Content warning - rape
The people have arrived in the promised land, spread out and settled. What do they do next? FIGHT! Well, that's how it seems at first glance. Actually though, there is far more peace than war. After each decisive battle, there is peace. After Deborah's victory, 40 years of peace. After Gideon's victory, 40 years of peace. When there is no peace it appears to be the fault of 'unjust' leaders - those who have no integrity. I've heard it said that history is told from the winners perspective, but with the book of Judges I'm not sure how much is even history
1. The 12 tribes of Israel are in the ascendant, defeating or enslaving the Canaanites as they sweep through their promised land
2. As the 'Joshua generation' grows old and dies, the memory of God's saving power dies with them, and few Israelites remain faithful to the covenant Moses made with God
3. The nations that Israel settles among become a test of their loyalty to God, and with the exception of one or two faithful leaders most fail the test, adopting local culture and worshipping idolatrous gods
4. Among the notable leaders is Deborah, who enables Israel to drive back the powerful army led by Sisera, but it is Jael who tricks and kills him, when he flees the battleground
5. An epic song is sung celebrating God's presence with Israel's warriors in this decisive battle, which brings forty years of peace
6. God calls Gideon to lead the people against another enemy and to destroy the idols the people worship, but he doesn't seem wholly committed to the divine mission he's been given
7. God instructs Gideon to reduce his army, so that everyone will know their victory comes from God, then they orchestrate a stealthy attack which sends their enemies fleeing in terror
8. Gideon and his soldiers rout the enemies, with little support from the other Israelite tribes, ushering in another period of peace
9. The desire to live in peace drives the people to choose another strong leader of Gideon's line, but they learn to their cost that not all strong leaders are trustworthy
10. Things are quiet for a time and two more leaders of Israel come and go, but gradually the people lose sight of God, returning to idolatrous worship, and their peace fades away
11. Under threat of invasion Israel's military leaders persuade Jepthah (once driven away by them because of his illegitimate birth) to lead them in battle, he's successful but it costs him greatly
12. A succession of leaders with large families follow after Jepthah, and apart from some bickering among the tribes, Israel is relatively peaceful for many years
13. As the people drift away from God yet again, a messenger is sent to a barren woman announcing that she will bear a son who will be significant for Israel
14. Samson grows to be an impetuous and impulsive man, but God's hand rests upon him
15. On discovering that his Philistine wife has been married off to another man, Samson unleashes his fury against that nation causing great unrest
16. Samson's philandering habits get him in trouble again when Delilah betrays him to the Philistines, and he dies while being revenged on those who used her to capture him
17. Micah decides to change his life; he repents of a wrong he committed against his mother, and with her help sets up a prayer space and appoints a Levite priest to serve within his household
18. The Levite priest abandons Micah's household to join another tribe as they conquer and settle a new area
19. A man traveling home with his unwilling bride gives her over to a gang of men, to save himself
20. The other tribes unite in a fierce battle against the tribe of Benjamin, who are seen as being responsible for the rape and murder the young bride
21. After deciding to completely wipe out the tribe responsible for the crime, Israel then has a change of heart and so women must be abducted to marry the men whom the Israelite leaders have sworn they will not allow their daughters to marry
Most of Judges reads like a book of "Amazing Hero Stories" - the stuff of modern fantasy action movies. Much in the way that I might sit down with my family and watch one of those kinds of movies of an evening, I can imagine family groups gathered around a hearth to tell the tales of the Judges. As well as heroes and epic deeds though, it's very bloodthirsty from the start. It also contains a number of stories describing horrific treatment of women. Chapter 19 contains the story I find most repellent in the whole bible. It's the account of a young woman handed over to a violent gang, then brutally raped and left to die on a doorstep. It's a deeply disturbing account, and I think that is exactly what the story is intended to do - to horrify and sicken the reader. I first stumbled across this story as a young woman, and it turned me against the bible and religion for many years - I couldn't understand how something which claimed to be about goodness could even contain such a story. It still disturbs me greatly, but today I also wonder what the story is really trying to say
What happens to the unnamed woman in chapter 19 is a story of injustice and helplessness in the face of evil, and it pronounces judgement on all acts of wickedness. But I'm also struck by the strange details; it was an unwilling partnership, the young woman tried to leave her husband and her father tried to stop the husband from taking her back (some translation suggest that she was a concubine and was unfaithful to the man, but the CEV version does not seem to endorse that interpretation, and I would tend to agree that the story makes more sense this way.) Then this man, who's gone to so much trouble to retrieve his unwilling wife, hands her over to a violent gang to save himself. Finally, he takes her corpse and cuts it into twelve pieces. This final act most of all makes me wonder - is this an analogy rather than an account of a horrible event? Is the brutal treatment of the young woman representing Israels treatment of the Promised Land? The nation of Israel sought this land, conquered and occupied it, but did they love and treasure it as they should have? The land was chopped up and distributed among the twelve tribes, but very few seem to be living in the land the way the covenant and promise from the time of Moses suggested. I don't have a commentary on Judges and the online resources I've found so far seem to want to view it as a moral story, reflecting Israel's breaking of the covenant relationship with God through 'wrong' worship and living. Perhaps it all amounts to the same thing, but the story is more palatable to me if I imagine it as an analogy
I had hoped that by dwelling on and learning more about this horrible story I could forgive the bible for containing it - sadly the abuse of women doesn't end there. In chapter 12 we hear about how Jepthah promised to sacrifice the first thing he saw when he reached home after a successful battle, and it's his beloved daughter who greets him... Given that Israel has a pretty strong stance on human sacrifice, and a high value for children, and remembering the well known story of Abraham and the (non) sacrifice of Isaac, I have doubts about this story as a historical event. It strikes me as a story to both legitimise Jepthah (the fact that he was not the child of a legitimate union and lineage made him suspect in Israel) and to hammer home the message about not making foolish oaths. In the final chapter we find once again that the fate of woman is inconsequential to Israel, when wives for the remnant of the tribe of Benjamin are taken by force. Once again women are pawns in patriarchal power games; the men have promised God (more foolish oaths) that they will not allow their daughters to marry into the tribe of Benjamin, but then they feel bad about breaking up the twelve tribes, so they find a way around their pledge by kidnapping young women. Everything about it disgusts me.
In contrast to the violent men and women is Manoah and his (unnamed) wife. She is a woman of faith who hears God speaking to her through messengers, and seems to have a good relationship with her husband. When she reports her conversation with the mysterious messenger to Manoah he questions it, but he doesn't doubt his wife's experience, just asks to be included next time the messenger appears. When this happens they prepare a sacrifice and worship God together. It's a lovely picture of two simple people and a Godly marriage. They continue to try and steer their son Samson as he grows, but he is stubborn and wayward, and the more fantastic stories describing his deeds depict a man who is powerful but also dangerously unpredictable
As with all hero stories God seems rather arbitrary, and I wouldn't trust it as a historical record. All in all I feel that the book of Judges has some ripping good yarns, but not much else