hand, and an empty jar with a torch inside in the other. They all blew the trumpets and smashed the jars at once to reveal the torches. And this surprise sent the Midianites into confusion and with the help of the tribe of Ephram, four Midianite kings wound up meeting a violent end. Now for his efforts, the Israelites asked Gideon to rule over them, to be their king. But he refused, citing that neither he nor his son would rule over them. Remember that, neither he nor his son will rule over them, but only the Lord will.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the way, folks\u2014can\u2019t talk about anything without talking about everything\u2014In 1 Samuel 8 we see the same sentiment that kingship is of questionable value when Yahweh is already your king. So good for Gideon! But he does slip up here anyway. He asks each of the Israelites to give him one gold earring that were taken from the booty from the battle earlier on. And Gideon, he made an ephod from it\u2014which is a breastpiece that the high priest is supposed to wear. And you know, Gideon is not a high priest. So what\u2019s going on here? Well, the people got caught up in this breastpiece and it became like an idol that ensnared the Israelites. So the story doesn\u2019t end well, but nevertheless, they did have peace under Gideon for 40 years, but we\u2019re already seeing signs of trouble in how this episode ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n And speaking of trouble, let\u2019s keep going. This story of Gideon is followed up with a story of Abimelech, Gideon\u2019s son, who\u2014directly contrary to what his dad just said\u2014ge said, \u201cHey, you know, I\u2019ll be king can\u2019t pass this up.\u201d Now apparently Gideon had 70 sons, a lot of sons, by the way, and Abimelech used that fact to manipulate support. You know, \u201cHey, do you want 70 rulers or just one?\u201d Well, the clan bought it, but Abimelech had other plans. He hired \u201cworthless and reckless fellows\u201d (that\u2019s in chapter 9:4) to kill his 70 Brothers- well\u2026 69. Jotham, the youngest escaped, and he took it upon himself to denounce Abimelech, and curse him by telling a parable involving trees, the point of which is that this parable is an anti-monarchic allegory.<\/p>\n Well, Abimelech ruled anyway for three years until the Lord brought \u201can evil spirit,\u201d as it says, between Abimelech and the Lords of Shechem\u2014and that\u2019s important, because that\u2019s Abimelech\u2019s support base. Now, the anti-monarchic vibe of these stories, which includes the sending of an evil spirit on Abimelech\u2014which by the way, the evil spirit is not a demon or something, it\u2019s like negative-divine influence, it\u2019s something that God generates. But these factors, they anticipate the anti-monarchic vibe and the sending of the evil spirit. They anticipate the reign of Saul in verse seven. The people insist on the king, and Saul seems to be the right man for the job, even though the whole idea of kingship is condemned by Samuel and the Lord in 1 Samuel 8. And then at 1 Samuel 16, God sends an evil spirit on Saul, which is the sign that Saul has been rejected by God as king. So Abimelech here is, I think, without question a Saul figure, a king who doesn\u2019t have the right stuff and is rejected. He rules for a bit, but not for long. And this reminds us of a main point of this book: kingship may not be the ideal, but it is necessary to check the chaos of this tribal confederacy. But the king, well the king has to be the right type. To put this another way, Judges is ultimately pro-kingship, but like a necessary evil. But the kingship is definitely anti-Saul, which we\u2019ll come back to in a minute.<\/p>\n Anyway, long story short, Abimelech dies by crushed skull syndrome, when who? An anonymous woman throws an upper millstone from the top of the tower onto Abimelech\u2019s head. Now an upper millstone is the heavier of the two stones used to grind wheat. By the way, in case you missed it, this is the second time in Judges that a bad guy is thwarted by a woman inflicting a head injury, right? Remember Jael driving a tent peg through Sisera\u2019s skull? So here we have it again.<\/p>\n [Ad break]<\/p>\n Pete\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Okay, next\u2014we\u2019re in chapter 10 now\u2014we read of two minor judges, Tola and Jair, who judged Israel 23 and 22 years, respectively. But for some reason, these two only get six versus total, hence \u201cminor judges.\u201d And we move on quickly from there to another oppression, this by the Ammonites, and they were the latest enemy that the Lord used to punish his people for idolatry. So they cried out to God, but he basically told them, \u201cHey, you know, pray to the gods that you\u2019re worshiping and let them deliver you.\u201d Right? But they begged the Lord more and more, and he gave in this time delivering them through the Judge Jephthah, who we are told was a mighty warrior and the son of a prostitute. Now apparently the issue here is that the Ammonites, they want back the land that the Israelites took from them as they made their way to capture the land of Canaan, way back under Joshua. And Ammon is situated right across from the Jordan River, right above Moab. Jephthah says, \u201cNo thanks. We\u2019re not going to do that. We\u2019ve had this land for 300 years, and now you\u2019re waging war to get it back? Hah.\u201d So faced with this threat, Jephthah does one of the dumbest things you can imagine. He makes a vow to the Lord, and vows are serious things and here\u2019s the vow: \u201cIf you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord\u2019s to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Okay, Jephthah\u2026Just asking here, did you think this one through? What did you think was going to come out of your house? A cow? No! It\u2019s your daughter, you moron, your only child. So, now, he is bound to go through with the oath you can\u2019t get out of the vow to the Lord, that\u2019s how it works. So his daughter, unnamed, well, she basically takes one for the team. She complies willingly, but asks for two months for her and her friends to go into the mountains and, \u201cBewail my virginity.\u201d And two months later, she\u2019s sacrificed. Now this is a horrible story\u2014but it gets worse at the end of the book\u2014my point, however, and I\u2019m convinced of this, is that readers are supposed to be horrified by this rash oath during a chaotic period of leaderless Israel. We\u2019re not supposed to just take the story in stride. \u201cOh, that\u2019s okay. This is the biblical period where things happen, it\u2019s all fine.\u201d The writer of Judges, I think, is leading us along a path where things are getting worse and worse. And the only solution is a king, the right kind of king, who will be David and his descendants. That\u2019s what this guy\u2019s after. So in other words, you know, the Bible contains a horrific story like this, but it doesn\u2019t condone it. As if it\u2019s okay for a father to make a rash vow, slit a virgin daughter\u2019s throat and burn her up. In no biblical universe is this sort of thing okay. The point is that things have escalated to this point. And you know, we\u2019re only halfway through the book. Where\u2019s this chaos headed? Well, stay tuned.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next story, which is 12:1-7, is a little side comment on inter tribal conflicts involving Jephthah and the tribe of Ephraim, which is\u2014that\u2019s the main northern tribe, it\u2019s such a main northern tribe, sometimes the whole land of Israel is simply referred to as Ephraim. But anyway, one point of interest and this story, this little brief story here is a linguistic one and just listen up, this is going to change your life. Two of the letters of the Hebrew language, or \u201csin\u201d (\u05e9\u05c2) and \u201cshin\u201d (\u05e9\u05c1). The thing is that those letters are written basically the same way, but they\u2019re pronounced differently. Now, to test whether someone was an Ephraimite, or one of Jephthah\u2019s men, he would have to pass a test. Just say \u201cShibboleth.\u201d Well, it turns out for whatever reason that the Ephraimites have a dialectical quirk, where they cannot say Shibboleth, but instead pronounce it \u201cSibboleth\u201d. And we\u2019re told 42,000 met their fate this way, by not being able to pronounce it\u2014you think they would have caught on at some point. But anyway, first, 42,000, it might not be 42,000. It might mean\u2026 The word for thousand could mean military units, so it might be 42 military units of however many people, a lot fewer than 42,000. But the point of my little sidestepping here is that for students of ancient Hebrew, this story provides a window unto Hebrew, the language of Hebrew, as a living, breathing language way back in the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, Jephthah, he judged for six years, and his reign was followed by three more minor judges, Ibzan seven years, Elon ten years, and Abdom eight years. And all we know is where they are buried, not what they did. As if the editor is eager to get to the main attraction, which is the next judge\u2014the one everybody knows: Samson. And he takes up four chapters, 13-16. And this is another story involving out of control heroes featuring vital roles for women. And this story opens up with the account of Samson\u2019s birth to Manoah from the tribe of Dan\u2014remember that tribe named Dan\u2014and his barren wife who is not named. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her that she will bear a son, only she should be careful not to drink wine or strong drink or eat anything unclean, and when this child is born, he will never get his hair cut. And all of this establishes that Samson will be a Nazirite, which is a thing that the ceremony is laid out in Numbers chapter six. And it has to do with separating out someone for special service, which is what \u201cNazirite\u201d means, like separate or consecrated. And we\u2019ll see this again, folks in 1 Samuel 8\u2014I keep talking about for 1 Samuel 8 is an important chapter\u2014with the last judge Samuel, and he has a miraculous birth where he is likewise raised as a Nazirite. So there\u2019s a thing happening here.\u00a0<\/p>\n Well, Samson is born and he is set apart for God and things are looking pretty promising because the Philistines are a pain, they\u2019ve been oppressing the Israelites for 40 years, so perhaps now is deliverance time. But the thing is, this story doesn\u2019t read like the other stories of the judges where the people are actually delivered from something. Rather this story is about a deeply flawed character Samson, who sidles up to Philistines\u2014their oppressors, remember\u2014and seems to really like Philistine women. Now, marrying outside of your people group is a big problem in much of the Hebrew Bible, not all of it, but in much of it. And you may remember the story of Jacob and Esau, right? One reason why Esau fell out of favor with his mother and father, Rebecca and Isaac, is that he married outside of Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n So the first of Samson\u2019s acts concerns his marriage to a Philistine woman in the town of Timnah, which is a Philistine town. Now the thing is, we\u2019re told\u2014and this is in chapter 14:4\u2014we\u2019re told that Samson\u2019s desire for a Philistine wife was actually because he was looking for a pretext to do the Philistines some harm. So, okay, maybe he\u2019s got good intentions. So it looks like this is a God thing, but Samson gets too enmeshed and things quickly go south. See, on the way to Timnah to arrange the marriage, he\u2019s attacked by a lion, who mighty Samson tears apart with his bare hands. On a subsequent trip, he came back, and he saw the carcass and lo and behold, there were bees and honey inside it. So naturally, he scooped out some honey and ate it. Okay, whatever. Well, this little incident sparked Samson to, for some unknown reason, to pose a riddle to 30 men of his wedding party. And if they guessed the riddle, they will be rewarded with linen and festal garments for each of them. And the riddle is this. \u201cOut of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.\u201d Of course, that\u2019s a setup. How is anyone supposed to know the answer to that other than Samson? So, after four days, they get really frustrated, and they get Samson\u2019s wife, also unnamed, to use her tears to get him to tell her, which he did, because he\u2019s an idiot, right? And so she told the others who then solved the riddle. Bad move, Samson is now fuming. So he went down to another Philistine town, Ashkelon, and he killed 30 men, took their stuff, and gave it to the 30 men in Timnah. Right, now apparently he never thought he\u2019d lose the bet. So this is how he fulfilled his vow.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, Samson just seems rather like he\u2019s a strong guy, you\u2019re sort of glad he\u2019s on your side, but he seems a bit impulsive and unwise. So, Samson, seems really to have, I think, a hair trigger temper. So it\u2019s understandable to ask when this out of control Superman guy is going to take things too far. And he soon has his opportunity. His Philistine wife\u2014he did marry her\u2014but she was given to someone else since he had left and been away for such a long time. The father says, \u201cListen, I\u2019m sorry. You know, she\u2019s married to somebody else.\u201d But he offers his younger daughter, but Samson is just pissed. He is just fit to be tied. So what does he do? Well, he ties 300 foxes together in pairs tail to tail and sticks a torch between the tails, and lets them loose in the Philistine crops, burning everything. So the Philistines\u2014why do we ever tell these stories to kids? I don\u2019t know\u2014Anyway, the Philistines, who remember, are in charge, they\u2019re oppressing the Israelites. They don\u2019t take this well. So they march to Judah to bring Samson to justice. So the people of Judah find him, bring him bound to the Philistines. But now, once again, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and he takes the jawbone of a donkey, which just happens to be lying around, and kills 1,000 men. So yeah, the Philistines, they\u2019re suffering at the hands of Samson. So that\u2019s good, right, in the logic of the story, the oppressors are getting theirs. But on the other hand, these events are all Samson\u2019s doing. They\u2019re responses to his impulsive behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the next story has Samson back in Philistine country, which I imagine given his history in Philistine, it probably took some guts to go down there again. But this time he is in the town of Gaza, and this is again along the coast\u2014and you may know the term the Gaza strip from modern Israeli politics\u2014but he\u2019s down in Gaza, where, what does he do? Of course, he visits a prostitute, why not? Which should raise some questions, I think, about Samson\u2019s character. I think that might be the point of making this story like this. So the townsmen were waiting on him to come out to be done with his business so they could kill him. But he got out, you know, without them being aware of it. And instead what he did, he marched over to the city gate and pulled it up like roots and all, pillars and all and carried it 40 miles to Hebron. Why exactly he did this is a good question, but it certainly sets up Samson\u2019s strength, and the famous scene that is just a few short verses away.\u00a0<\/p>\n So Samson\u2019s issue with women, they continue when he falls in love with Delilah, who may or may not be a Philistine but is definitely not Israelite. And he\u2019s just infatuated with her. So the Philistine leaders paid her 1100 pieces of silver to get from Samson the secret of his strength. Which, by the way, side issue here, like why would you even think there\u2019s a secret to his strength? Maybe he\u2019s just a big dude. Right? But there\u2019s an assumption that there\u2019s some secret to his strength, because of course, there is. Now, Samson, no fool he, he doesn\u2019t fall for this. He lies to Delilah three times until she pesters him to death and he tells her, \u201cFine, okay, I\u2019ll tell you. I\u2019m a Nazirite and no razor may touch my head.\u201d So yeah, maybe he\u2019s a fool\u2014because Delilah cuts his hair when he\u2019s sleeping, and then they bind him, they blind him, and they lead him to prison. Just a little bit poetic that love blinded him as did the Philistines.\u00a0<\/p>\n But anyway, while in prison, guess what? His hair begins to grow back. But apparently the Philistines didn\u2019t figure out that they would need to keep his hair short\u2014I mean, how did they miss that?\u2014Anyway, they bring him to their feast to entertain them, and Samson obliges by blinding all, pushing apart the pillars that hold up the whole house, and so he along with the Philistines died, crushed under the weight of the rubble. Now the story ends with a note about Samson having judged for 20 years, but it\u2019s hard to get that from the story itself. This again, doesn\u2019t follow the pattern we\u2019ve been looking at and reads more like the exploits of a famous troubled hero or something. Scholars are quick to label the Samson story as folklore rather than history. Now Samson is the last judge mentioned in the book and it seems to be a fitting ending to what the writer is trying to get across, right? Samson doesn\u2019t really deliver anyone other than himself because of messes he created. And at the end, he doesn\u2019t even save himself, but dies in captivity. So here\u2019s a guy who could have been Israel\u2019s primo, awesome protector. He\u2019s huge, he\u2019s strong, he looks the part\u2014as did Saul, by the way, he was tall and good looking, bigger than everybody else. The people picked him as king in 1 Samuel because he was basically a prototypical warrior type. There\u2019s more to it than this, but Samson\u2019s failings again call to mind Saul\u2019s aborted career as a king.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the final two stories in Judges deal with tribal conflicts and just generally chaos. And these stories are marked by a four times repeated refrain: \u201cIn those days, there was no king in Israel, all the people did what was right in their own eyes.\u201d And you see that in 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, and then 20:25, which is the last verse of the book. So this refrain is important. Independent tribes aren\u2019t working, it\u2019s a mess out there, we need a king, not any old person will do. It\u2019s got to be the right king, not like Abimelech, or Samson, or Saul. And so these two concluding stories, there are two of them. The first is 17 and 18, and the second one is 19 through 21. But these two stories in different ways make the final case for why a righteous king is a must for Israel. The first of these stories, 17-18, is about the tribe of Dan. Namely, its loosey-goosey approach to the worship of Yahweh, and then their migration to the north to new territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n You see, Dan was originally located next to Judah in the south. But in this story, they wind up migrating way north. This northward migration was likely necessary due to Dan\u2019s inability to rid their territory of Canaanites, and we see that way back in chapter one. Now, just to remind you, you may remember that earlier I said that these end stories really reflect more action that happens toward the beginning of the story, right? So this whole migration of Dan thing and the inability to get rid of the Canaanites, we saw that in chapter one. This story really belongs in chapter one, but it\u2019s at the end because it illustrates something important for this writer. Okay?\u00a0<\/p>\n So, you have the loosey-goosey worship\u2014that\u2019s the tribe of Dan\u2014and our story begins with this guy Micah, who is of the tribe of Benjamin and whose mother had a silversmith make an idol out of 200 pieces of silver. And this was put in Micah\u2019s home shrine, which is odd to have a home shrine if you\u2019re an Israelite, right? And this shrine was complete with an ephod\u2014which is a priestly breastpiece associated with casting lots, which is for discerning the divine will\u2014and teraphim\u2014which are these small figurines again likewise used for divination, for discerning the divine will. The only thing missing\u2026He\u2019s got this idol, he\u2019s got the ephod, he\u2019s got the teraphim, and the only thing missing is a priest to run the show. So enter into our scene a Levite from Bethlehem, whom Micah hires to be his personal shrine priest. This whole incident is tagged by the writer as being example number one of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes because there is no king. See, you\u2019re not supposed to have a private shrine with a personal priest. Remember that the Deuteronomistic History holds as non-negotiable and sacred the notion that worship must be centralized in the Jerusalem temple. You can\u2019t just do it in your territory in your house.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, in the next scene, chapter 18, this tribe of Dan is migrating north, and they send spies to scout out the land and while there they hear a voice they recognize as that of a young Levite. And this Levite assures them of their military victory. So the Danites, they attack Laish\u2014an unsuspecting people living in peace and prosperity\u2014and the spies, then they go back to Micah\u2019s house, and they steal the idol, the ephod, and the breastpiece, and they say to the priests, \u201cHey, you know what? We\u2019re taking this stuff, you can\u2019t do anything about it.\u201d But why be a priest of one house when you can be a priest for a whole tribe? And that sounded good to the priest so he went along. Micah, however, obviously\u2014can\u2019t blame him\u2014gave chase and caught up with him in the Danites threatened his life, so Micah just went back home. So after the capture of Laish\u2014which is now renamed Dan\u2014the priest, Jonathan\u2014we learned his name, Jonathan\u2014along with his sons were priests, and Dan, \u201cuntil the time the land went into captivity,\u201d that\u2019s in 18:30. And that is a clear reference to the exile of the north at the hands of the Assyrians and 721 BCE, which tells us something about when this was written, right, this is after these events, much longer after the period of the Judges. So, all in all, this is a very good example of Deuteronomic condemnation of noncentralized worship. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening here. Okay, don\u2019t do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, this is the bad story. The idolatry and migration of the tribe of Dan, is a violation of God\u2019s command of centralized worship, which is a key value in the book of Deuteronomy\u2014look at chapter 12. But it gets worse. Chapters 19 through 21 include one of the more horrific stories of the Hebrew Bible, that of cutting a concubine into 12 pieces and sending her body parts to the 12 tribes. So what\u2019s going on here? Let\u2019s get into that.<\/p>\n This story involves a Levite living in Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself, but she fled and went back to her father, which prompted the Levite to go fetch her back. On the way home, rather than spend the night in Jebus\u2014which is what Jerusalem was called before David captured it\u2014but rather than spend the night in Jebus, they went on to Gibeah. Now, Gibeah\u2014it may interest you to know\u2014is in the territory of Benjamin and is the site of Saul\u2019s royal residence. Hold that thought, okay? Now, the Levite and his concubine had intended to stay just in the open square not to bother anybody, but an old man persuaded them to stay with him in his house where it\u2019s safe. And if you\u2019re thinking, \u201cGee, this sounds like the Sodom and Gomorrah story.\u201d Well, you\u2019re right. The men of Gibeah press against the house, wanting to have sex with the priest, the visitor, right? The old man offers his virgin daughter and the Levite\u2019s concubine instead, but the townsfolk will have none of this. So in desperation and cowardice, I think the Levite\u2014who, by the way, had just gone to all this trouble of retrieving his concubine. What does he do? He throws her out the door to be raped all night. So Gibeah, the home of Saul, is no better than the people of Sodom, who had been punished by God with fire from on high.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next morning, the Levite finds her lying with her hands on the threshold, motionless\u2014whether dead or unconscious is not clear, by the way\u2014and he straps her to his donkey, heads home, and proceeds to carve her body into 12 pieces to send them out to the 12 tribes as a call to arms. I mean, he could have written a letter but whatever. So all Israel, we read, rallies around the cause and they attack Gibeah, all except the tribe of Benjamin. Why? Because Gibeah is in Benjamite territory. So long story short\u2014you can read about this in chapter 12\u2014a battle ensues involving an ambush and the Benjamites are defeated. This spelled double trouble, for not only are the Benjamites defeated, but the other Israelites swore they would never let their daughters marry Benjamite men, which would mean their eventual extinction. But they had second thoughts. Though they could not break the oath, they had another idea to solve this little problem. They decided to go to the town of Jabesh-Gilead, and take their virgin women, after killing the men and the non-virgin women, but to take their virgin women and hand them over to the Benjamites so they can have some kids. So why Jabesh-Gilead? Well, because this town, which is located on the other side of the Jordan, did not answer the original call to arms and therefore they did not make the same oath. Aha! So, Benjamin survives, but there\u2019s another problem here. There are not enough virgin women in Jabesh-Gilead for every Benjamite male. So they went to another town, a very important town, Shiloh, to kidnap virgins who were\u2014hang with me folks\u2014who were dancing in the vineyards during the annual festival at Shiloh. So they would just nab them as they\u2019re dancing, grab them and you know, whatever take off. Here, end of today\u2019s Children\u2019s Bible storytime, this is just weird stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n So see, it\u2019s at the end of this episode that the refrain is repeated for the fourth time, that refrain \u201cIn those days, there was no king in Israel, all the people did what was right in their own eyes.\u201d And it\u2019s worth pointing out again that Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, had his royal residence in Gibeah, and delivered Jabesh-Gilead. It\u2019s hard to miss how the end of Judges, especially, has an anti-northern slant (Dan) and an anti-Saul perspective. The response to cultic and political chaos\u2014I should explain that word \u201ccultic.\u201d Cultic is a sort of a technical scholarly term that\u2019s very handy and I like using it. Cultic is simply a shorthand way of talking about anything that has to do with worship, sacrifice, any rituals, anything like that. It doesn\u2019t mean like, you know, Jim Jones cults or anything like that, it has to do with worship. So, what we have here in these closing chapters is cultic and political chaos. And the response to that, the answer to that, is to have the right kind of king on the throne who won\u2019t let that happen. Which is in the mind of the Deuteronomistic Historian, that\u2019s David and his line. Even though there\u2019s some ambiguity about kingship in 1 and 2 Samuel, which we\u2019ll get to next time, this is the solution: \u201cwe need a king to rule over us because the judges aren\u2019t doing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So just in conclusion, folks, bottom line. Judges is not written as a book that just chronicles historical events, even if there might be historical elements there. It is shaped rather as a recounting of past stories, but arranged in such a way as to build up to the grand conclusion \u201cwe need a king.\u201d And for various reasons scholars see Judges, like most books of the Hebrew Bible, as a product of post-exilic reflection on the part of the Judahites. This wasn\u2019t written in real time, before the monarchy, but after its demise at the hands of the Babylonians. And they were answering for themselves that question, \u201cYes, we do need a king who will rebuild our nation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Alright, folks, I hope this has been helpful, this little jaunt through the book of Judges and blessings to all of you and we\u2019ll see you next time where we\u2019re going to look at 1 Samuel. See you!<\/p>\n [Outro music begins]<\/p>\n Jared\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, thanks to everyone who supports the show. If you want to support what we do, there are three ways you can do it. One, if you just want to give a little money, go to TheBibleForNormalPeople.com\/give.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pete\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n And if you want to support us and want a community, classes, and other great resources, go to TheBibleForNormalPeople.com\/join.<\/p>\n Jared\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n And lastly, it always goes a long way if you just wanted to rate the podcast, leave a review, and tell others about our show!<\/p>\n Outro\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019ve just made it through another episode of the Bible for Normal People! Don\u2019t forget you can also catch the latest episode of our other show, Faith for Normal People, wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was brought to you by the Bible for Normal People podcast team: Brittany Prescott, Savannah Locke, Stephanie Speight, Natalie Weyand, Stephen Henning, Tessa Stultz, Haley Warren, Nick Striegel, and Jessica Shao.<\/p>\n [Outro music ends]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n