The character of the period of the Judges is outlined in the introduction to the book of Judges, especially ii. 10 sqq. After the subjection of the chief Canaanitic Peoples, the Israelites had relaxed their energies, and had entered into friendly relations in many cases with their former foes. The result was an oppressive subjugation of the Israelites, until they remembered God, who raised up judges to deliver them. Nevertheless, as soon as a judge passed away, his influence vanished, and the people returned to their coquetry with the surrounding nations, again falling into political and spiritual bondage. The period was also characterized by a centrifugal tendency both in national and religious life. It was the time when the tribes enjoyed the greatest freedom, and only when mutual perils united them did they recollect their common origin and invoke their common God. The tendencies of the time thus powerfully favored the confusion of the worship of Yahweh and Baal, as well as of other gods whose symbols, oracles, and cult were openly adopted; but, on the other hand, the horrors resulting from gentile immorality were washed out in blood (Judges xix.-xx.), and faith prompted the vows of mighty sacrifices (Judges xi. 31; I Sam. i. 11). In like manner, low though the culture of the Israelites sank during this period of storm and stress, the power of the nation was still strong and unbroken. It was an age of heroes, not only physical but moral, finding exemplification in the Song of Deborah, the fable of Jotham, and the humor of Samson. Nor was the disunion of the Israelites at this period, as some maintain, a preliminary to their development as a nation, for the Song of Deborah itself clearly shows a strong consciousness of the religious and national homogeneity of the tribes.
The period of the Judges was opened by an eight years' subjugation of Israel by Chushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim (Judges iii. 8), apparently a king of the Mitanni (A. H. Sayee, The Higher Criticism and the Monuments, pp. 297, 304, London, 1894) who repeatedly sought to establish themselves in Canaan against Egypt. The Israelites were delivered from this yoke by Othniel, the son of Kenaz, who dwelt in the south (Judges i. 12-13), after which there followed forty years of peace (Judges iii. 9-11). During this period of repose, two events happened which, although related at the end of the book of Judges, can not have taken place long after Joshua's death: the migration of a portion of the tribe of Dan, prevented by the hostile Amorites from occupying their territory along the sea (Judges i. 34), to the north, where they founded the city of Laiah, or Dan (the modern Tell al-Kadi, west of Banias), and introduced an idolatrous cult (Judges xviii.); and the war of revenge on Benjamin for the outrage committed in Gibeah (Judges xix.-xx.). Others, however, place both these events before the Mesopotamian invasion (cf. Josephus, Ant. V., ii. 8 sqq., iii. 1); but there is no ground for the view that these episodes are later interpolations. After the death of Othniel at the expiration of the forty years' peace, the Israelites were again subjugated for eighteen years by the combined Moabites, Ammonites, and Amalekites, until the Benjamite Ehud killed the Moabite King Eglon (Judges iii. 12 sqq.). Eighty years of peace followed, after which the Israelites
The chronology of this period is difficult. The period given by the book of Judges from the subjugation by Chushan-rishathaim (Judges iii. 8) to the death of Samson (xvi. 31) is 410 years; but this is far too long when compared with I Kings vi. 1, which gives only 480 years for the time from the Exodus to the commencement of the Temple in the fourth year of the reign of Solomon, including the forty years in the wilderness, the equal length of David's reign, and the unknown duration of the rule of Samuel, Saul, etc. The best explanation of these conflicting data seems to be the synchronization of Judges x. 8 sqq. with xiii. 1 sqq., thus placing the oppression by the Philistines at the same time as that by the Ammonites, and regarding Samson as the contemporary of Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon; with a resultant reduction of the 140 years to about 360 (cf. Judges x. 6 sqq.; the figures in Judges xi. 26 would then be round numbers). It is also tempting to assume a further synchronism between the forty years' oppression by the Philistines (Judges xiii. 1) and the rule of Eli and the early part of Samuel's judgeship, thus reducing the period to about 340 years. See TIME, BIBLICAL RECKONING OF.
It is assumed by the majority of modern scholars that the redactor of the book of Judges had two systems of chronology before him: one of generations of forty years each; and the other of smaller, but more accurate, figures. These two systems were then interwoven, the smaller being assumed to refer to the periods of subjugation, and the larger to the rules of the judges. But the problem is still unsolved, although it would seem that the apparently over-long period arose from the addition of contemporaneous periods, and that the number forty is only approximate. The critical school has assailed not only the chronology, but also the historicity of the book of Judges. Thus Othniel, Ehud, Tola, Jair, and Elon are resolved into "eponymous heroes"; but in no case is the evidence favorable to the theories of this school. On the contrary, the book gives an impression of relative unity and independence; nor
The most important question for the Bible student
is the amount and degree of the idealizing of
history which are employed in the book in its present
form. The introduction
The stories which make the main part of the
book so readable are at the same time the source
of nearly all direct knowledge of the period between
the settlement and the founding of
the kingdom. They belong in their
original form to some of the earliest
collections of prose compositions in
the literature of Israel. Beginning with the deliverances
effected by Othniel
As to the chronology of the book it is hopeless to attempt to reduce the given numbers. of years to any reasonable scheme (see TIME, BIBLICAL RECKONING OF). The best that can be done is to take the probable date of the eastern invasion (about 1170 B.C.) and the accession of David (about 1000 B.C.) as two working extremes, within which approximation to the facts may be reached by placing Deborah and Barak about 1130, Gideon about 1100, Jephthah about 1080, Samuel about 1050, Saul about 1030 B.C.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: On the history of the Judges consult the literature under AHAB: the commentaries named below; C. Piepenbring, Hist. du peuple d'Israel, Paris, 1898. The three indispensable commentaries are: G. F. Moore, New York, 1895 (high-water mark in critical exegesis); K. Budde, Tübingen, 1897 (thorough); and W. Nowack, Göttingen,1900 (also excellent). Other commentaries are: G. L. Studer. Bern, 1842; C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Edinburgh, 1865; J. Bachmann, Berlin, 1868-69; Hervey, in Bible Commentary, London, 1872; P. Cassel, in Lange, New York, 1875; E. Reuse, Paris, 1877; J. J. Lias, in Cambridge Bible, Cambridge, 1882; E. Bertheau, Leipsic, 1883; A. R. Fausset, London, 1885; S. Oettli, Munich, 1893; G. H. S. Walpole, London, 1901; M. J. Lagrange, Paris, 1903.
On questions of introduction consult the works mentioned in and under BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION; T. Nöldeke, Untersuchungen zur Kritik des A. T., pp. 173-198, Kiel, 1869; E. Meyer, in ZATW, i (1881), 117-146; J. C. A. Kessler, Chronologia judicum et primorum regum, Leipsic, 1885; S. R. Driver, in JQR, i (1889), pp. 258-270; G. A. Cooke, Hist. and Song of Deborah, London, 1892; R. Kittel, in TSK, lxv (1892), 44-71; P. de Lagarde, Septuagintastudien, pp. 1-72, -Göttingen, 1892; W. Frankenberg, Die Composition des . . . Richterbuchs, Marburg, 1895; F. Perles, Analekten zur Textkritik des A. T., Munich, 1895; C. Bruston, Le Cantique de Deborah, Paris, 1901; DB, ii. 807-820; EB, ii. 2633-42; JE, vii. 375-381.
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