3. .l«.l/V>m/ix (chap, xvii-xxi). This part has no formal connection with the preceding, and has often, but unnecessarily, been assumed to have been added by a later band. No mention of the judges occurs in it. It coniaiiis allusions to '■ tlie house of God," the ark, and the high-priest. The period to which the narrative re- lates IS simply marked by the expression " when there was no king in Israel" (xix, 1 ; comp. xviii, 1). It re- cords two series of incidents:
a. The conquest of Laish bv a portion of the tribe of Dan, and the establishment tlicrc of the idolatrous wor- kup of Jehovah already institute.! bv I\Iieah in Jloiint Ephraim (di. xvii, xviii). The date of tliis occurrence.
is not marked, but it has been thought to be subsequent to the time of Deborah, as her song contains no allusion to any northern settlements of the tribe of Dan.
i. .The almost total extinction of the tribe of Benja- min by the whole people of Israel, in consequence of their supporting the cause of the wicked men of Gibeah, and the means aftenvards adopted for preventing its becoming complete (ch. xix-xxi^. The date is m some degree marked by tlie mention of Phinehas, the grand- son of Aaron (xx, 28), and by the proof of the unanimity still prevailing among the people.
III. Design. — The above analysis clearly indicates a unity of plan on the part of the writer. His leading object he distinctly intimates in ii, 11-23, namely, in enforcement of the central idea of the theocracy, to prove that the calamities to which the Hebrews had been ex- posed since the death of Joshua were owing to their apos- tasy from Jehovah, and to their idolatry. " They forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth" (ii, 13), for wliich crimes they were deservedly punished and great- ly distressed (ii, 15). Nevertheless, when they repented and obeyed again the commandments of the Lord, he delivered them out of the hand of their enemies by the shophetim whom he raised up, and made them prosper (ii, 16-23). To illustrate this theme, the author col- lected the most important elements of the Hebrew his- tory during the period between Joshua and Eli. Some episodes occur, but in arguing his subject he never loses sight of his leading theme, to which, on the contrary, he frequently recurs while stating facts, and shows how it applied to them ; the mor;il evidentlj' being, that the only way to happiness was to shun idolatry and obey the commandments of the Lord. The appendix further illustrates the lawlessness "and anarchy prevailing in Is- rael after Joshua's death.
Yet the words of the passage in which the author thus discloses his main object must not be pressed too closely, as if implying a perfect remedy of each political ruin. It is a general view, to which the facts of the history correspond in different degrees. Thus the peo- ple is contemplated as a Avhole; the judges are spoken of with the reverence due to God's instruments, and the deliverances appear complete. But it would seem that the people were in no instance under exactly the same circumstances, and the judges in some points fall short of the ideal. Thus Gideon, who in some respects is the most eminent of them, is only the head of his own tribe, and has to appease the men of Ephraim by conciliatory language in the moment of victor}' over the jNIidianites; and he himself is the means of leading away the people from the pure worship of God. In Jephthah we find the chief of the land of Gilead still affected to some extent by personal reasons (xi, 9) : his war against the Ammonites is confined to the east side of Jordan, though its issues probably also freed the western side from their presence, and it is followed by a bloody confiict with Ephraim. Again, Samson's task was simply " to bcfiin to deliver Israel" (xiii, 5) : and the occasions which called forth his hostility to the Philistines are of a kind which place him on a different level from Deborah or Gideon. This shows that the passage in question is a general review of the coUectire history of Israel during the time of the judges, the details of which, in their va- rying aspects, are given faithfully as the narrative pro- ceeds.
This view of the author's design may lead us to ex- pect that we have not a complete history of the times — a fact which is clear from the book itself. We have only accounts of parts of the nation at any one time. We may easily suppose that there were other incidents of a similar nature to those recorded in ch. xvii-xxi. In- deed, in the history itself there are points which are ob- scure from want of fuller information, e. g. the reason for the silence about the tribe of Judah (see also viii, 18; ix, 26). Some suppose even that the number of the judges is not complete, but there is no reason for tlii.s <ii)iniun. Bedan (I Sam. xii, 11) is probably the
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same as Ahdon. Ewald (Gesch. ii, 477) rejects the com- mon explanation that the word is a contracted form of Ben-Ban, i. e. Samson. Jael (v, 6) need not be the name of an unknown judge, or a corruption of Juir, as Ewald thinks, but is probably the wife of Heber. " The days of Jael" would carry the misery of Israel up to the time of the victory over Sisera, and such an expression could hardly be thought too great an honor at that time (see V, 24), Had the writer designed to give a full and connected history of the Hebrews in the period between Joshua and the kings, he would doubtless have described the state of the domestic affairs and of the government in the several tribes, the relation in which they stood to each other, and the extent of power exercised by a judge, with other particulars such as do not appear in the narrative.