Book of Judges Review Part Three (Chapters 5-8)

Chapter 5 (The Song of Deborah)
Chapter 5 is a unique chapter because it is a song. It is not the traditional narrative we see in the rest of the Book of Judges. While reading this chapter, we must remember this form of narration uses liberties. Things may be exaggerated to create a point or phrases may be used which now have lost their meaning. This chapter is one of the harder chapters to translate because as time continues forward, many words and idioms often lose their meanings.

(Judges 5:1-2) Theme of the song: The joy and blessing in being a willing instrument of God
(Judges 5:3-5) God's preservation of Israel
(Judges 5:6-8) Describing life under Canaanite oppression
(Judges 5:9) Refrain: Bless the LORD for leaders who lead

The victory remembered
(Judges 5:10-12) A call to recount the great victory
(Judges 5:13-18) The tribes that helped, and the tribe who didn't help
(Judges 5:19-23) The battle described and a curse on an unhelpful city (Meroz)
(Judges 5:24-27) Praise for Jael for killing Sisera
(Judges 5:28-30) Reflection on the disappointment of Sisera's survivors
(Judges 5:31) Final praise to God and the long-term effect of the victory.


Chapter 6
THE CALL OF GIDEON
(Judges 6:1) Israel's apostasy bring them into servitude
Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.

(Judges 6:2-6) The details of Israel's bondage to Midian
Israel would suffer at the hand of Midian and several other foreign nations for seven years before they cried out to God, and God acted. The Midians teamed up with the dreaded Amalekites and also with a number of smaller unnamed groups of people simply called "the sons of the east". Together, they would descend like locust upon several of the Israelites tribes at harvest time. Apparently, they were not interested in conquest; rather, they simply stole Israel's food supply.

(Judges 6:7-10) In response to Israel's cry to the LORD, God sends a prophet
God reminds Israel it was He who brought them out of the land of Egypt and performed great miracles for their fathers and grandfathers. The Israelites should not fear the gods of the Amorites.

The deliverer is called
(Judges 6:11-13) The Angel of the LORD appears to Gideon
God begins the process of delivering His people in verse 11. The Angel of the LORD presents Himself to Gideon near a tree. When the Angel of the LORD showed up, Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press. This tells us something is drastically wrong because we have Gideon using a wine press to thresh wheat. Wheat is normally threshed by being laid out on a well-tamped and slightly elevated piece of ground or on a large section of rock outcropping that has been flattened. This is done so that as the wheat is beaten, the breeze will blow away the chaff. Furthermore, for even a relatively small family unit, it takes a lot of wheat stocks to be threshed to obtain a useful amount of wheat kernels. Therefore, an animal (preferably an ox) is used to pull a log over the wheat in order to separate the heads of wheat from the stalks.

Here, however, we have a situation whereby a wine press is being used for threshing. Therefore, only a very small amount of wheat could be processed at one time. Thus, this would take an incredibly long time to obtain enough wheat to supply a family with its bread needs.

(Judges 6:14-16) Gideon's call to God's service
Verse 14 commissions Gideon as a shophet (a judge or deliverer). God says that Gideon will rescue Israel from the hands of Midian. He goes on to tell Gideon that he has the strength to do what must be done.

(Judges 6:17-21) A sign from the Angel of the LORD
Gideon offers the angel of the LORD an offering. Gideon places the offering on the rock and the angel of the LORD puts out His staff and the food bursts into flames. The angel of the LORD then vanishes from sight.

(Judges 6:22-24) Gideon reacts with awe and worship to the miraculous sign

The beginning of Gideon's ministry
(Judges 6:25-27) Removing Baal worship from his midst
The first thing Gideon must do is to destroy the altar to Baal because an altar to God was about to be constructed on that very same spot. It is impossible that the two could co-exist. The LORD tells Gideon to destroy the altar to Baal, cut down the sacred pole that stands next to it and the replace it with a proper altar to God. Furthermore, when Gideon does this task, he is to take with him his father's bull; it would be used as a sacrifice.

(Judges 6:28-32) The removal of an altar raises a controversy
In verse 28, when some men of the village went up to the altar site (meaning they were there to pay homage to Baal), it was gone. They men were enraged. Baal's altar was demolished and in its place was a brand new one with the bull laid upon it and burned up.

Joash, Gideon’s father says to the crowd, "Wait a minute! If Baal is unable to defend his own altar, then just how powerful of a god is he? Does Baal need humans to defend his deity?” Joash says Baal can fight for himself. As a result of this, Gideon became known by a new name among his clansmen: Jerubbaal. Remember in that era, a name was assigned to people based on their reputation or character, and in some instances, for a famous act they committed. Jerubbaal means "Let Baal defend". From this point on, be alert that we will see Gideon called by both names.

(Judges 6:33-35) Gideon gathers an army
In verse 33, the Midianites, Amalekites and the children of the east descend once again upon the tribes of Israel. The Spirit of the LORD covers Gideon. He sounds the trumpet which would have rallied the troops. The Abiezrites were called together to follow him. Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali also come to Gideon’s call.

(Judges 6:36-40) God assures Gideon
Gideon asks for this sign: he will lay a sheep's fleece on the threshing floor, and if the LORD will supernaturally cause the fleece to become wet with dew while the area around it remains dry, then he will know for sure that God is with him. The morning arrives, and there it is. The fleece is wet, but the ground is dry. Gideon ponders this and thinks that it is possible that this could naturally have happened. He could mistake this natural event with God's answer. Gideon devises another test.

Gideon reasoned that fleeces attract water rather easily. It then would retain it. It would not be so strange for the dew to moisten the fleece, but after some time it would evaporate from the threshing floor rock rather quickly as the sun rose. Thus, the results he saw in the morning could have been a natural event. So, Gideon decides it is more logical to do it in the opposite manner. He asks that the same ground be wet, but the fleece be dry the following morning. And that is what happened. Now, Gideon is convinced he has heard from God.


Chapter 7
32,000 men gather together to fight with Gideon. God says there are too many men. After telling the people if they are afraid, they may go home, ten thousand men still remain. God tells Gideon to devise a test in which people are to go to a river and drink water. Of the 10,000 men, only 300 are selected based on how they drink the water.

Gideon takes his servant Purah and spies out the Midianite camp. Gideon overhears a soldier recount a dream in which a loaf of barley tumbles into the Midianite camp. The soldier says it is Gideon. With his courage strengthened, Gideon goes back to the Israelite camp and tells the soldiers their plan. They are to put torches inside pitches and carry shofars (trumpets). At Gideon’s command, they are to break the pitchers and blow the shofars. The Israelites surround the Midianite camp and obey Gideon. The Midianites are in complete confusion. They slay each other.

Gideon summons Ephraim for help. They captured the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.

Chapter 8
The men of Ephraim are mad at Gideon because Gideon did not ask for their help at the beginning of the war. Gideon tells Ephraim how he could not have won the war without their help. Ephraim is appeased. A civil war is averted.

Gideon and his 300 men continue pursuing the Midianites. Succoth and Penuel (Israelite cities) refuse to give supplies to Gideon and his men. Gideon threatens to come back and repay the two cities for their lack of hospitality after he catches the two Midianite kings.

Gideon captures Zeba and Zalmunna. Gideon returns to Succoth and thrashes the elders of the cities. He tears down the tower and kills the men of the city in Penuel. Gideon then slays Zeba and Zalmunna.

After the grand victory, Gideon refuses to be king. He does, however, accept the Midianites’ spoil. Gideon makes an ephod and causes Israel to stumble by practicing idolatry. Gideon has many wives and seventy sons plus one son by a harlot named Abimelech. Gideon became very wealthy, and although he did not want to be a king, he lead a kingly lifestyle. As soon as Gideon dies, his good deeds are forgotten.

Four important lessons from Gideon's story
There are four important lessons we can learn from Gideon's story. These will carry over into the next chapter.

The first thing is that when God is the leader, when God stands with Israel, no man, no army and no power can stand against him.

2. The second lesson: If anything of a positive nature occurs in the lives of God's people, it is God's doing. He deserves all glory and honor for it.

3. The third lesson: Despite what seem to be prevalent before our eyes, the reality is the world will never by the biggest roadblock to God's people carrying out God's will on earth. Rather, it will always be the lack of faithfulness of the Believers. Just as Israel was problematic for God to work with, so it is with the Church. Israel was redeemed, but they did not always behave that way. The Church, by definition, is a fellowship of the redeemed of God in Jesus. However, we do not often conduct ourselves in that way, do we?

4. The fourth lesson: Leadership. This will set the stage for Judges chapter nine. It is those who accept a leadership position at the call of God are going to face great temptation to abandon the position and the divine purpose for person ambitions. Of course, personal ambitions tend to blind men and thus we tend to deny and rationalize it when we succumb to those temptations.

Book of Judges Review Part Two (Chapters 3-4)

 Chapter 3
The first judge: Othniel
The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD: Verse seven sets the stage for the entrance of the first judge of Israel. It says that Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. This is an important little phrase that is in the middle of the sentence. It was NOT from Israel's perspective that they were doing evil, but it was from God's viewpoint that Israel was doing evil. Israel believed they were doing nothing wrong. They believed they were doing nothing evil, or they would not be doing it. We will see illustrations of this attitude in the next several chapters. In the end, however, God did not submit to Israel's rationalizations and excuses. Moreover, He did not accept their denials. Disobedience is disobedience, whether from willful ignorance of the Law or from willful intention to violate it. He has given them a manual for living redeemed lifestyles in the Torah and told them to use it. They have instead chosen to incorporate some of their own ideas and to disregard many of God's commands. But at the bottom of it all was idolatry. Israel adopted the Canaanite gods into their worship practices.

Cushan-rishathaim: The first part of the ruler from Mesopotamia's name means Cush; he was a descendant from Cush. It is said by most scholars that this man came from an area near the Euphrates River. Now this name for him is Hebrew; so, it could have not been this king's actual foreign name. Rather, it is a title roughly translated as "the double-wicked Cushite". This was how the Israelite tribes who were conquered by his armies saw this king.

Othniel: The first Judge God raises up is a logical choice. Othniel, who name means lion of God and is from the tribe of Judah, is Caleb's younger brother. Othniel was the husband to Caleb's daughter Akhsah. Othniel is a logical choice because he won the hill country of the south from some of the descendants of Anakim as a challenge from his older brother, and Akhsah was the prize. Why would Akhsah be such an attraction for Othniel? Understand from a clan perspective, the brother next in line in Caleb's clan who then marries the clan chief's daughter makes it almost a guarantee that Othniel would eventually become the new clan leader. Thus, the reward was worth the risk. Furthermore, it is equally obvious that Othniel must have been considerably younger than Caleb, who was one of the 12 spies sent out by Moses many years earlier.

 

The second Judge: Ehud
The sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD: Verse 12 does not tell us precisely what the evil was that this new generation of Israel committed. We can guess that idolatry was at its core because invariably idolatry played a starring role in all of Israel's apostasies. Apostatizing does not mean that the people necessarily renounced God. Rather, they broke faith with Him by mixing the worship of other gods with the worship of Him.

Eglon the king of Moab: In response to Israel's apostasy, the LORD divinely energizes a new oppressor, Eglon king of Moab. Like every kingdom, Moab had its allies. In this case, it was Ammon and Amalek.

Ehud: Ehud is from the tribe of Benjamin and the tribe of Benjamin is under the most pressure by Eglon. This is a similar pattern to God choosing Othniel from the tribe of Judah because Judah was under the most pressure from Cushan-rishathaim.

A left-handed man: It is prominently mentioned that Ehud is left-handed, a trait that was apparently rather common among the tribal members of Benjamin but often not present in the other eleven tribes. Interestingly, it does NOT say in the Hebrew that Ehud was left-handed. Rather, it says that he was "bound up on the right". In the Bible era, the right side of anything was seen as the "correct" side, the strong side and the best side. The right hand was used for blessing. The royal scepter was always held in the right hand because it denoted power and authority. So, for people in that time period, a person who was left-handed was considered as having a defective right hand. Not being strong and coordinated in one's right hand meant that the person had a disability. In that era, a left-handed person to be used by God was another example of the LORD using the person with the least human ability to do His divine will, which is why Ehud was mentioned as being a lefty.

It is rather ironic that Benjamin had so many people genetically predisposed to being left-handed. The name Benjamin means "son of my RIGHT hand". This so-called disability would prove to be quite helpful for Ehud.

He bound it under his right thigh under his cloak: Since Ehud was left-handed, he would strap the sword to his right leg. The advantage was that since he was left-handed, he would reach across his body to draw the sword from his right leg and stab the unsuspecting king. Records indicate that very few people were left-handed. So, when Ehud made his move, it was with his left hand. He would not have caused the king to suspect a coming attack. That deception would provide an extra second or two for Ehud to reach under his garment to grasp his sword and kill Eglon.

And Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you.": Eglon, anxious to hear what juicy piece of news Ehud had for him rose out of his chair. Ehud sprang into action. He reached across his body with his left-hand, pulled out the concealed weapon and plunged it into Eglon. We are given some rather gory details such as that because the weapon had no cross piece at the top, the entire length of the sword entered Eglon's body. The fat engulfed what little of a handle there was. In fact, the sword went completely though Eglon's body and poked out the other side.

Ehud flees and rallies the Israeli troops.

So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab: Their first move was to capture the fording points of the Jordan. This not only allowed no Moab reserve troops to come to Israel and fortify the garrison there, but it also served to cut-off the escape route of the Moabite soldier stationed in Israel. Ehud led the slaughter of 10,000 troops from Moab, Ammon and Amalek. The Moab's oppression over the southern Israelite tribes was broken. The land then had rest for two generation, 80 years.

The third Judge: Shamgar
Shamgar kills 600 Philistines with an oxgoad.
An oxgoad: An oxgoad, though not designed as a weapon, was deadly and formidable nonetheless. It was used to train teams of oxen. It was an eight or nine foot long wooden pole with a sharp metal point much like a spear on one end and a sharpened chisel-like end on the other end for scrapping dirt off the plow.

Shamgar is a good example of how the characteristics of a Judge cannot always be so easily defined. There is no mention of God raising him up or putting the Holy Spirit upon him. There is no mention of how long he ruled. In fact, he is never called a Judge, but he is referred to as a savior of Israel.


Chapter 4
Deborah, the fourth Judge
Jabin was a Canaanite king in Hazor. His military commander was Sisera.
The army that Sisera commanded was enormous, well-funded and fully equipped. Nine hundred iron chariots for this time in history is simply astounding. It was by means of these chariots that Sisera, Jabin and the other coalition kings were able to keep the northern tribes of Israel under their control. This round of oppression lasted 20 years.

Verse five explains that people came to Deborah from far and wide for the purpose of judgment. The Hebrew word translated as "judgment" is ha-mishpat, which means "justice" as in a ruling of law. So, it appears Deborah had two roles. She was a judicial judge who decided cases, and she was a prophet who brought messages of God to whomever God directed her.

(Judges 4:6-7) Deborah calls Barak with a message from God
Deborah tells Barak the word of God which gives instructions about the war which will take place between Israel and Sisera and his army.

(Judges 4:8-10) Barak will only lead if Deborah accompanies
Deborah tells Barak that she will indeed go with him, but as a consequence of his reluctance to simply believe God, the glory of victory will not go to Barak but instead will go to a woman!

Heber the Kenite: Verse eleven begins another angle on this story. It is about a group of people led by Heber the Kenite. The Kenites were a clan that belonged to the Tribe of Midian. This clan had a closer than usual attachment to Israel because it was the clan of Moses's wife Zipporah. The Kenites were normally pro-Israel, but this particular sub-clan had broken away and either formed a direct alliance with Jabin of Hazor or informally agreed to inform on the movements of Israel to some degree or another, likely in return for being protected from Canaanite oppression.

(Judges 4:14-16) Sisera and his army are utterly defeated
Located at the western end of the Jezreel Valley, the battle began in earnest, but just as quickly, something went terribly wrong for the Canaanite army. They fly into a panic and flee. We are not told at this point in Scripture what exactly happened, but we will get more details of this event in the next chapter.

The Canaanites began abandoning many of their chariots and running away on foot as did their leader Sisera. Some chariots were able to escape, and as usual, the fleeing soldiers began making their way back home to their base in Harosheth-hagoyim. The Israelite troops were in close pursuit behind them and eventually caught up to Sisera's army and killed them.

The victory was not complete, however, because Sisera was still on the run. Sisera obviously was taking a different route to safety than his men. While his army was trying to to return to Harosheth-hagoyim, Sisera was heading for the fortified city of Hazor. The encampment of Heber the Kenite was apparently on the way. And, Sisera, knowing that this man and his clan were pro-Canaanite, stopped there to hide and rest for a while.

(Judges 4:17-22) The death of Sisera by the hand of a woman
Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael: As Sisera entered the tent village, he encountered Heber's wife

So she opened a bottle of milk: It has been a folk remedy for all cultures that warm milk is soothing and helps to bring on sleep. In that day, there was not such a thing as cold milk. Sisera being exhausted and now drowsy from the warm milk, Sisera tells Jael to stand guard at the tent entrance. If any of the Israelites come looking for him, she was to explain that no one is in her tent.

Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg: In a very uncharacteristic move, Jael surprises us when she picks up a tent peg and hammer, returns to her tent and when she is assured that Sisera is in a deep sleep, she drives a wooden tent peg through his temple. She drives the tent peg so deep that it goes through his skull and out the other side. Death would have been instantaneous. Sisera does not move.

From Jael's actions, she must not have agreed with her husband's pro-Canaanite stance. When Barak arrives on the scene, Jael runs out to meet Barak. She directs Barak to her tent and presents the corpse to Barak. Now the victory was complete. But, poor Barak. He was denied the honor of executing the opposing military commander, as was the custom. This end result was the result of Barak doubting Deborah when she first presented God's instructions to him.

Book of Judges Review Part One (Chapters 1-2)

Introduction
The transition from Moses and Joshua to the time of the Judges
During the time of Joshua and Moses, there was a strong central leadership, and a common government which had God as their king, and the priesthood as His earthly messengers. However, after the death of Joshua and his immediate successors, this system broke down. The high standards and ideals demanded by God and demonstrated by Moses and Joshua were not emulated or admired by most Israelites. In general, they had more important practical matters to contend with such as raising families, growing crops, tending their vineyards and shepherding flocks. Additionally, one of Joshua's last acts was to have a covenant renewal ceremony during which he pleaded with the people to get rid of their false gods and idols. None of this settled well with the people.

Next, Joshua failed to lead Israel to a total and complete conquest of Israel. Joshua's proclivity to make treaties with the various Canaanite tribes instead of driving them out of the land or destroying them (as God had commanded) was going to be Israel's Achille's heel. In short, Israel quickly adapted to the idea of having Canaanites as their neighbors, and they tried to find ways to live among them in peace. This lead to compromise and tolerance of Canaanite ways. Israel lost any enthusiasm they had to finish what they started and complete the conquest of Canaan. The result of that decision is the root of the troubles we witness in the Middle East today.

As a result of this lax attitude, mixed marriages between the Israelites and Canaanites became a normal and accepted practice in a very short time. As with any mixing of cultures, there must be a compromise over whose god would be the preeminent in the blended family. Would it be God or one of the Baal gods? The result lead to syncretism.

Syncretism
Syncretism comes from the word synchronize. We generally understand that to synchronize something means to make two or more things operate simultaneously or in a coordinated way. So syncretism is an attempt to reconcile two different moral or religious systems and mold them into something new. The new system created retains elements of both former ways and is thus accepted by both parties.


Israel's leadership
During the time of the Judges, the godly leadership of Joshua and his immediate successors all but disappeared. The Torah-based standards were soon set aside for the self-serving and pragmatic behaviors we are all familiar with in our modern politics.

This condition was not only reserved for the godless, back-slidden leaders of Israel. It was prevalent in every shophet (Judge) the LORD called upon. Every shophet had significant moral and ethical character flaws. Scripture makes no attempt at hiding them. None of the shophetim (Judges) of the Book of Judges could compare to the leadership skills and ethics of Joshua and Moses.

As we go through each of the seven stories of deliverance, each by a different judge, we will find a dark side and equally preferred sense of morality inherent in each of them. Nothing in Scripture is whitewashed; it shows its heroes to be simply what they are--flawed humans.

While this dark and pessimistic summation of Israel's condition is quite bleak, to be balanced, it must be said that on the positive side, they did well to maintain their tribal structure. When left alone, the tribes were generally harmonious. It was when outside forces were exerted that one tribe would buckle under the pressure. This would sometimes lead to inter-tribal warfare. However, even then, there was no serious attempt to erase the existence of a tribe by means of full and complete genocide.


Chapter 1
It takes only about 10-15 years after the death of Joshua before the Israelites begin losing their way.

One small thing we need to keep in mind during this time in Israel's history is that very few copies of the Torah were created especially between the times of Joshua and King Josiah, who ruled from 640-609 B.C. The few copies which were in existence did not find themselves in the hands of ordinary citizens. In fact, it appears that by the time King David was on the throne (about 300-400 years after the death of Joshua), the Torah was all but lost and well on its way to being completely forgotten.

Once the tribes dispersed around the land of Canaan and started taking a firm hold in their allotted territories, the priesthood struggled to exist. The roles of the priests and the Levite tabernacle workers blurred. Only a few of the 48 cities that the Levites were promised within the tribal territories were ever actually handed over. The funding the Israelites were supposed give to the Levites rarely sufficed to maintain the Levites and their families.

We find a phrase repeated a number of times in the Book of Judges: "In those days, there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes." This all but sums up the entire Book of Judges.


Israel's need for a king
There is an important purpose to the Book of Judges which is almost universally missed. God demonstrates in the Book of Judges Israel's need for a king. Many, including myself not so long ago, have reflexively said that with Samuel's anointing of King Saul, the Lord gave Israel something He did not want to give them, a king. However, an honest reading of the Book of Judges shows us something different.

In reality, the Lord was showing Israel that they could not function without a king. They could not follow God's laws and commands without a king. Joshua was not officially a king, but in many ways that was his role. Joshua was God's definition of king which is directly opposed to man's definition of a king. Joshua was the example of ideal leadership for the nation of Israel, one they failed to follow.

Man's definition of a king is a man of privileged royalty who is served by his subjects, who usually have no choice in the matter. God's definition of a king is a shepherd who is a kind of servant to those who have chosen to follow him by their own free will. Man's kings use human shields consisting of thousands of men who would lay down their lives for the benefit of a king. God's king would lay down his own life for the benefit of the people. The problem with Israel is that they wanted their definition of a king to rule over them. So, the Lord gave them their desire. It was the TYPE of king and not the idea of being lead by a king which would be the issue between God and His people.


(Judges 1:3-7) Judah (with the tribe of Simeon) defeats Bezek and their king
They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: This battle was against Adoni-bezek. Adoni-bezek is not a person's name. Rather, it is a title which means "Lord of Bezek". Bezek was probably the family name of a long established dynasty. When authority was passed from one ruler to the next, each successive ruler would have been called Adoni-bezek. The title would be similar to the "King of England". We do not know the actual name of this individual, and the location of Bezek has been lost to history.

Cut off his thumbs and big toes: Why cut off the thumbs and big toes? By doing so, a man became useless in battle. Without thumbs, he could not hold a sword, he could not shoot a bow, he could not be effective in hand to hand combat and he could not even drive a chariot. Without big toes, he lost his mobility. He would walk with a cane; however, he could not run. Therefore, he could not flee from danger. Even if this captured king eventually escaped, his lack of thumbs and big toes meant his days as a leader were over.

Caleb: We are introduced to Caleb and the retelling the story told in Joshua chapter 15 about a clan leader of Judah named Caleb (the same person who was one of the 12 spies who scouted out Canaan for Moses and came back with a good report). It is interesting to understand that Caleb (and Othniel, his brother) actually came from Edomite heritage. (Remember, Edomites were descendants of Jacob's brother Esau). Somehow, Caleb's ancestors became part of the tribe of Judah and even became the most powerful tribe within Judah. This is something we should not easily forget. It demonstrates how early the Israelites became a diverse and genealogically mixed people.

In return for taking the city of Debir, Caleb gave his daughter Achsah to Othniel. Othniel was Achsah's relative. As part of her dowry, she received land and then later rights to water wells, which was an important affair in an area of the Negev--a place with great soil but precious little water available.

Rest of Chapter 1: We are given details of tribe after tribe of Israel failing to successfully take the land they were supposed to conquer. As each tribe allows the natives to remain in the land (this was in direct defiance to God’s order to utterly eradicate the land of its inhabitants), it gives inspiration to the other tribes to also leave their enemies in the land.

It is important to understand that the land was divided up based NOT on what was actually conquered, or on merit. Rather, it was divided up based on how God had assigned the territory through lots at the time of Moses. That allotment put the various tribes in general regions of the Promised Land--the north, south, near the Jordan River, near the Mediterranean Sea, etc. Joshua fine-tuned this arrangement with another ceremony whereby the relative SIZE of each territory was adjusted to account for the population difference among the tribes, i.e., the bigger the tribe, the bigger the territory. Moreover, these land assignments were meant to be a responsibility to each tribe to finish up the job of conquering their own particular land holding, but the tribes failed to do so.

Chapter 2
There arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD: We are told there is a new generation who arose after Joshua, one that did not know the LORD or know the work He had done on Israel's behalf. We are only talking about the passing of ONE generation after Joshua died. ONE GENERATION!!! In only a couple decades the mixing with the Canaanites had so perverted the Israelites that they were quite familiar with Baal and Ashtoreth, but they know almost nothing about God. To say that they did not know of what God had done for them does not mean they were ignorant and uninformed. It means that they rendered it as irrelevant to their lives. They had no gratitude to those who came before them and fought to give them the life they now took for granted. Syncretism had made the God of Israel barely a second thought for them.

(Judges 2:14-15) God's wrath upon their sin of idolatry
He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them: The purpose of this was to turn Israel's heart back to the LORD. God's goal was not punishment in itself but repentance. Therefore, we should see this as a manifestation of God's love for Israel instead of God's hate. The worst judgment God can bring on a person is to leave them alone and to stop trying to bring them to repentance.

(Judges 2:16-19) The cyclical pattern of bondage and deliverance in the days of the Judges
 In verse 16, the first explanation of the protocol of the Judges is discussed which includes the correlation between the spiritual role and the human role of the Judge. The LORD Himself would raise up a judge, and the judge would be a savior who would rescue some tribe from whoever was oppressing them. But even then, Israel would quickly return to those false gods of their neighbors after the judge/savior had completed his mission. The thing to understand is that for as long as a judge whom the LORD established ruled, Israel was kept secure.

(Judges 2:20-23) God gives them over to their sinful compromise
I will also no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them: God says that He is leaving those Canaanite nations there for the tribes of Israel to contend with as a test or trial. This does not mean trial as in the sense of trials and tribulations. It does not indicate being put into a bad situation whereby the bad situation is of itself the punishment. Rather, in Hebrew the word is nassa, and it refers to a judicial kind of trial. This means that God is going to put the tribes of Israel on trial in His courtroom. They are the accused, and He is the judge. Whether they are convicted and merit further punishment, or whether they are found to be innocent and merit mercy, will all depend on if Israel proves itself to have learned its lesson and becomes Torah observant as their immediate ancestors were. The alternative is that Israel will reject God's discipline (in the form of the Canaanites nations being divinely allowed to create problems for Israel's society), and God reacts with further and more sever punishments on His people.

Judges Chapter 21 Part One (Verses 1-25)

WIVES FOR THE REMNANT OF BENJAMIN

 A. A foolish oath

1. (Judges 21:1) At Mizpah, a curse is laid on anyone who gives their daughter as wives for the tribe of Benjamin
Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, "None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin in marriage."

Some time passed, and the heat of the battle was over. The victorious Israelites had time to think over what had transpired, and they fell into grief over it. They reflected on what the results of their own actions meant for the future of Israel. They repented. Even though it was Benjamin who necessitated this war by their outrageous position of defending the deranged men of Gibeah, who turned to homosexuality and behaved exactly like the heathen of Sodom, perhaps Israel had gone too far.

Now the men of Israel had sworn: Swearing oaths and making vows in God's name is a dangerous undertaking. We moderns like to think otherwise, but we really do not take these oaths and vows all that seriously. But to the ancient, it was unthinkable to violate an oath or vow because the consequence was probably going to be devastating and long lasting. Making a rash oath or vow is a bad idea, and now Israel realized that they had doomed the Benjamites by speaking too quickly with their lips.

As the Israelite force of 400,000 gathered in Mizpah in war council before heading towards Gibeah, they had made a vow which sounded good, but now they were faced with a terrible dilemma. The vow was that no one from any of the eleven tribe coalition would allow his daughter to marry a Benjamite. The problem was that there were 600 men who remained from the tribe of Benjamin. With no women to bear children for them, the Benjamite line would end. As bad as that sounds to us, it was horrific to the mind of the ancient Hebrew. One of Jacob's sons would be cut off from his family line. This would destroy everything.

In tribal society, it is one thing for inter-related tribes to war and kill among themselves in order to punish or achieve dominance. It is quite another story to kill off an entire bloodline. This was usually avoided at all costs.


2. (Judges 21:2-6) Israel realizes that a whole tribe is in danger of extinction
So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, and lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. They said, "Why, O LORD, God of Israel, has this come about in Israel, so that one tribe should be missing today in Israel?" It came about the next day that the people arose early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

Then the sons of Israel said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up in the assembly to the LORD? For they had taken a great oath concerning him who did not come up to the LORD at Mizpah, saying, "He shall surely be put to death." And the sons of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin and said, "One tribe is cut off from Israel today."

So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening: When the victorious Israelites realized that the utter demise of Benjamin was a very real possibility, they went before God back up to Bethel. They wept and asked for forgiveness as well as trying to understand why God might allow such a thing to happen. 

It came about the next day that the people arose early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings: The sons of Israel offered sacrifices of repentance to God and sought a solution. They absolutely could NOT break their vow of refusing to give Benjamin their daughters for marriage and child bearing. They wondered how they could keep Benjamin from extinction.


B. Solutions to the problem of the foolish oath

1. (Judges 21:7-15) Destroying the city of Jabesh and taking their young women
"What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?"

And they said, "What one is there of the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the LORD at Mizpah?" And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. For when the people were numbered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. And the congregation sent 12,000 of the valiant warriors there, and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every man and every woman who has lain with a man." And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him: and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

Then the whole congregation sent word and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh-gilead; yet they were not enough for them. And the people were sorry for Benjamin because the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give any of them of our daughters in marriage: Verse seven sums up the problem. The sons of Israel find an answer to the problem in a very convoluted and unexpected way. It starts with Israel's search to find out if any clan of Hebrews had failed to show up to contribute to the war effort.

Jabesh-gilead: It turns out that the people of the city of Jabesh-gilead (meaning the people who lived in the city of Jabesh in the territory of Gilead, east of the Jordan River) did not answer the call. This was in violation of a much earlier and perhaps more fundamental oath: that all of Israel was united under God and the Laws of Moses. They were to act together as one in times of crisis. Jabesh were traitors to God and to Israel. Not only that, at the time of the war council in Mizpah, an oath was sworn in which the punishment for whomever did not participate in the war against Benjamin was death.

And the congregation sent out 12,000 of the valiant warriors: A force of 12,000 men were sent across the Jordan River to take vengeance. Everyone was to die except the girls of childbearing years who were virgins. These girls were to be captured and brought back to Shiloh. It turns out there were 400 of them. This plan accomplished two objectives. First, it executed those of Jabesh who refused to participate in the war with Benjamin. Second, it was to find wives for the remaining 600 men of Benjamin. These virgin girls of Jabesh would provide a good start to remedy the problem.

A point of clarification, the 600 men were NOT all that remained of Benjamin. Some number of elderly and perhaps some infants and very young children remained alive. The key is that these 600 men were those of an age who were able to impregnate women. And the reason that the virgin girls of child bearing age were captured was that by being virgins, it made them desirable as wives. This would give them many years in which to bear as many children as possible.

This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every man and every woman who has lain with a man: In verse eleven, we are told they should "utterly destroy every man and every woman..." What is translated as "utterly destroy" is the Hebrew word herem. Herem is usually translated as "ban". Herem means to destroy something for the purpose of giving it to God. It is a Holy War term. It indicates that since the true commanders of a Holy War is God, then the spoils of war goes to Him alone. But how does one give the spoils of war to God? God receives them in the form of a burnt offering. Thus, the spoils of war must be destroyed and burned. In this way, it is dedicated (banned) to God and at the same time the people cannot partake of it because it has all be destroyed.

So to the Israelites, they saw what they were about to do to the people of Jabesh-gilead as a holy endeavor, and thus for them the killing of the people was under the law of herem. It was holy in their minds because it was carrying out an oath made before God to kill all who refused to participate in the war with Benjamin. Was this a good thing before the LORD? Absolutely not. It was just another case of men making a rash vow, and they would rather follow through with it no matter what the consequences to others might be than not following through and accepting the consequences of their own sin of breaking that rash vow.

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him: The 400 virgins of Jabesh were given to the male survivors of Benjamin, but that still left 200 men without wives. What should they do? Well, they came up with another cleaver plan.


2. (Judges 21:16-24) A scheme to give the remaining men of Benjamin an opportunity to take wives
Then the elders of the congregation said, "What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?" They said, "There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be blotted out from Israel. But we cannot give them wives of our daughters." For the sons of Israel had sword, saying, "Cursed is he who gives a wive to Benjamin."

So they said, "Behold, there is a feast of the LORD from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south side to Lebonah." And they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, "Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, and watch; and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to take part in the dances, then you shall come out of the vineyards and each of you shall catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. It shall come about, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we shall say to them, 'Give them to us voluntarily, because we did not take for each man of Benjamin a wife in battle, nor did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty.'" The sons of Benjamin did so, and took wives according to their number from those who danced, whom they carried away. And they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the cities and lived in the,. The sons of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family, and each one of them went out from there to his inheritance.

Behold, there is a feast of the LORD from year to year in Shiloh: There was a festival to the LORD each year in Shiloh, and lots and lots of women went to it. The young girls, especially virgins, participated by dancing in the festival. Some leaders of the Israelites went to the leaders of the 600 remaining Benjamites and told them that if they would go to Shiloh at the festival time and hide, then when the virgins came out to dance, they could pounce on them. The virgins would then be their wives. The Israelites would be sure there was no interference and the men of Benjamin would be free to remove these girls back to the allotted territory of Benjamin.

Now what happens when the fathers and other male family member of these stolen girls come to the leadership of Israel to complain about the theft of their daughters and seek justice? They would be told to do the leadership a favor and just not react. They were to just let it be because it would be the best for all Israel. Moreover, they would not be breaking their vow to God to not give to Benjamin any daughter of Israel because their girls were not given but were kidnapped.

Let me point out something which might go unnoticed, but it is important. The children born to the tribe of Benjamin from here forward were mixed. The 400 women of Gilead were mostly from the tribe of Manasseh, but Gilead also consisted of some populations of Gad and Reuben. The remaining 200 women taken at Shiloh were some combination of members from the other ten tribes. So even though the fathers of the next generation were Benjamites by blood, not one mother of their children were Benjamites. 

Israel is not a genealogically pure race with all genes coming from Abraham. Even Jacob, before he went to Egypt, acquired probably the largest portion of his family at Shechem. It happened when this sons went on a raid of revenge for the rape of their sister Dinah, and in the process killed all the males of Shechem. They captured all the females  (Genesis 34). In tribal society, those foreign females would rapidly assimilate into their captors' tribe. The women of Shechem were Hivites, not Hebrews. So the family of Jacob was a mixed race very early on. 

Then in Egypt, there was a lot of intermarriage, and thus the Torah tells us that a huge number of non-Hebrews (called a mixed multitude) followed Israel on their exodus journey (Exodus 12:38).

Here we see drastic action taken by Israel to save the tribe of Benjamin which resulted in all future Benjamites after the war at Gibeah being of mixed tribal blood of other Israelite tribes. No modern day Hebrew could ever possibly speak of purity of blood lines of his own tribe, let alone going back to Abraham or even Jacob. Rather, the issue is of declared allegiance to the God of Israel.


3. (Judges 21:25) The summary observation of the times of Israel     
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

The final words of the book of Judges ends most appropriately with "everyone did what was right in his own eyes."  I pray that we see that just as God was showing Israel that they needed a king, so do we need a king. His name is Jesus. Unfortunately, today we are reliving the time of the Judges. The state of Judeo-Christianity is as it was in the days of Othniel, Deborah and Samson with every man doing what is right in our own heart, doing deeds which seem pious and righteous outwardly and comfortable to us inwardly, but we pay little heed to the actual Word of God.


Final Thoughts
In the time of King Saul, we are going to find an interesting relationship between Saul and the people of Gilead. When Ammon threatened the people of Gilead, they turned to Saul for help (1 Samuel 11:1-11). Later, it would be the men of Gilead who recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons as their corpses hung on the walls of Bethshan (1 Samuel 31:11-13). Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and so we see how and why the tribe of Benjamin had a special bond with the people of Gilead. They were closely related by blood and it happened as the aftermath of the war with Benjamin.