Judges (Readings, a New Biblical Commentary)

✍ Scribed by Roger Ryan

• Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 235
• Series: Readings: A New Biblical Commentary
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this new contribution to the Readings series of commentaries, Roger Ryan offers a challenge to the fashionable disdain for the heroes of the Book of Judges. As against the current consensus majoring on the supposed flaws in the characters of the judges, and denigrating them as participants in Israel's moral and religious decline, he paints a positive portrait of each of the book's judge-deliverers. The key element in all the stories of the judges is that each of them wins independence for oppressed Israelites against great odds-an element that should predispose readers to a favourable evaluation of the heroes. Ehud slaughters an enemy king when the only weapon he has is a homemade dagger. Barak resolutely charges downhill against enemy chariots reinforced with iron. Jael slaughters an enemy commander by improvising with a hammer and a tent peg. Gideon defeats hordes of nomadic invaders with a small token army. The lone hero Samson slaughters the Philistine foe in great numbers. The Book of Judges presents in this reading a dark story-world in which its characters take heroic risks as they resolve conflicts by violent means. Their stories are jubilantly told and readers are expected to be neither squeamish nor censorious.

✦ Table of Contents

JUDGES......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Abbreviations......Page 9
An Invitation......Page 10
Target Audience......Page 12
Big Ideas and Take Home Messages......Page 13
Judges 1: Prologue (Israel’s Successes and Failures)......Page 14
Successes (vv. 1-20, 22-27)......Page 15
Failures (vv. 21, 27-36)......Page 20
Rebuke (vv. 1-5)......Page 22
Israel’s Apostasy......Page 23
The Attraction of ‘New’ Gods and Yahweh’s Response to Israel’s Disloyalty (vv. 11-23)......Page 25
Theological Summary......Page 27
Israel and the Nations (vv. 1-6)......Page 29
Othniel vs. Cushan, King of the Land with Two Rivers, who is Twice as Wicked as Anyone Else (vv. 7-11)......Page 30
Ehud vs. King Eglon and a Moabite Coalition (vv. 12-30)......Page 32
Murder, or Death by Another Cause?......Page 35
Thinking about Ehud......Page 36
Shamgar vs. 600 Philistines (v. 31)......Page 37
Judges 4: Deborah and Barak and Jael......Page 39
Judges 5: Celebrating ‘Victory in Israel Day’......Page 45
A Time for Heroes and Heroines (vv. 6-12)......Page 46
The Mixed Response of Israel’s Tribes (vv. 13-23)......Page 47
Two Domestic Scenes (vv. 24-30)......Page 48
A Time for Heroes and Heroines (vv. 6-12)......Page 49
The Mixed Response of Israel’s Tribes (vv. 13-23)......Page 51
Two Domestic Scenes (vv. 24-30)......Page 53
Two Difficulties......Page 56
The Characterization of Israel’s Next Oppressors (vv. 1-6, 33; 7.1, 12)......Page 59
Gideon and Yahweh’s Messenger (vv. 11-24)......Page 61
Gideon vs. Baal (vv. 25-32)......Page 62
Gideon’s Signs (vv. 36-40)......Page 63
The Reduction of Gideon’s Militia from 32,000 to 300 (vv. 2-8)......Page 65
A Dream and its Interpretation (vv. 9-15)......Page 68
A Terrifying Midnight Performance of Sound and Light (vv. 16-25)......Page 70
Succoth and Penuel (vv. 1-17)......Page 72
The Execution of Two Enemy Kings (vv. 18-21)......Page 74
Why does Gideon Make his Own Ephod? (vv. 22-28)......Page 75
Thinking about Gideon......Page 76
The Characterization of Abimelech (vv. 1-5)......Page 80
Jotham’s Fable (vv. 6-21)......Page 81
How Retribution Becomes the Theme of the Abimelech Story (vv. 22-57)......Page 83
When Judge-Deliverers and their Families are Dishonoured......Page 88
‘Consecutive Judges’ (vv. 1-6)......Page 90
Yahweh Rejects Israel (vv. 5-18)......Page 91
Jephthah’s Characterization (vv. 1-3)......Page 94
Jephthah’s Reinstatement (vv. 4-11)......Page 95
Jephthah’s Negotiations for Peace (vv. 12-28)......Page 96
Jephthah’s Vow (vv. 30-31)......Page 98
Why Jephthah Makes a Vow......Page 100
A Daughter’s Act of Self-Sacrifice (vv. 34-40)......Page 101
Judges 12: Jephthah and the Ephraimites with the Remainder of a ‘Consecutive Judges’ List......Page 106
‘Consecutive Judges’ (vv. 7-15)......Page 107
Judges 13: Mr Wonderful’s Visit......Page 109
What Sort of Nazirite is Samson?......Page 115
Samson’s Strategy against the Philistines (vv. 1-4)......Page 118
Samson’s Riddles (vv. 12-20)......Page 120
A Second Visit to Timnah (vv. 1-8)......Page 124
Slaughter at ‘Jaw-Bone Hill’ (vv. 9-20)......Page 127
Judges 16: Samson in Gaza......Page 131
Bed and Breakfast (vv. 1-3)......Page 132
Samson and Delilah (vv. 4-22)......Page 133
Dancing for Dagon (vv. 23-31)......Page 137
Thinking about Samson......Page 139
Judges 17: ‘Micah & Sons’......Page 143
When a Thief is Sponsored by his Mother as a Shrine Proprietor (vv. 1-6)......Page 144
The Appointment of a Levite as Priest (vv. 7-13)......Page 146
What is the Significance of the Phrases about the Absence of a King and for People who do ‘What is Right in their Own Eyes’?......Page 147
The Expedition of the ‘Danite Five’ (vv. 1-10)......Page 149
The Looting of Micah’s Shrine (vv. 11-26)......Page 151
The Destruction of Laish and the Slaughter of the Inhabitants (vv. 27-31)......Page 152
The Desperate Tribe of Dan: A Summary......Page 153
A Levite and his Concubine (vv. 1-3a)......Page 155
Generous Hospitality in Bethlehem and Gibeah (vv. 3b-21)......Page 157
A Storyteller’s Tactics......Page 158
Interruption (vv. 22-28)......Page 159
The Grim Processional Tour of the Land (vv. 29-30)......Page 161
A Parallel Story in Genesis 19......Page 162
For What Purpose do the Gibeahite Yobs Demand the Male Visitor?......Page 163
Israelites Assemble at Mizpah (vv. 1-10)......Page 165
Preparations for the Third Battle of Gibeah (vv. 26-28)......Page 168
The Third Battle of Gibeah (vv. 29-48)......Page 170
Why does Yahweh Send Israelites out on Two Occasions to be Defeated in Battle? (vv. 18, 23)......Page 171
Two Oaths and a Curse (vv. 1-7)......Page 173
The Fate of the Child Survivors of the Slaughter at Jabesh-Gilead (vv. 8-14)......Page 174
The 200 Dancers of Shiloh (vv. 15-23)......Page 175
How are We to Evaluate Israel’s Conduct in chs. 19–21?......Page 177
Why does the Storyteller Conclude Judges with Stories in which Yahweh, the God of Israel, Says Little and Does Little?......Page 179
What’s so Special about Judges?......Page 182
Written by Whom and When?......Page 183
A New Reading......Page 184
How Judges is Generally Read......Page 187
The Author of Judges as a Storyteller......Page 194
The Storyteller’s Three Aims......Page 197
The Storyteller’s First Aim: Exilic Listeners are to Feel Ashamed of Themselves......Page 198
The Storyteller’s Second Aim: To Impress Exilic Listeners with the Honour and Ability of Judge-Deliverers......Page 199
The Storyteller’s Third Aim: To Remind Exilic Listeners of their Monotheistic Religion......Page 200
Jephthah......Page 201
Samson......Page 202
From Oral Stories to Final Written Form......Page 203
The Tasks and Functions of Judge-Deliverers......Page 205
A Consideration of Criteria for the Evaluation of Judge-Deliverers......Page 207
Formidable Oppressors......Page 214
Women and Children in Judges......Page 216
The Structure of Judges......Page 218
Reading Strategies and Proposals for the Modern Relevance of Judges......Page 220
Conclusion......Page 224
Bibliography......Page 226
Index of Authors......Page 234