Judges

The Name

It actually matches the Hebrew name

English Bibles place it as a book of history; Hebrew Scriptures place it in the group of the “former prophets”

Judge in Hebrew is larger than our understanding of the term; includes military and administrative leadership

Historic Period

From the death of Joshua to the coronation of Saul

Time frame (conservative scholarship) c. 1446 BC-1051 BC; may have begun as early as 1390

Good scholarly arguments

Likely written between 1040-1020 BC

Author

Best suspect: Samuel

Appears to have been written between the coronation of Saul and David’s conquest of Jerusalem

3 clues on that

motto “in those days Israel had no king”

“to this day the Jebusites live there” David wiped out the city in 2 Sam. 5.

Canaanites living in Gezer, was before the time of David

He would have assembled this from oral and written accounts

A Promising Beginning

The conquest continues 1:1-20; BUT...

1:21, the direction changes

1:27-end more failures....

The pattern: They held the course while Joshua’s generation was in charge

They strayed; God provided in spite of their misdeeds

They continued rebellion 2:16-17

God Remained Faithful

Despite continued disobedience, He responded to their cry…provided a deliverer

A pattern of sin, servitude, supplication, salvation, silence

…and right back to sin

Some Sad Realizations

2:6-10 gives some back-story on the death of Joshua

<Read 2:10>

That’s what happens when we take take our eyes off God, those behind us do not follow…they’ve never seen why or how.

They paid lip-service to Him (maybe), but they did not walk in His ways

Even some of the judges did despicable things: e.g. Jepthah…yes, he really did that