Section 1116 — A Dictionary of the Bible

810

JUDGES, BOOK OF

tion of thj districts in Palestine which at the death of Joshua had not yet been conquered, and with the description of the operations undertaken by several of the tribes of Israel, in part unsuccess- fully, for the complete subjection of their territory (1'"^). — iP) This partial failure is traced to the Divine requital of Israel's religious disobedience, and on the same account it was announced that the Canaanites and other enemies of Israel would continue for a time to maintain their indepen- dence, with a view to the chastisement and the probation of Israel. The messenger of J", men- tioned in 2', was wrongly identified with Phinehas (Jos 24^) in Jalkut Shini'Cnt, vol. ii. ch. 40: .Tn on)B kS.ti 'n -[vho. — (7) Once more it is told how the Israelites, soon after the death of Joshua, were guilty of religious disloyalty. The author's object was to explam why the Israelites suffered repeated defeats in conflicts also with the surrounding nations (2'-3*, see below 4 6).

(6) The history of the individual jndges is re- lated. They belonged for the most part to the tribe which suffered most from the particular oppression at the time (3'-16"). — (o) Othni'el of the tribe of Judah, who first came upon the scene immediately after the death of Joshua (3'"").* — (/3) Ehud, the Benjamite (S'-"*"), broke the yoke of the neighbouring Moabites by the assassination of their kmg, Eglon. According to Nazir 23'' Ruth was a granddaughter of Eglon : |^'7Jy Sa m ni nn 3K1D -^a. Seder Olam rabha, ch. 12 (ed. Meyer, p. 34), combines Jg 2"» with Ru 2>3>', cf. 1 Ch 2", Ru 4*"-. — (7) Shanujar (3^') smote the Philistines. — (5) In conjunction with Deborah, of the tribe of Ephraim, the hero Barak, of the northern tribe of Naphtali, defeated the Canaanites, who had again assembled a strong force in the north of Canaan (4'-5''). Sisera, the commander of the army of the enemy, was slain by the woman Ja«l. Many of the Talmudists took offence at the words ' between (AV at) her feet (n'J'J"! f3) he bowed ' (Jebamoth 103'', Nazir 2i^), but other Talmudists, appealing to Gn 31'*'^ rightly found in the expression ' be- tween her feet' nothing to the discredit of Jael. — (f) Gideon, of the town of ' Ophrah in Ephraim ' (?), expelled the Midianites and reigned for long in peace (6'-8^ ; cf. TeSeHiv, 61 ipfj-ripeicrai ireipaT-fipiov. 'iifioae yip, K.T.X., 8', — Philo i. 424, ed. Mangey). But his son Abimelech, who seized the reins of power in Shechem, was speedily overcome (Q'""). — (f) Tola, a man of Issachar, defended Israel (10"-). — (v) After him Jair, a Gileadite, judged Israel (103-»).— («) Jephthah, the GUeadite, smote the children of Ammon (ll'-12').— (i) Ibzan, of Beth- lehem, judged Israel (128-«') ; cf. Baha bathra 91' : il'3 ni |S3K 'Ibzan is Boaz' (Ru 2>).— (k) Elon, a Zebulunite (12"'-), and (\) 'Abdon, of Pirathon in Ephraim, judpd Israel (12"-"). At last (p.) Samson ' began to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines' (13"'), and judged Israel twenty years (13'-16'').t It is onljr up to this point that Jg gives a continuous series of narratives. This was already noted in the Dikdiike of Aharon ben-Asher, for in § 70 it is said, ' The Book of Judges (extends) from Othniel, the son of Kenaz, to the death of Samson, the son of Manoah, the Danite' (Vx-jrvo ■m mm p pirci? rna nj; i:p p).

' Sanhedrin 105« 'DINn p'7 mn DTiyn [Pij 'Cuehan- rishathaim isLaban the AramsBan,'«.«. he was of the descendant of Laban.

tin' Philonis Bine pr»paratione in Sampson oratio ' {PhilonU Opera, ed. Lips. 1830, vol. vii. pp. 351-376) it is said, ' Sampson Tirea sumpeit ad monstranda opera ma^a' (§ 12), but also •quum, a^^rgite luxuria raptus, illuviem passus fuerit inque abyssum immersufl cupidinis, non amplius compos erat sursum aspiciendi, sed totua voluputi deditus, ut verum diceret, tanquam a ludlce, a muliere ooactus fuit ' (§ 1).

(a) The first episode is as follows : a part of tna tribe of Dan wandered from south-western Canaan to the sources of the Jordan. There they con- quered the town of Laish, and called it, after the name of their tribe, Dan. In this town they estab- lished as priest a Levite from Mt. Ephraim, whom they had persuaded to accompany them (17'-18''). (;S) The second episode tells how the inhabitants of Gibeah which belonged to Benjamin (20'') abused to death the concubine of a Levite (19'"'), and how all the other tribes of Israel puni-shed the tribe of Benjamin for refusing to deliver up the miscreants of Gibeah (19"-21'»).

The Book of Jndges does not state precisely at what i)arts of the period of the judges these two episodes happened. The first episo<le is certainly assigned to a time when there had not fallen to the tribe of the Danites anything as a possession (18"), i.e. they had been unable to make them- selves real masters of the territory assigned to them on the S.W. coast of Canaan (Jos !&"'"•'', Ezk 48"') — even Budde (on Jg 18"') regards this as not mere theory. But it is uncertain how long after Joshua's death the oppressions (1** lO'"" H'') continued which prevented the tribe of the Danites from completely conquering their territory. In any case, neither in I**'- nor elsewhere is it implied that ' the southern Dan never dwelt by the sea, not to speak of itself having possessed ships' (Budde on Jg 5"), and this southern Dan was nearer to the sliips than the northern. Nevertheless the date of the history narrated in chs. 17 f. can be limited. For according to IS"* it was a grandson of Moses that was priest in the city of Dan, he'd being indicated as the original reading through the Nun suspensum of ns'jp (cf. the Talmudic statements and the discussion with L. Blau in Konig's Einleitung, pp. 34, 84'). It is thus intelligible how the oldest author who outside the Bk. of Jg has described the period of the judges,* namely Josephus, has inserted the two episodes immedi- ately after the narratives of the first chapter of Jg. He further transposes the order of the two narratives, introducing (Ant. v. ii. 8-12) the con- tents of chs. 19-21 as an illustration of a ariait SeifT}, and with the words S/ioia Si toiW-ois iraSf i^ /toi tJjv Aai'irii' avvi^T) <pn\i)ii, he appends (Ant. V. iii. 1) the history contained in chs. 17 f. Seder olam rabba (ch. 12) says, 'ji n^'O St? iSdb hm □■nye'T [ehd 'D'3 nVDiD c^Vd nn-n VD'21, i.e. ' in the days of Cushan- rishatliaim was the graven image of Micah, etc. (cf. IS^"), and in his days was a concubine in Gibeah.' Moore (on chs. 17 f.) also says rightly that the migration may be assigned to a time not very long after the Israelite invasion of Canaan. Are we now perhaps to suppose that the two episodes stood originally after the first chapter ? This is not likely. For in that case we should not expect to read, ' in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes' (17« 18' 19' 21-»). At all events it is not without a special aim that the two narra- tives are placed at the end of Jg. They are intended to show the negative results which during the period of the judges snowed themselves in the sphere of religion and morals.