While it is easy to assume that the term “judges” deals with judicial functionaries, the verb “to judge” (jpv, shpt) does not always indicate such a responsibility. The legal and forensic functioning of “judges” in the OT is seen in their non-military activities depicted in Exod 18:13, 22, 26; Deut 16:18; 17:9, 12; 19:17–18; 21:2; 25:1–2; 1 Sam 4:18; 7:6, 15–17; 2 Sam 15:4; 1 Kgs 3:9, 28; 2 Kgs 15:5.11 In Judges, the function of these God-raised leaders is best as seen as military judge-deliverers, as indicated in 2:16–17: “And Yahweh raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.”12 Block therefore suggests that the “judging” by these deliverers—the “major judges” of the book—is more likely that of “leading” or “governing,” especially in a militaristic fashion to overcome the primary problem facing their people: enemy oppression.13
Structure
The Body of the book of Judges (Jdg 3:7—16:31) is flanked by Prologues I and II (Jdg 1:1—2:5 and 2:6—3:6) and Epilogues I and II (17:1—18:31 and 19:1—21:25) 14:
The account of the judges in the Body is carefully structured, with twelve judges that directly or indirectly represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The order of the judges more or less follows a south-to-north sequence of tribes: Othniel (Judah), Ehud (Benjamin), Shamgar (perhaps Simeon, from his southern center of operations against the Philistines), Barak (Napthtali, but Deborah operated in Ephraim, 4:5), Gideon (half tribe of Manasseh), Tola (Issachar), Jair and Jephthah (Gilead, representing Gad and Reuben, and perhaps the other half tribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan, too), Ibzan and Elon (the latter was from Zebulun, so the former, from Bethlehem in the north, was likely to have hailed from Asher). Then we see Abdon, the Ephraimite, at a textual location where one might have expected Barak, the Naphtalite. Thus it appears that Barak and Abdon have effectively swapped seats, serving the narrator’s theological agenda, with Deborah’s presence in the Barak story lending it a quasi-Ephraimite flavor.15 After Abdon comes the last judge, Samson (Dan). “[T]his hypothesis becomes even more compelling when one considers how the arrangement of the twelve judges [in the Body] seems to reflect the same south-to-north geographic trajectory introduced in the prologue of the book in Judges 1.”16
Each of the judge stories follows a paradigmatic structure described in Pericope 2 (Jdg 2:6—3:11), in 2:11–19. It comprises Israel’s evildoing, punishment, groaning, Yahweh’s raising up of a deliverer, and his support for that individual, Israel’s deliverance, the land’s rest, and the judge’s demise (see below).17 But things begin to fall apart quite rapidly. Except for the consistent evildoing of the Israelites at the beginning of each account of the major judges, the shape of the paradigm governing the judge stories progressively disintegrates. Other than Othniel’s story—he was the model judge—the rest of the stories do not strictly adhere to the pattern. The deviations are important clues to the theologies of the individual pericopes.
On the other hand, the accounts of the minor judges do not follow this standard cyclical scheme set forth in 2:11–19; besides, their reports are abbreviated, without much narrative development.18 Yet there seems to be a “minor judge paradigm” unique for those accounts, comprising: tribe/clan/family lineage, years of service (in rounded numbers), evidence of peacefulness (amidst times of turmoil/transition), and the death and burial of the judge.19 All in all, it seems that the minor judges have been added to bring the total number of major and minor judges to twelve. Even if each does not unambiguously represent one of the twelve tribes of Israel, the numerical symbolism points to the fact that all of Israel was affected by the crises of that age. And thus all of God’s people of all time are being addressed in this book.
Williams’s arrangement of the twelve judges in a twelve-segmented circle with four quadrants is intriguing20:
The twin sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh are opposite each other, as also are Reuben and Benjamin, the oldest and youngest of Jacob’s sons—each is the middle item in its quadrant. With two exceptions, every major judge is opposite a minor judge. With the Ehud-Jephthah exception, one might note that Jephthah’s account in 10:6—12:7 is sandwiched by minor judge accounts on either side, 10:1–5 and 12:8–15. Besides, with Jephthah’s years of service and death and burial details provided in 12:7, resembling the format of the minor judges around him, Jephthah almost becomes a minor judge himself.21
Another indication of careful structuring is that the Spirit of Yahweh comes upon one judge in each quadrant: Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson (Samson, the summation of the series, receives the operations of the Spirit four times: 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14). Of note, the land finds rest only after each major judge in quadrants 1 and 2: Othniel (3:11), Ehud (3:30), Barak (5:31), and Gideon (8:28). It also appears that the role of women seems to be going from Yahwistic to anti-Yahwistic as one proceeds through the book. Quadrant 1 (by extrapolation) has Achsah, Othniel’s wife (she is actually found in 1:12–15), eagerly seeking land promised by Yahweh. Quadrant 2 has Deborah, Jael, and the woman who killed Abimelech—heroines of their day, all of them. Quadrant 3, however, has a passive daughter of Jephthah who becomes a victim of her father’s vile oath and his tendency to manipulate Yahweh. Finally, Quadrant 4 has Delilah who betrays a judge to the Philistines for filthy lucre.22
The first three of the major judges, Othniel, Ehud, and Barak, come from acceptable backgrounds. The last three major judges, however, have a less-than-stellar pedigree: Gideon’s father was a Baal worshiper (6:25); Jephthah was the son of a harlot (11:1); and Samson hailed from the apostate tribe of Dan (13:2). These three show failures and character flaws that are far more significant than what their predecessors exhibited: Gideon, in his hubris, spurs the nation to idolatry, Jephthah performs a human sacrifice in an attempt to manipulate Yahweh, and Samson, enslaved to his sensual passions, abandons the calling of Yahweh entirely. The activities of this final trio are also marked by brutal vengeance: Gideon against the Succothites and Penuelites (8:4–9, 13–17); Jephthah against the Ephraimites (12:1–6); and Samson, rather randomly, against the Philistines (15:3, 7–8; etc.). Gideon’s and Jephthah’s actions against their own fellow-Israelites, and the Judahites betrayal of Samson to the Philistines (15:9–13) bespeak an internal fracturing that, not surprisingly, culminates in the bloody civil war of Epilogue II (Pericopes 13 and 14: Jdg 19:1–30 and 20:1—21:25).23
Chronology
The timeframe of the book of Judges spans the death of Joshua and the transition to a monarchy in the time of Samuel. From the chronological notations given in 3:8 (8 years); 3:11 (40 years); 3:14 (18 years); 3:30 (80 years); 4:3 (20 years); 5:31 (40 years); 6:1 (7 years); 8:28 (40 years); 9:22 (3 years); 10:2 (23 years); 10:3 (22 years); 10:8 (18 years); 12:7 (6 years); 12:9 (7 years); 12:11 (10 years); 12:14 (8 years); 13:1 (40 years); and 15:20 (20 years), a total of 410 years is obtained for the days of the judges. Adding the wilderness wanderings,