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Bible #7
ESV Illuminated Scripture Journal: Judges
ESV Illuminated Scripture Journals pair the entirety of individual books of the Bible with a lightly dotted blank page opposite each page of Bible text, providing space to creatively engage with and reflect on the Word of God. Hand-lettered, gold-ink illustrations by renowned artist Dana Tanamachi are interspersed throughout the blank pages, inviting readers to add their own artwork or reflections to each page. These thin, portable notebooks have unique covers stamped with gold-foil and are great for art journaling, personal Bible reading and prayer, small-group Bible study, or taking notes through a sermon series.
Single-column format Thick, opaque, cream-colored paper Lightly dotted grid on blank pages opposite each page of Bible text Gold-ink illustrations by artist Dana Tanamachi Wide margins Lay-flat binding Unique covers stamped with gold-foil Packaging: Backer O-wrap
Single-column format Thick, opaque, cream-colored paper Lightly dotted grid on blank pages opposite each page of Bible text Gold-ink illustrations by artist Dana Tanamachi Wide margins Lay-flat binding Unique covers stamped with gold-foil Packaging: Backer O-wrap
126 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 501
47 people are currently reading
329 people want to read
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* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 180 reviews
April 3, 2025
Judges describes a dark time in Israel's history. God's people continually fell into idolatry, so He would send judges to save them. While there are some admirable heroes here--Deborah is a personal favorite of mine, as I've always admired strong women--not only are some of the judges portrayed as either weak or evil, but some stories get gruesome, such as the killing of King Eglon by the judge Ehud. Fans of action movies may enjoy it, but it may be too much for some sensitive readers.
April 27, 2022
This book is brutal… so hard to read. The Israelites continually wander away. God tries to win them back. They return in tears. He delivers them. They serve Him for a time. And the cycle continues…
And then you have those who do evil and drag everyone else with them, like Abimelech, and the Levite.
And you have those who do stupid things and end up in bad situations, like the Jews in the last few chapters.
Basically, you see what happens when there is no King and every man does what seems good in his eyes.
Chaos. Misery. Death.
Yet God still stands there ready to listen and deliver, if only you’d go to Him.
There are so many lessons in this short book.
~ It was wonderful that there was a generation that knew God and His wonders, but how terrible that the next generation that arose did NOT know Him. What happened?
~ Every time the Israelites had peace, they fell.
~ When they obeyed, they had victory; when they sinned, they were enslaved.
~ When they cried, God answered. Every. Time.
~Sometimes trials are to try us and see how fully we are God’s. Or to teach us to fight… to know what war is.
~ God rose up a man who wasn’t seen as perfect or very good (being left-handed) and used him to deliver the Israelites for 80 years!
~ Debora arose because the men wouldn’t. Jael arose because the men weren’t there.
~ The country was abandoned + dangerous, but Debora had the courage to get up and let God use her.
~ Sisera had so many men and chariots but 10,000 men wholly defeated him because GOD defeated him.
~ When the chiefs take control/assume responsibility + people go to combat willingly, God is glorified.
~ When you leave God, there will be war, yet no way of winning.
~ Wake up and fight, take captives, don’t just sit there! God will give triumph. Have courage!
Even in all that discouragement there is much good to be found.
People who stand up and serve no matter what, like Deborah & Jael.
People who find that God is greater than their past, like Jephthah.
People who find God is greater than their fears, like Gideon.
People who find that God can use even backsliders, like Samson.
God is still at work.
And then you have those who do evil and drag everyone else with them, like Abimelech, and the Levite.
And you have those who do stupid things and end up in bad situations, like the Jews in the last few chapters.
Basically, you see what happens when there is no King and every man does what seems good in his eyes.
Chaos. Misery. Death.
Yet God still stands there ready to listen and deliver, if only you’d go to Him.
There are so many lessons in this short book.
~ It was wonderful that there was a generation that knew God and His wonders, but how terrible that the next generation that arose did NOT know Him. What happened?
~ Every time the Israelites had peace, they fell.
~ When they obeyed, they had victory; when they sinned, they were enslaved.
~ When they cried, God answered. Every. Time.
~Sometimes trials are to try us and see how fully we are God’s. Or to teach us to fight… to know what war is.
~ God rose up a man who wasn’t seen as perfect or very good (being left-handed) and used him to deliver the Israelites for 80 years!
~ Debora arose because the men wouldn’t. Jael arose because the men weren’t there.
~ The country was abandoned + dangerous, but Debora had the courage to get up and let God use her.
~ Sisera had so many men and chariots but 10,000 men wholly defeated him because GOD defeated him.
~ When the chiefs take control/assume responsibility + people go to combat willingly, God is glorified.
~ When you leave God, there will be war, yet no way of winning.
~ Wake up and fight, take captives, don’t just sit there! God will give triumph. Have courage!
Even in all that discouragement there is much good to be found.
People who stand up and serve no matter what, like Deborah & Jael.
People who find that God is greater than their past, like Jephthah.
People who find God is greater than their fears, like Gideon.
People who find that God can use even backsliders, like Samson.
God is still at work.
July 4, 2025
Reading Judges is definitely a reminder that there really is nothing new under the sun. It’s brutal and can be a hard read. Evil has been around since the beginning. Judges takes place in a dark time of history. Lots of things to unpack in this book. It deals with the issue of pride, rejection, action, faith, generational curses, revenge, rebellion and so much more. Through all the bad though, the character of God shines- his people are constantly turning from him, doing what is right in their own eyes, yet the Lord always has a plan and purpose- even when everything seems impossible.
March 29, 2015
Part of my READ THE BIBLE WITHIN A YEAR challenge.
Wish me luck, as I've got a long way to go!
It has been about a month since I read any of the Bible. I’ve found it hard to motivate myself to continue, and Judges reminded me why. This book is so brutal. Judges is full of violence, rape, death, the cutting up of a woman’s body, the gouging out of a man’s eyes …shudder! Although I am still enjoying the challenge, I really did find Judges hard going and emotionally draining, due to all of the shocking violence.
Main topics that stood out to me are:
Israelites repeatedly doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.
Gideon instructed by God to save Israel.
Abimelech not wanting to be known as having been killed by a woman, so he got another man to finish him off, by putting a sword through him.
Samson and his great strength.
Samson tearing a lion apart. Bees moving into the lion carcass and producing honey.
Samson tying torches to the tails of foxes, and letting them loose among the corn of the Philistines.
Samson falling in love with Delilah, having his strength taken from him, and his eyes gouged out by the Philistines (they never told us that last part at Sunday School).
Wicked men wanting to have sex with a man, but instead being offered a virgin daughter or concubine. The men raped and abused the concubine throughout the night. She died by the next day and was cut up into twelve parts and sent to all different areas of Israel.
Wish me luck, as I've got a long way to go!
It has been about a month since I read any of the Bible. I’ve found it hard to motivate myself to continue, and Judges reminded me why. This book is so brutal. Judges is full of violence, rape, death, the cutting up of a woman’s body, the gouging out of a man’s eyes …shudder! Although I am still enjoying the challenge, I really did find Judges hard going and emotionally draining, due to all of the shocking violence.
Main topics that stood out to me are:
Israelites repeatedly doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.
Gideon instructed by God to save Israel.
Abimelech not wanting to be known as having been killed by a woman, so he got another man to finish him off, by putting a sword through him.
Samson and his great strength.
Samson tearing a lion apart. Bees moving into the lion carcass and producing honey.
Samson tying torches to the tails of foxes, and letting them loose among the corn of the Philistines.
Samson falling in love with Delilah, having his strength taken from him, and his eyes gouged out by the Philistines (they never told us that last part at Sunday School).
Wicked men wanting to have sex with a man, but instead being offered a virgin daughter or concubine. The men raped and abused the concubine throughout the night. She died by the next day and was cut up into twelve parts and sent to all different areas of Israel.
Read
April 30, 2022The seventh book of the Bible is a great example of where I and many others struggle with the Old Testament text.
Let's take the story of Jephthah. He makes a vow to give to God as a sacrifice whatever comes out of his front door next. Well, even if you are not familiar with the Bible, you can probably guess this was not the smartest promise to make. Why did he not just pick a favorite goat? Lo and behold, it is Jephthah's daughter that comes striding out of the house first. Now, Mosaic law forbids human sacrifice. God wouldn't let Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac even when Abraham was commanded to do so in the first place. But here? No such qualms. Jephthah's daughter goes under the knife.
This is also the book that tells the story of Samson. He's the hot-headed warrior who ticks people off just so he has an excuse to kick some serious Philistine butt. He's like the Hulk with his tremendous strength, but, like Superman, he has a fatal weakness. He has really, really, REALLY bad taste in women. He marries Timnah, a Philistine, even though God told the Israelites in the previous book not to intermarry with the conquered peoples of the Promised Land. Then Timnah makes Samson mad (which is not hard to do) by giving away the secret of Samson's riddle that he told at a party in order to scam some Philistines out of some loot. She gets sent away and I guess remarries. Can't quite tell. But Samson continues to play nasty pranks on the Philistines until they get fed up and take it out on his former wife by burning her alive. Ouch!
But Samson doesn't seem too grieved by this. He ends up sleeping around with another Philistine named Delilah. He doesn't seem to like the Philistine men, but he sure loves their women! Anyway, she too gives away one of his secrets--if you cut his hair, he loses his Hulk powers. Well, this leads to his downfall, though he goes out with one of the most dramatic climaxes in the entirety of the Bible!
So what is all this? What are we supposed to learn from stories about Hebrew heroes who are dumber than characters in an 80s horror flick?
Well, The Book of Judges is a hard one to "judge," but the main point is that God fulfilled the promise to the wandering Hebrews to have a home as spelled out in Deuteronomy while the Hebrews failed to keep their side of the bargain. They failed to uphold the Law of the God of the Israelites, and began worshipping the local gods of the area they conquered with God's intervention. Knowing God brings success. Separation from God brings destruction. So Judges is a cycle of the Israelites screwing up and getting defeated until a Hebrew leader (one of the main Judges) sets them straight again. Therefore, maybe that explains some of the apparent nonsense of Jephthah killing his own daughter and Samson having an impulse control problem. Essentially, this is the beginning of the end for the Promised Land that they conquered and settled in the previous Biblical book, "Joshua," and their decline continues until they lose these lands in the Book of Kings.
Unfortunately, as a modern Christian American, I struggle with identifying anything here that inspires me or anyone now to be a better person. What I see instead is colonialism, violence and brutality endorsed by religion, mistreatment of women, and xenophobia all wrapped in a befuddled narrative compiled from more than one source.
NOTE:
I am in the process of rereading the Bible again after 20 years and will occasionally be leaving my initial thoughts here on Goodreads regarding some of the books as I go through them in the hopes that some of you may share your own thoughts and wisdom. And I think it will be interesting to look back on these reviews at different times of my life and see how I might have changed or grown.
I do not plan to leave ratings with these reviews as I feel that religious texts sacred and inspirational to global millions and which have driven the events of history should never be judged on the merits of entertainment, writing style, plot, and other measures of quality that go into ratings in this forum. These will just be honest summaries and feelings from my point of view, and in no way is it my intention to recommend one religious text over another.
So with that said, I shall dive deeper into the Bible and see what I can see. You are welcome to join me!
Let's take the story of Jephthah. He makes a vow to give to God as a sacrifice whatever comes out of his front door next. Well, even if you are not familiar with the Bible, you can probably guess this was not the smartest promise to make. Why did he not just pick a favorite goat? Lo and behold, it is Jephthah's daughter that comes striding out of the house first. Now, Mosaic law forbids human sacrifice. God wouldn't let Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac even when Abraham was commanded to do so in the first place. But here? No such qualms. Jephthah's daughter goes under the knife.
This is also the book that tells the story of Samson. He's the hot-headed warrior who ticks people off just so he has an excuse to kick some serious Philistine butt. He's like the Hulk with his tremendous strength, but, like Superman, he has a fatal weakness. He has really, really, REALLY bad taste in women. He marries Timnah, a Philistine, even though God told the Israelites in the previous book not to intermarry with the conquered peoples of the Promised Land. Then Timnah makes Samson mad (which is not hard to do) by giving away the secret of Samson's riddle that he told at a party in order to scam some Philistines out of some loot. She gets sent away and I guess remarries. Can't quite tell. But Samson continues to play nasty pranks on the Philistines until they get fed up and take it out on his former wife by burning her alive. Ouch!
But Samson doesn't seem too grieved by this. He ends up sleeping around with another Philistine named Delilah. He doesn't seem to like the Philistine men, but he sure loves their women! Anyway, she too gives away one of his secrets--if you cut his hair, he loses his Hulk powers. Well, this leads to his downfall, though he goes out with one of the most dramatic climaxes in the entirety of the Bible!
So what is all this? What are we supposed to learn from stories about Hebrew heroes who are dumber than characters in an 80s horror flick?
Well, The Book of Judges is a hard one to "judge," but the main point is that God fulfilled the promise to the wandering Hebrews to have a home as spelled out in Deuteronomy while the Hebrews failed to keep their side of the bargain. They failed to uphold the Law of the God of the Israelites, and began worshipping the local gods of the area they conquered with God's intervention. Knowing God brings success. Separation from God brings destruction. So Judges is a cycle of the Israelites screwing up and getting defeated until a Hebrew leader (one of the main Judges) sets them straight again. Therefore, maybe that explains some of the apparent nonsense of Jephthah killing his own daughter and Samson having an impulse control problem. Essentially, this is the beginning of the end for the Promised Land that they conquered and settled in the previous Biblical book, "Joshua," and their decline continues until they lose these lands in the Book of Kings.
Unfortunately, as a modern Christian American, I struggle with identifying anything here that inspires me or anyone now to be a better person. What I see instead is colonialism, violence and brutality endorsed by religion, mistreatment of women, and xenophobia all wrapped in a befuddled narrative compiled from more than one source.
NOTE:
I am in the process of rereading the Bible again after 20 years and will occasionally be leaving my initial thoughts here on Goodreads regarding some of the books as I go through them in the hopes that some of you may share your own thoughts and wisdom. And I think it will be interesting to look back on these reviews at different times of my life and see how I might have changed or grown.
I do not plan to leave ratings with these reviews as I feel that religious texts sacred and inspirational to global millions and which have driven the events of history should never be judged on the merits of entertainment, writing style, plot, and other measures of quality that go into ratings in this forum. These will just be honest summaries and feelings from my point of view, and in no way is it my intention to recommend one religious text over another.
So with that said, I shall dive deeper into the Bible and see what I can see. You are welcome to join me!
Read
January 5, 2022yet another book for school that i'm logging bc i need the validation of meeting my goodreads goal
March 18, 2025
Wow! If you like action, sex, violence, crime, depravity, this is the book for you.
Judges is a history of Israel of the four hundred years from the death of Joshua to the kingship of King Saul. The recurring theme is: 'In those days, there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes.' There's your cause of sex and violence.
The violence starts off with Judge Ehud, a left-hander, who assassinates the King Eglon who's occupying Israel at the time. He uses an 18-inch dagger strapped to his right thigh. He leaves the body in a locked room, giving his successors a nice puzzle to figure out. The delay gives him a chance to escape and lead Israel's army to victory.
There's also Gideon, who's threshing grain in an olive press underground to hide from the Midianites. God calls him a mighty warrior, allays his worries and fears with a sheep's fleece, and then sends him with 300 men against the Midanite army of tens of thousands. The men are armed only with trumpets and torches. The army slaughters itself in fear.
Sadly, things keep getting worse throughout the book. One judge sacrifices his daughter. Others have their children kill each other. Just when you think it can't get worse, you get Samson. Dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth, he first goes astray marrying a Philistine women. That leads to him killing a lion with his bare hands and 30 Philistine men to pay off a wedding bet about the lion. The violence escalates as the Philistines kill his wife and his family. He then burns Philistines' standing grain with 300 foxes with firebrands tied to their tails.
The Philistines send out their army, and Samson kills a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass. Then, they try to trap him when he goes to a Philistine whore by locking the city gate after him. He tears the gate and the posts out of the wall and carries them miles away to the top of hill.
Then we get more sex. He falls in love with Delilah, who betrays him and he is blinded and captured and enslaved. Finally, he commits suicide by toppling a temple of the Philistine and killing 3000 of them.
The last two episodes are too horrible for me to relate, but they're worse.
Read this if you like Game of Thrones.
Judges is a history of Israel of the four hundred years from the death of Joshua to the kingship of King Saul. The recurring theme is: 'In those days, there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes.' There's your cause of sex and violence.
The violence starts off with Judge Ehud, a left-hander, who assassinates the King Eglon who's occupying Israel at the time. He uses an 18-inch dagger strapped to his right thigh. He leaves the body in a locked room, giving his successors a nice puzzle to figure out. The delay gives him a chance to escape and lead Israel's army to victory.
There's also Gideon, who's threshing grain in an olive press underground to hide from the Midianites. God calls him a mighty warrior, allays his worries and fears with a sheep's fleece, and then sends him with 300 men against the Midanite army of tens of thousands. The men are armed only with trumpets and torches. The army slaughters itself in fear.
Sadly, things keep getting worse throughout the book. One judge sacrifices his daughter. Others have their children kill each other. Just when you think it can't get worse, you get Samson. Dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth, he first goes astray marrying a Philistine women. That leads to him killing a lion with his bare hands and 30 Philistine men to pay off a wedding bet about the lion. The violence escalates as the Philistines kill his wife and his family. He then burns Philistines' standing grain with 300 foxes with firebrands tied to their tails.
The Philistines send out their army, and Samson kills a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass. Then, they try to trap him when he goes to a Philistine whore by locking the city gate after him. He tears the gate and the posts out of the wall and carries them miles away to the top of hill.
Then we get more sex. He falls in love with Delilah, who betrays him and he is blinded and captured and enslaved. Finally, he commits suicide by toppling a temple of the Philistine and killing 3000 of them.
The last two episodes are too horrible for me to relate, but they're worse.
Read this if you like Game of Thrones.
September 21, 2018
This is for both Judges and Ruth, since Ruth is rather short. Also, Ruth technically coincides canonically with Judges, taking place three generations before the end of the events of Judges. I have no idea how historically accurate that is. In any case, I’ll mention both.
Judges is odd, even for the Bible. There is a level of violence in this book that is remarkably macabre. It is sobering to consider that much of this same view to violence still abounds in some regions of the world to this day.
The way it is written and paced gets across eerily well the sense of tribal chaos among the Israelites, though I certainly wouldn’t know what is historically accurate and what isn’t. The Story of Samson is one among the many stories of atrocities told in Judges, and it is a feverishly bizarre story that has gone through so many truncated interpretations (from John Milton to William Blake to modern day private school religion class, along with probably a host of Christian Metaphysical philosophers whom I’ve never even heard of), many who have heard of the Story of Samson have likely never quite read the story itself. The connections between Judges and Blood Meridian are also very interesting, though that is perhaps a topic for another day. This is a characteristic true of other portions of the Bible. Again, a topic for another day.
As for Ruth, Ruth is very different. A friend of mine called it surprisingly wholesome, considering it comes right after Judges. I would agree with that summation. It’s the most peaceful book in the Bible that I have thus far read.
On to Samuel!
Judges is odd, even for the Bible. There is a level of violence in this book that is remarkably macabre. It is sobering to consider that much of this same view to violence still abounds in some regions of the world to this day.
The way it is written and paced gets across eerily well the sense of tribal chaos among the Israelites, though I certainly wouldn’t know what is historically accurate and what isn’t. The Story of Samson is one among the many stories of atrocities told in Judges, and it is a feverishly bizarre story that has gone through so many truncated interpretations (from John Milton to William Blake to modern day private school religion class, along with probably a host of Christian Metaphysical philosophers whom I’ve never even heard of), many who have heard of the Story of Samson have likely never quite read the story itself. The connections between Judges and Blood Meridian are also very interesting, though that is perhaps a topic for another day. This is a characteristic true of other portions of the Bible. Again, a topic for another day.
As for Ruth, Ruth is very different. A friend of mine called it surprisingly wholesome, considering it comes right after Judges. I would agree with that summation. It’s the most peaceful book in the Bible that I have thus far read.
On to Samuel!
September 2, 2017
This is not a light book to read. It is a very dark time in history. Often repeated in the book is "Everyone did as they saw fit." (21:25)
It is complete and total moral chaos most of the book. A cycle of sin is repeated over. And over. And over. It goes something like this...They drift from following God. There are repercussions. (there always are) Their world is in chaos. They repent...and cry out to God. He hears their cry. (He always does). He restores.
Many chapters you wonder...how did things get this bad? In fact, at one point, the people ask that. (21:3). But it really was just one disobendient step at a time. Much to apply to my own life. To really follow God and walk in obedience, I have to know him. And I know him when I'm in his word.
It is complete and total moral chaos most of the book. A cycle of sin is repeated over. And over. And over. It goes something like this...They drift from following God. There are repercussions. (there always are) Their world is in chaos. They repent...and cry out to God. He hears their cry. (He always does). He restores.
Many chapters you wonder...how did things get this bad? In fact, at one point, the people ask that. (21:3). But it really was just one disobendient step at a time. Much to apply to my own life. To really follow God and walk in obedience, I have to know him. And I know him when I'm in his word.
December 5, 2018
And Israel proceeds to disregard God's commands.
Already! How is it possible to have such a short term memory?
Obviously, this is not "fun" to read. I can just say that I'm very grateful the story doesn't end with Judges, or the Kings, or even the Old Testament as a whole. I thank and praise God again this Christmas season for providing a better ending!
Already! How is it possible to have such a short term memory?
Obviously, this is not "fun" to read. I can just say that I'm very grateful the story doesn't end with Judges, or the Kings, or even the Old Testament as a whole. I thank and praise God again this Christmas season for providing a better ending!
April 7, 2022
TW: sexual assault in chapter 19.
TL;DR:
Some made me laugh - Samson.
Some made me cheer - Deborah and Jael.
And some made me realize we must never forget the suffering, pain, torture, and brutality of that era…
Wow.
This book was basically an action story from beginning to end. We the reader are warned several times that at this point in history, Israel had no king, and everyone basically did as they pleased. To sum up: the patriarchy flourished and women were subjugated. As per freakin’ usual.
But it wasn’t all bad. Sometimes, there were judges. And (sometimes) these judges - especially Deborah - did AMAZING things for Israel.
What I LOVED:
THE ENTIRE SECTION ABOUT JAEL!!!! She’s incredible, go look it up. I believe it’s chapter 4. Also, in chapter 5, we learn that that time in history is called the Time of (some dude I forgot) and Jael! Wicked cool. Also, she’s the kind of person that people who wouldn’t like to be called a “biblical woman” would LOVE to be like. 😁 Seriously awesome female rep in this book during chapters 4 and 5. You NEED to read this epic story!!!!
What I found FUNNY:
Samson. I honestly don’t know why God chose this dude to be His judge, but I think it was in part because Samson is so. freakin. funny. Like, he is the literal definition of a dumb entitled jock, and it is SO FUNNY to watch him mess up at literally everything in life. Well, except killing people. He’s good at that. The end of his story is not a happy one, but it is more serious and satisfying than most of his early life, so the reader gets a sense of completion to his story. Seeing as his story is around 3 chapters long, I’m glad we do feel that sense of completion (most judges get one, maaaaaybe two chapters).
What I HATED:
- All of chapters 19-21. There is a brutal gang rape in chapter 19 which sets off an internal Holocaust of the tribe of Benjamin. It’s not told in a gory way - the book keeps on with its “just the facts, ma’am” way of storytelling (which was hilarious when we were reading about Samson), which I appreciated. And I am glad it is in there so that the poor woman - and many others like her - are still remembered. We can NEVER forget the savagery and brutality of those ancient demons we called men.
In all, a much needed look into a dark period of history. I feel like most of the time the Lord was looking down at His people and going WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?! STOPPIT!!!!!!!
Because that’s basically the only logical response to some of these stories.
TL;DR:
Some made me laugh - Samson.
Some made me cheer - Deborah and Jael.
And some made me realize we must never forget the suffering, pain, torture, and brutality of that era…
Wow.
This book was basically an action story from beginning to end. We the reader are warned several times that at this point in history, Israel had no king, and everyone basically did as they pleased. To sum up: the patriarchy flourished and women were subjugated. As per freakin’ usual.
But it wasn’t all bad. Sometimes, there were judges. And (sometimes) these judges - especially Deborah - did AMAZING things for Israel.
What I LOVED:
THE ENTIRE SECTION ABOUT JAEL!!!! She’s incredible, go look it up. I believe it’s chapter 4. Also, in chapter 5, we learn that that time in history is called the Time of (some dude I forgot) and Jael! Wicked cool. Also, she’s the kind of person that people who wouldn’t like to be called a “biblical woman” would LOVE to be like. 😁 Seriously awesome female rep in this book during chapters 4 and 5. You NEED to read this epic story!!!!
What I found FUNNY:
Samson. I honestly don’t know why God chose this dude to be His judge, but I think it was in part because Samson is so. freakin. funny. Like, he is the literal definition of a dumb entitled jock, and it is SO FUNNY to watch him mess up at literally everything in life. Well, except killing people. He’s good at that. The end of his story is not a happy one, but it is more serious and satisfying than most of his early life, so the reader gets a sense of completion to his story. Seeing as his story is around 3 chapters long, I’m glad we do feel that sense of completion (most judges get one, maaaaaybe two chapters).
What I HATED:
- All of chapters 19-21. There is a brutal gang rape in chapter 19 which sets off an internal Holocaust of the tribe of Benjamin. It’s not told in a gory way - the book keeps on with its “just the facts, ma’am” way of storytelling (which was hilarious when we were reading about Samson), which I appreciated. And I am glad it is in there so that the poor woman - and many others like her - are still remembered. We can NEVER forget the savagery and brutality of those ancient demons we called men.
In all, a much needed look into a dark period of history. I feel like most of the time the Lord was looking down at His people and going WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?! STOPPIT!!!!!!!
Because that’s basically the only logical response to some of these stories.
July 25, 2023
Theme of Judges: "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." -Judges 21:25b.
This book showed God's justice on those who disobey him. Poor Israel. If only they'd listened to the Lord's instructions, things would've gone well for them. Not to condescend on them, of course, for I see, in my own life, times when I do what is right in my eyes. Thankfully God sent those judges, even though peace only lasted as long as they lived. In the end, you see the verse I put above, proving that Israel was unwilling to depart from their ways. It seems that they never learn.
This book showed God's justice on those who disobey him. Poor Israel. If only they'd listened to the Lord's instructions, things would've gone well for them. Not to condescend on them, of course, for I see, in my own life, times when I do what is right in my eyes. Thankfully God sent those judges, even though peace only lasted as long as they lived. In the end, you see the verse I put above, proving that Israel was unwilling to depart from their ways. It seems that they never learn.
September 18, 2021
Judges is the account of how Israel behaves between the death of Joshua and the leadership of a king. Instead of remaining loyal to God and following His laws, this generation of Israelites wanders in their faith, worshiping idols, indulging in violence, and generally becoming just like the other nations around them. As various prophets become judges, the people go through a never ending cycle of repentence, forgiveness, and wandering once again from God's ways.
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August 31, 2022Inappropriate for children.
December 15, 2025
I found the Book of Judges to be a challenging read, especially due to its portrayal of women and the frequent emphasis on purity and violence. Some stories, like the one about the dismembered woman, were particularly distressing and unsettling. However, I did appreciate the lessons in stories like Samson’s, which highlight themes of humility and the consequences of hubris. Overall, it’s a complex and at times troubling book, but it offers a lot of insight into the challenges faced by ancient Israel.
The way it portrays women and the sheer violence in the stories can be really tough to digest. Yet, it also highlights a timeless truth: humanity’s darker side has always been around. It’s a stark reminder that the struggles between good and evil are nothing new. Ultimately, it shows that the world has always been a brutal place, and that’s something to reflect on.
The way it portrays women and the sheer violence in the stories can be really tough to digest. Yet, it also highlights a timeless truth: humanity’s darker side has always been around. It’s a stark reminder that the struggles between good and evil are nothing new. Ultimately, it shows that the world has always been a brutal place, and that’s something to reflect on.
October 4, 2023
If you ever think the Bible is boring, you should read Judges. I mean, where else are you going to read about an enemy general that gets killed by a tent peg to the temple by a woman? Or about a king who is so obese that he gets stabbed and his fat literally closes over the sword? Fun times😄😅
June 21, 2017
Murder, rape, torture, betrayal, deceit. I thought God instructed the Israelites not to be wicked.
November 5, 2023
How many times do we distance ourselves from God and end up in the abyss?
September 20, 2024
This book was mind opening for me. It rlly made me see how many correlations there are to today’s world and it’s rlly sad tbh
May 11, 2025
Still one of my favorites. Truth stranger than fiction? Classic example right here.
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May 15, 2019۱.
کتاب داوران در ادامه کتاب یوشع روایت می شود.
البته در این جا هم بخشی از زندگی و سپس رحلت و خاکسپاری يوشع بن نون تکرار می شود.
سپس در ادامه، متن اصلی کتاب، روایت می شود که براساس آن، در هر دوره ای بعد از اینکه اسباط اسرائیل به بت پرستی گرويدند، یهوه از آنان روی گردان می شد. سپس آن ها توبه و لابه می کردند، یهوه آنرا پذیرفته و یک "داور" از میان شان بر می گزید.
بدین ترتیب سرگذشت شش داور بزرگ (عتنيئيل، ايهود، باراق و دبوره، جدعون، يفتاح، و شمشون) و دلاوریهاشان در شکست دیگر ساکنین سرزمین موعود بطور مختصر روايت می گردد. در این بین نیز تنها به اسم و مدت داوری شش داور کوچک دیگر اشاره می شود.
در آخر، کتاب با دو افزوده ای که درباره استقرار "سبط دان" و جنگ اسرائیل با "سبط بنيامين" می باشند، به پایان می رسد.
در کل می توان گفت که این کتاب نسبتا به کتاب یوشع، عناصر تصویری بیش تری دارد و من بیش از همه، داستان "نبرد اسرائیل به رهبری دبوره با سيسرا، فرمانده ی کنعانيان" را پسندیدم. داستان بطور موجز اما کاملا تصویری روایت شده، و در پایان همه ی آن، بصورت منظوم و از زبان دبوره (تنها داور زن) آورده شده است.
۲.
کتاب داوران، یک دوره ی گذار در تاریخ اسرائیل را روایت می کند. بین دوره ای که اسرائیلیان بصورت مشترک و زیر سایه ی یک رهبر (بصورت بیابانگرد) زندگی می کردند، و دوره ای که پادشاهی سموئیل آغاز می شود.
در این دوره، هر کدام از اسباط در مکانی ساکن شده اند، و می کوشند تا در کنار ساکنین اولیه ی این سرزمین ها همزیستی کرده و یا به جنگ با آن ها بپردازند. مسلما این زندگی يکجانشيني، آن ها را یا چالش ها و مشکلاتي روبرو می کرده که برای حل آن ها، دست به دامان "داوران" می شدند.
داوران همچنین گاها قهرمانانی ملی بودند که مردمان اسرائیل را در جنگ با ساکنین اولیه ی آن سرزمین یاری و رهبری می کردند(مانند شمشون).
۳.
ترجیع بندی که مکررا در کتاب تکرار می گردد، به فراموشی سپردن یهوه توسط اسرائیل است. یهوه برای مجازات شان، آن ها را مغلوب و خراجگذار دشمنان شان می کند. پس اسرائیل به درگاه او توبه کرده و گریه و زاری می کنند. یهوه آن ها را می بخشد و "داوري" را برای هدایت و رهبری شان برمی گزیند و آن ها را بر دشمنان پیروز می گرداند.
۴.
کتاب داوران، هفتمین کتاب عهد عتیق و دومین کتاب از کتاب های تواریخ می باشد.
این کتاب بعد از کتاب یوشع آمده است و پس از آن، "کتاب روت" می آید.
(یادداشت من درباره کتاب يوشع:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).
پ نوشت: بالاخره جلد دوم عهد عتیق(کتاب های تاریخ) به ترجمه پیروز سیار بدستم رسید😁😁
کتاب داوران در ادامه کتاب یوشع روایت می شود.
البته در این جا هم بخشی از زندگی و سپس رحلت و خاکسپاری يوشع بن نون تکرار می شود.
سپس در ادامه، متن اصلی کتاب، روایت می شود که براساس آن، در هر دوره ای بعد از اینکه اسباط اسرائیل به بت پرستی گرويدند، یهوه از آنان روی گردان می شد. سپس آن ها توبه و لابه می کردند، یهوه آنرا پذیرفته و یک "داور" از میان شان بر می گزید.
بدین ترتیب سرگذشت شش داور بزرگ (عتنيئيل، ايهود، باراق و دبوره، جدعون، يفتاح، و شمشون) و دلاوریهاشان در شکست دیگر ساکنین سرزمین موعود بطور مختصر روايت می گردد. در این بین نیز تنها به اسم و مدت داوری شش داور کوچک دیگر اشاره می شود.
در آخر، کتاب با دو افزوده ای که درباره استقرار "سبط دان" و جنگ اسرائیل با "سبط بنيامين" می باشند، به پایان می رسد.
در کل می توان گفت که این کتاب نسبتا به کتاب یوشع، عناصر تصویری بیش تری دارد و من بیش از همه، داستان "نبرد اسرائیل به رهبری دبوره با سيسرا، فرمانده ی کنعانيان" را پسندیدم. داستان بطور موجز اما کاملا تصویری روایت شده، و در پایان همه ی آن، بصورت منظوم و از زبان دبوره (تنها داور زن) آورده شده است.
۲.
کتاب داوران، یک دوره ی گذار در تاریخ اسرائیل را روایت می کند. بین دوره ای که اسرائیلیان بصورت مشترک و زیر سایه ی یک رهبر (بصورت بیابانگرد) زندگی می کردند، و دوره ای که پادشاهی سموئیل آغاز می شود.
در این دوره، هر کدام از اسباط در مکانی ساکن شده اند، و می کوشند تا در کنار ساکنین اولیه ی این سرزمین ها همزیستی کرده و یا به جنگ با آن ها بپردازند. مسلما این زندگی يکجانشيني، آن ها را یا چالش ها و مشکلاتي روبرو می کرده که برای حل آن ها، دست به دامان "داوران" می شدند.
داوران همچنین گاها قهرمانانی ملی بودند که مردمان اسرائیل را در جنگ با ساکنین اولیه ی آن سرزمین یاری و رهبری می کردند(مانند شمشون).
۳.
ترجیع بندی که مکررا در کتاب تکرار می گردد، به فراموشی سپردن یهوه توسط اسرائیل است. یهوه برای مجازات شان، آن ها را مغلوب و خراجگذار دشمنان شان می کند. پس اسرائیل به درگاه او توبه کرده و گریه و زاری می کنند. یهوه آن ها را می بخشد و "داوري" را برای هدایت و رهبری شان برمی گزیند و آن ها را بر دشمنان پیروز می گرداند.
۴.
کتاب داوران، هفتمین کتاب عهد عتیق و دومین کتاب از کتاب های تواریخ می باشد.
این کتاب بعد از کتاب یوشع آمده است و پس از آن، "کتاب روت" می آید.
(یادداشت من درباره کتاب يوشع:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).
پ نوشت: بالاخره جلد دوم عهد عتیق(کتاب های تاریخ) به ترجمه پیروز سیار بدستم رسید😁😁
December 30, 2022
This is part of a series where I am reading the Bible in chronological order. I am not doing this for reasons of faith, as I am agnostic, but because of my interest in mythology, ancient literature, and history. I chose the NRSV because I used to be Catholic and still have sympathies there. More importantly, this version seeks a balance between an accurate translation and the literary qualities of the King James Bible. So it seems you get the best of two worlds.
Judges is a violent and mostly boring book. The tales follow a pattern. Israel rejects God, the Israelites are ruled by others, a Judge arises (a military hero), the invaders are defeated, peace returns, then the people become evil. This really is history repeating in all but the details. There are highlights that save it though. The story of Samson reads like a Conan tale, worthy of the best of epic literature. It is more detailed than Deborah (a good tale) and more exciting than the bore that is Gideon. The war with the tribe of Benjamin is a welcome break in the monotony and another classic tale of war, only this time the tribe is spared extinction. Before you get all mushy though, the tribe survives only by being allowed to abduct women from Shiloh. I mean come on, this is epic literature after all from the most bloodthirsty of religious texts. What do you expect?
Judges is a violent and mostly boring book. The tales follow a pattern. Israel rejects God, the Israelites are ruled by others, a Judge arises (a military hero), the invaders are defeated, peace returns, then the people become evil. This really is history repeating in all but the details. There are highlights that save it though. The story of Samson reads like a Conan tale, worthy of the best of epic literature. It is more detailed than Deborah (a good tale) and more exciting than the bore that is Gideon. The war with the tribe of Benjamin is a welcome break in the monotony and another classic tale of war, only this time the tribe is spared extinction. Before you get all mushy though, the tribe survives only by being allowed to abduct women from Shiloh. I mean come on, this is epic literature after all from the most bloodthirsty of religious texts. What do you expect?
July 18, 2022
This book of the Bible ended surprisingly. I feel like I learned so much I hadn't before. I'd say Judges is important for any believer to read. If nothing else, it shows God's amazing patience with us, His forgiveness, and our depravity. Fascinating and sobering read.
May 17, 2023
Two of my favourite stories from childhood is in this book - Gideon and Samson.
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May 21, 20253/5/2025 - 3/28/2025 with the kids
3/30/2025-4/6/2025 with the Bible Recap
3/30/2025-4/6/2025 with the Bible Recap
June 30, 2020
The Book of Judges plays out in a repeating fashion where, over the course of a few chapters, the Israelites will lose their way and stop worshipping Yahweh. Yahweh will get angry at them and sell them into slavery. They will be slaves for a period of time before someone steps up to lead the Israelites back to God, always in some insanely bloody fashion. This finally ends in a weird, disgusting little coda that I'll get to later.
Following Joshua's death, Judah is appointed to lead the Israelites into battle against the Canaanites. He brings his brother Simeon with him, and an army, and they kill 10,000 men in Bezek. The Canaanites and Perizzites are dead, and their king Adonibezek is captured. They (the army? Judah himself? the Bible is unclear) cut off his thumbs and big toes and kill him. They then go kill a bunch of other tribesmen in a couple other towns before a man named Caleb gives his daughter to a man named Othniel for killing a local king. They destroy the town of Zephath. This all happens in the span of a single chapter.
Eventually, they settle in a place called Accho, and the Israelites begin to mingle with the people there. This pisses God off because of his rule that "ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars" (Judges 2:2). But "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim" (2:11). Tack that on to the list of gods that exist in Christianity. Same with Baal and Ashtaroth, whom the Israelites now begin to serve in defiance of Yahweh. He "raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them" but "they would not hearken unto their judges" (2:16-17).
So God abandons them and sells them into slavery under the king of Mesopotamia. If God uses slavery as a punishment for his own people, then he knows it's undesirable. If he knows it's undesirable, why does he accept the enslavement of other people for the Israelites? Rules for thee, but not for me.
Anyway, God "raised up" the aforementioned Othniel as a deliverer. Othniel kills a bunch of people including the king of Mesopotamia, and the Israelites have forty years of peace before Othniel dies.
But then they "did evil again" and God sells his chosen people into slavery under Eglon, the king of Moab, for 18 years. Then God "raised them up a deliverer" named Ehud. Ehud pulls off a gambit where he makes a knife and straps it to his leg under his clothing. He goes to Eglon, who "was a very fat man" and tells him he has a gift. When he steps close, Ehud stabs Eglon to death.
The KJV says, "the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out." (3:22) I didn't know what "the dirt came out" meant, so I went to the NIV to see the more modern translation. Turns out the NIV completely omits this line. I found out it's a comment about Eglon's feces falling out through the gash. So the NIV cuts out portions of the text that it finds disagreeable, proving the malleability and fallibility of the Bible.
Ehud escapes and then calls the Israelites together with a trumpet, they kill 10,000 Moabites, and the Israelites are free again. Another 80 years pass in peace before the cycle begins again.
This time when the Israelites do "evil in the sight of the LORD", God sells them out to Jabin, king of Canaan. Now it's Deborah who teams up with Barak to kill everyone. She hides some kings and promises to lie to people who look for them, but then sells them out anyway and they die. Everyone says a prayer of thanks to God for killing everyone. Thou shalt not kill, but thanks for doing it! 40 years of rest and then...
Next round! They do some evil and God gives them to the Midianites where they remain slaves for 7 years. Gideon is chosen to fix it. Gideon makes an offering of unleavened cake and a young goat and builds an altar there. He overthrows an altar to Baal and turns it into an altar for Yahweh. That pisses off the locals, which prompts Gideon to plead for help to Yahweh.
Despite being, you know, all powerful, and having spoken directly to his people before, Gideon instead asks for a form of communication less direct and more prone to personal interpretation. He says, "Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand." (6:36) Why can't God just send another angel or something. Just be like, "Yeah, I got you." Why this weird thing where Gideon will wait for a towel to get wet?
Gideon seems to recognize how stupid this idea is when he gets up the next morning and finds a wet towel and no dew on the ground and then thinks, "let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew." So that happens as well.
Well, all this dicking around winds up getting Gideon and his people surrounded by an army of Midianites. But suddenly, God doesn't want to help. God says in 7:2, "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." So God thinks the Israelites can take the Midianites on their own. Because they're capable, he thinks that even if he helps, the Israelites won't *think* he helped. It's not enough for him to free his chosen people from slavery. They have to know it's him who's doing it, or it isn't worth it. God sucks. Isn't it more moral to free people from slavery and not expect recognition and acclaim for it?
God has a solution to this: everyone should go up mount Gilead and anyone who's afraid should come back early. 10,000 people come back, and that's still too many for God, so he has Gideon bring those people down to the river. God declares, "Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink." Three hundred people drink like dogs, and God likes that. "By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand." This is every bit as intentionally degrading and inhumane as any college fraternity hazing ritual.
Before the killing starts, there's this stupid dream interpretation. The dream comes to Gideon: "A cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along." And the interpretation according to an unnamed "fellow": "This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host." (7:13-14) Gideon is dream bread.
Anyway, they surround the Midianite camps and kill them all. Those who run get chased down. They kill the two princes of Midian and decapitate them, then bring their severed heads back to Gideon. Gideon and his people then go on a tour of killing and destruction, until the Israelites feel safe again and ask Gideon to be their ruler. He refuses, saying that God is their ruler. He does, however, accept the earrings of every man they've killed, and manages to amass 1700 shekels of gold's worth of earrings.
Gideon ends up having a good time afterward, apparently, because he has 70 sons (and no idea how many daughters that aren't mentioned) from his "many wives".
But after he dies, the Israelites, who never learn a fucking thing, go a-whoring after other gods again. This time it's Baalim. A descendant of Gideon named Abimelech exacts a coup. He goes and kills his brothers (70 of them at once). There's some weird stuff here that I'm sure is supposed to be metaphorical where some trees talk and elect an olive tree to be their master, but the olive tree turns down the offer. So the trees try to elect a fig tree, but it won't do it either. Then the trees ask it of "the vine" which also turns it down. Finally, the trees ask "the bramble" who accepts. If this is a metaphor, I'm not sure what the message is. Maybe it's about allowing someone dangerous to be your ruler? If so, the message is lost on any worshippers of Yahweh.
Anyway, Abimelech rules over Shechem for a few years before God finally undermines him. Shechem rises up against Abimelech. Chapter 9 goes through all the details of it, but the short version is that Abimelech responds by destroying a bunch of cities and killing loads of people before he's finally caught off guard by a "certain woman" (who of course doesn't have a name because this is the Bible and women don't matter even when they do). Some men come along and stab him a few times to make sure that he's dead. And "Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech."
Chapter 10 brings a new Israeli ruler, and then another, and then another. Eventually, you wind up with the "children of Israel" serving Baalim again, "and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines" (10:6), so God sells them to the Ammonites for 18 more years. They talk to God and apologize and put away their "strange gods" and prepare again for war. There's an attempt at diplomacy, which fails, and things wind up with the Israelites needing to pass through Ammon to get back home, but Sihon, the king of the Ammonites, won't let them. And why should he? These people have a centuries-long history of raping cities. Why the hell would he let them just do that to him next?
Of course, God ends up killing the Ammonites and Sihon, and the Israelites take over their land, proving Sihon right to not let them in in the first place. They destroy 20 cities and their vineyards under the leadership of one Jephthah. There is a "very great slaughter," and "the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel" (11:33). He leads them to kill Ephraim and his people over a land dispute that they've decided to just let the gods hash it out on. Afterward, they control ingress into their land, determining who is Israeli and who is an Ephremite by asking all people to say, "Shibboleth." Turns out, non-Israelites can't say that word. They end up killing 42,o00 people for not saying shibboleth right. Thou shalt not kill.
Anyway, there's this whole chain of leaders of Israel after that: Ibzan of Bethlehem, Elon of Zebulon, Abdon of Pirathon... And after Abdon dies, the Israelites go out for other gods again...
This time there's this guy named Manoah, and even though it's his wife who has significance in this story, she's not given a name. She is barren, but God tells her she'll give birth to someone who will save Israel again. Just don't cut his hair (which is actually a throwback to an Exodus-era law about bringing a razor to your hair). She follows some rules - God always has rules, but for once they're sensible ones like don't drink alcohol when you're pregnant - and eventually gives birth to Samson.
Samson grows up and decides to take a woman for his wife, but she's a Philistine and nobody supports the marriage. On the way to meet her, Samson and family are attacked by a lion, but Samson handily kills the lion. A few days later, Samson passes the lion and sees that "there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion." (14:8) So he eats some.
Samson holds a kind of engagement feast and invites 30 friends to whom he proposes a riddling contest. If they can answer his riddle, he'll buy them some clothing and sheets. His riddle: "Out of the eater came forth the meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." Now, if these friends didn't know about the event with the lion, I have no clue how the hell they're supposed to solve this riddle. It's very on the nose and topical.
Unsurprisingly, they can't answer it, and they ask Samson's wife after a week what the answer is. Actually, they threaten her with burning her father's house down. So she breaks down after a week and Samson still doesn't want to tell her. He does eventually relent, and she relays the message. They answer his riddle, but Samson knows the gig is up because there's absolutely no way they could have figured this out on their own. He accuses them of "plow[ing] with my heifer" which is a nice way to refer to his wife. So he goes and kills all of his friends for getting the answer.
Later, he wants to go have sex with his wife, but her father won't let him in. "I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her;" he says, "therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her." (15:2) Gotta love that "traditional Biblical marriage" the conservatives are always going on about.
But nobody tells Samson no. He takes three hundred foxes and, two at a time, ties their tails together. He ties a firebrand between the tails and sets them loose in the Philistines' cornfields, destroying their crops entirely. So the Philistines burn Samson's wife and her father alive. So Samson decides to kill their killers.
Now the Philistines want to find a way to tie up Samson so they can torture him or whatever. They try a few things to bind him, but they all fail, and Samson ends up killing a bunch of would-be captors. Once he even kills a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass, which later pours out water that Samson revives himself with.
So Samson falls in with a harlot named Delilah, and the Philistines start trying to bribe this information from her - how can we tie Samson down? He lies to her when she asks. He tells her a few things, each of which is tried by the Philistines with failure. Tie him down with bowstrings. Tie him with brand new ropes that have never been used. Weave his hair into a loom. Finally, when she pulls the old "Don't you love me?" schtick, he tells her to shave his head. So she does, when he's asleep, and he wakes up weak.
They drag him down and tie him to pillars, not realizing that his hair is growing with magical speed, and he breaks loose, tearing down the whole building and killing everyone in it.
And now for the weird coda. This guy named Micah takes in a Danite who has been dispatched to spy the land, and makes a household priest of him. A group of men follows up on that and are mad about the guy being a priest now, so they steal Micah's religious idols.
The story shifts to an unnamed Levite whose concubine leaves him to live with her father. He follows after her and ends up staying at the father's house for a few days. Some men of the city demand that the Levite be turned out so they can rape him. The man offers his daughter up instead. She dies of gang rape, so the Levite chops her body into 12 pieces and sends them off to the tribes of Israel, who bombard the city and kill everyone. I'm out of space to finish this, so suffice it to say they kill hundreds of virgins and sell many others into rape, and THAT'S THE BOOK OF JUDGES! Not the most moral of books.
Following Joshua's death, Judah is appointed to lead the Israelites into battle against the Canaanites. He brings his brother Simeon with him, and an army, and they kill 10,000 men in Bezek. The Canaanites and Perizzites are dead, and their king Adonibezek is captured. They (the army? Judah himself? the Bible is unclear) cut off his thumbs and big toes and kill him. They then go kill a bunch of other tribesmen in a couple other towns before a man named Caleb gives his daughter to a man named Othniel for killing a local king. They destroy the town of Zephath. This all happens in the span of a single chapter.
Eventually, they settle in a place called Accho, and the Israelites begin to mingle with the people there. This pisses God off because of his rule that "ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars" (Judges 2:2). But "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim" (2:11). Tack that on to the list of gods that exist in Christianity. Same with Baal and Ashtaroth, whom the Israelites now begin to serve in defiance of Yahweh. He "raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them" but "they would not hearken unto their judges" (2:16-17).
So God abandons them and sells them into slavery under the king of Mesopotamia. If God uses slavery as a punishment for his own people, then he knows it's undesirable. If he knows it's undesirable, why does he accept the enslavement of other people for the Israelites? Rules for thee, but not for me.
Anyway, God "raised up" the aforementioned Othniel as a deliverer. Othniel kills a bunch of people including the king of Mesopotamia, and the Israelites have forty years of peace before Othniel dies.
But then they "did evil again" and God sells his chosen people into slavery under Eglon, the king of Moab, for 18 years. Then God "raised them up a deliverer" named Ehud. Ehud pulls off a gambit where he makes a knife and straps it to his leg under his clothing. He goes to Eglon, who "was a very fat man" and tells him he has a gift. When he steps close, Ehud stabs Eglon to death.
The KJV says, "the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out." (3:22) I didn't know what "the dirt came out" meant, so I went to the NIV to see the more modern translation. Turns out the NIV completely omits this line. I found out it's a comment about Eglon's feces falling out through the gash. So the NIV cuts out portions of the text that it finds disagreeable, proving the malleability and fallibility of the Bible.
Ehud escapes and then calls the Israelites together with a trumpet, they kill 10,000 Moabites, and the Israelites are free again. Another 80 years pass in peace before the cycle begins again.
This time when the Israelites do "evil in the sight of the LORD", God sells them out to Jabin, king of Canaan. Now it's Deborah who teams up with Barak to kill everyone. She hides some kings and promises to lie to people who look for them, but then sells them out anyway and they die. Everyone says a prayer of thanks to God for killing everyone. Thou shalt not kill, but thanks for doing it! 40 years of rest and then...
Next round! They do some evil and God gives them to the Midianites where they remain slaves for 7 years. Gideon is chosen to fix it. Gideon makes an offering of unleavened cake and a young goat and builds an altar there. He overthrows an altar to Baal and turns it into an altar for Yahweh. That pisses off the locals, which prompts Gideon to plead for help to Yahweh.
Despite being, you know, all powerful, and having spoken directly to his people before, Gideon instead asks for a form of communication less direct and more prone to personal interpretation. He says, "Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand." (6:36) Why can't God just send another angel or something. Just be like, "Yeah, I got you." Why this weird thing where Gideon will wait for a towel to get wet?
Gideon seems to recognize how stupid this idea is when he gets up the next morning and finds a wet towel and no dew on the ground and then thinks, "let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew." So that happens as well.
Well, all this dicking around winds up getting Gideon and his people surrounded by an army of Midianites. But suddenly, God doesn't want to help. God says in 7:2, "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." So God thinks the Israelites can take the Midianites on their own. Because they're capable, he thinks that even if he helps, the Israelites won't *think* he helped. It's not enough for him to free his chosen people from slavery. They have to know it's him who's doing it, or it isn't worth it. God sucks. Isn't it more moral to free people from slavery and not expect recognition and acclaim for it?
God has a solution to this: everyone should go up mount Gilead and anyone who's afraid should come back early. 10,000 people come back, and that's still too many for God, so he has Gideon bring those people down to the river. God declares, "Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink." Three hundred people drink like dogs, and God likes that. "By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand." This is every bit as intentionally degrading and inhumane as any college fraternity hazing ritual.
Before the killing starts, there's this stupid dream interpretation. The dream comes to Gideon: "A cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along." And the interpretation according to an unnamed "fellow": "This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host." (7:13-14) Gideon is dream bread.
Anyway, they surround the Midianite camps and kill them all. Those who run get chased down. They kill the two princes of Midian and decapitate them, then bring their severed heads back to Gideon. Gideon and his people then go on a tour of killing and destruction, until the Israelites feel safe again and ask Gideon to be their ruler. He refuses, saying that God is their ruler. He does, however, accept the earrings of every man they've killed, and manages to amass 1700 shekels of gold's worth of earrings.
Gideon ends up having a good time afterward, apparently, because he has 70 sons (and no idea how many daughters that aren't mentioned) from his "many wives".
But after he dies, the Israelites, who never learn a fucking thing, go a-whoring after other gods again. This time it's Baalim. A descendant of Gideon named Abimelech exacts a coup. He goes and kills his brothers (70 of them at once). There's some weird stuff here that I'm sure is supposed to be metaphorical where some trees talk and elect an olive tree to be their master, but the olive tree turns down the offer. So the trees try to elect a fig tree, but it won't do it either. Then the trees ask it of "the vine" which also turns it down. Finally, the trees ask "the bramble" who accepts. If this is a metaphor, I'm not sure what the message is. Maybe it's about allowing someone dangerous to be your ruler? If so, the message is lost on any worshippers of Yahweh.
Anyway, Abimelech rules over Shechem for a few years before God finally undermines him. Shechem rises up against Abimelech. Chapter 9 goes through all the details of it, but the short version is that Abimelech responds by destroying a bunch of cities and killing loads of people before he's finally caught off guard by a "certain woman" (who of course doesn't have a name because this is the Bible and women don't matter even when they do). Some men come along and stab him a few times to make sure that he's dead. And "Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech."
Chapter 10 brings a new Israeli ruler, and then another, and then another. Eventually, you wind up with the "children of Israel" serving Baalim again, "and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines" (10:6), so God sells them to the Ammonites for 18 more years. They talk to God and apologize and put away their "strange gods" and prepare again for war. There's an attempt at diplomacy, which fails, and things wind up with the Israelites needing to pass through Ammon to get back home, but Sihon, the king of the Ammonites, won't let them. And why should he? These people have a centuries-long history of raping cities. Why the hell would he let them just do that to him next?
Of course, God ends up killing the Ammonites and Sihon, and the Israelites take over their land, proving Sihon right to not let them in in the first place. They destroy 20 cities and their vineyards under the leadership of one Jephthah. There is a "very great slaughter," and "the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel" (11:33). He leads them to kill Ephraim and his people over a land dispute that they've decided to just let the gods hash it out on. Afterward, they control ingress into their land, determining who is Israeli and who is an Ephremite by asking all people to say, "Shibboleth." Turns out, non-Israelites can't say that word. They end up killing 42,o00 people for not saying shibboleth right. Thou shalt not kill.
Anyway, there's this whole chain of leaders of Israel after that: Ibzan of Bethlehem, Elon of Zebulon, Abdon of Pirathon... And after Abdon dies, the Israelites go out for other gods again...
This time there's this guy named Manoah, and even though it's his wife who has significance in this story, she's not given a name. She is barren, but God tells her she'll give birth to someone who will save Israel again. Just don't cut his hair (which is actually a throwback to an Exodus-era law about bringing a razor to your hair). She follows some rules - God always has rules, but for once they're sensible ones like don't drink alcohol when you're pregnant - and eventually gives birth to Samson.
Samson grows up and decides to take a woman for his wife, but she's a Philistine and nobody supports the marriage. On the way to meet her, Samson and family are attacked by a lion, but Samson handily kills the lion. A few days later, Samson passes the lion and sees that "there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion." (14:8) So he eats some.
Samson holds a kind of engagement feast and invites 30 friends to whom he proposes a riddling contest. If they can answer his riddle, he'll buy them some clothing and sheets. His riddle: "Out of the eater came forth the meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." Now, if these friends didn't know about the event with the lion, I have no clue how the hell they're supposed to solve this riddle. It's very on the nose and topical.
Unsurprisingly, they can't answer it, and they ask Samson's wife after a week what the answer is. Actually, they threaten her with burning her father's house down. So she breaks down after a week and Samson still doesn't want to tell her. He does eventually relent, and she relays the message. They answer his riddle, but Samson knows the gig is up because there's absolutely no way they could have figured this out on their own. He accuses them of "plow[ing] with my heifer" which is a nice way to refer to his wife. So he goes and kills all of his friends for getting the answer.
Later, he wants to go have sex with his wife, but her father won't let him in. "I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her;" he says, "therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her." (15:2) Gotta love that "traditional Biblical marriage" the conservatives are always going on about.
But nobody tells Samson no. He takes three hundred foxes and, two at a time, ties their tails together. He ties a firebrand between the tails and sets them loose in the Philistines' cornfields, destroying their crops entirely. So the Philistines burn Samson's wife and her father alive. So Samson decides to kill their killers.
Now the Philistines want to find a way to tie up Samson so they can torture him or whatever. They try a few things to bind him, but they all fail, and Samson ends up killing a bunch of would-be captors. Once he even kills a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass, which later pours out water that Samson revives himself with.
So Samson falls in with a harlot named Delilah, and the Philistines start trying to bribe this information from her - how can we tie Samson down? He lies to her when she asks. He tells her a few things, each of which is tried by the Philistines with failure. Tie him down with bowstrings. Tie him with brand new ropes that have never been used. Weave his hair into a loom. Finally, when she pulls the old "Don't you love me?" schtick, he tells her to shave his head. So she does, when he's asleep, and he wakes up weak.
They drag him down and tie him to pillars, not realizing that his hair is growing with magical speed, and he breaks loose, tearing down the whole building and killing everyone in it.
And now for the weird coda. This guy named Micah takes in a Danite who has been dispatched to spy the land, and makes a household priest of him. A group of men follows up on that and are mad about the guy being a priest now, so they steal Micah's religious idols.
The story shifts to an unnamed Levite whose concubine leaves him to live with her father. He follows after her and ends up staying at the father's house for a few days. Some men of the city demand that the Levite be turned out so they can rape him. The man offers his daughter up instead. She dies of gang rape, so the Levite chops her body into 12 pieces and sends them off to the tribes of Israel, who bombard the city and kill everyone. I'm out of space to finish this, so suffice it to say they kill hundreds of virgins and sell many others into rape, and THAT'S THE BOOK OF JUDGES! Not the most moral of books.
March 16, 2021
Apparently, I have never read the majority of the book of Judges before in my life, because aside from learning the two stories of Gideon and Sampson in Sunday School at church, this whole book was brand new to me.
With so many different stories taking place over so many years in the 12 tribes of Israel, there is a LOT to unpack in this book. And I noticed how easy it was to get focused on an individual story and look up to the sky like, "Um, God, I'm confused, whyyyyy is this story here?" But, at the end of the book, I remembered the beginning,
"And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel." (Judges 2:7) "And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals." (Judges 2:10-11)
This "prologue" to the book of Judges, I believe, is the key to understanding the really abstract, and sometimes utterly barbaric, stories in Judges. The book of Judges is an illustration of all the ways Israel disobeyed God, almost immediately after Joshua died. The stories are here to serve as a reminder that even though God chose Israel as His people, they continually failed to uphold His righteousness. But even in their disobedience, God still shows up to rescue them *when they call out to Him and repent*. So, even as we read stories upon stories of Israel's unfaithfulness, these same stories reveal God's faithfulness in keeping His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by being with His people and rescuing them from their own consequences when they call out to Him.
I think another important takeaway is that even though God "rose up Judges to judge Israel", that their stories are included *with all of their failures and sins* as a reminder to us that 1. they were not meant to be seen as the Messiah, and 2. that God uses regular people who screw-up constantly for His will. I think it's easy to fall for the idea that God "approved" of these peoples' behavior because they were called His righteous "judges" to bring Israel back to Him, but I think this is a misconception of why these stories were included. *Despite each person's sin, God used them*. Or in some cases, *this person was used by God, and they still sinned after-the-fact because of human's sin nature*.
So, Judges was a very intense, slightly terrifying, book to read, but I feel like I walked away with some better insight on the world's need of a Savior. And I think I would like to do a very deep study into Judges at some point in the future as well.
With so many different stories taking place over so many years in the 12 tribes of Israel, there is a LOT to unpack in this book. And I noticed how easy it was to get focused on an individual story and look up to the sky like, "Um, God, I'm confused, whyyyyy is this story here?" But, at the end of the book, I remembered the beginning,
"And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel." (Judges 2:7) "And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals." (Judges 2:10-11)
This "prologue" to the book of Judges, I believe, is the key to understanding the really abstract, and sometimes utterly barbaric, stories in Judges. The book of Judges is an illustration of all the ways Israel disobeyed God, almost immediately after Joshua died. The stories are here to serve as a reminder that even though God chose Israel as His people, they continually failed to uphold His righteousness. But even in their disobedience, God still shows up to rescue them *when they call out to Him and repent*. So, even as we read stories upon stories of Israel's unfaithfulness, these same stories reveal God's faithfulness in keeping His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by being with His people and rescuing them from their own consequences when they call out to Him.
I think another important takeaway is that even though God "rose up Judges to judge Israel", that their stories are included *with all of their failures and sins* as a reminder to us that 1. they were not meant to be seen as the Messiah, and 2. that God uses regular people who screw-up constantly for His will. I think it's easy to fall for the idea that God "approved" of these peoples' behavior because they were called His righteous "judges" to bring Israel back to Him, but I think this is a misconception of why these stories were included. *Despite each person's sin, God used them*. Or in some cases, *this person was used by God, and they still sinned after-the-fact because of human's sin nature*.
So, Judges was a very intense, slightly terrifying, book to read, but I feel like I walked away with some better insight on the world's need of a Savior. And I think I would like to do a very deep study into Judges at some point in the future as well.
September 5, 2025
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
And just like that, we end almost exactly as we began. Judge after judge, page after page, the people of Israel long for salvation. Through Israel’s impatience (and God’s perfect patience), we recognize that there is a better King, a better Judge and a better Savior who will save them once for all.
This book is also a reminder that God is indeed faithful to do as He has promised—even if that means not driving out the nations and allowing those people and their gods to be a snare to them.
And just like that, we end almost exactly as we began. Judge after judge, page after page, the people of Israel long for salvation. Through Israel’s impatience (and God’s perfect patience), we recognize that there is a better King, a better Judge and a better Savior who will save them once for all.
This book is also a reminder that God is indeed faithful to do as He has promised—even if that means not driving out the nations and allowing those people and their gods to be a snare to them.
August 17, 2025
I had such a difficult time reading the last few chapters of this story. Chapter 19 alone made me sick.
I feel like the over arching story of Judges is that when people are left to do “what is right in their own eyes” they make some really awful choices. Even when aiming to do the right thing.
This makes me even more grateful to God for his commandments because I don’t have to be in charge of what is right or wrong, and I can trust that his way will always be right.
I feel like the over arching story of Judges is that when people are left to do “what is right in their own eyes” they make some really awful choices. Even when aiming to do the right thing.
This makes me even more grateful to God for his commandments because I don’t have to be in charge of what is right or wrong, and I can trust that his way will always be right.
August 15, 2025
*read as a part of reading the whole Bible in a Year through the Bible App’s plan with The Bible Project. The plan itself is so far superior to any other Bible reading plan that I’ve tried. The videos that go along with the reading are academic, but incredibly thoughtful, understandable, relatable, and also artistic. Highly recommend!
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