IV. Sources of the Materials. — Parts of the work are undouljtedly taken from ancient records and genealogies, others from traditions and oral information. From an- cient authentic documents are probably copied the song of Deborah (chap, v), the beautiful parable of Jotham ix, 8-15), and the beginning of Samson's epinician, or triumphal poem (xv, 16). See also chap, xiv, 14, 18; XV, 7. In their genealogies the Hebrews usually in- serted also some historical accounts, and from this source may have been derived the narrative of the circum- stances that preceded the conception of Samson, which were given as the parents related them to others (chap, xiii). These genealogies were sometimes further illus- trated by tradition, and several incidents in the history of Samson appear to have been derived from this kind of information. But on many points tradition offered nothing, or the author rejected its information as not genuine, and unworthy of belief. Thus it is that of Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, the author gives onh* the number of years that they governed and the num- ber of their children, but relates none of tlicir trans- actions (x, 1-5; xii, 8, 9, 11, 13). In some instances the very words of the ancient documents which the au- thor used seem to have been preserved, and this proves the care with which he composed. Thus, in the first division of our book, but nowhere else, rich and power- ful men are described as men riding on ass-colts (x, 4 ; xii, 14, etc.) ; also in the song of Deborah (v, 9, 10). In the appendix also of this book, but nowhere else, a priest has the honorary title of father given him (xvii, 10; xviii, 19). But, though the author some- times retained the words of his sources, still the whole of the composition is written in a particular style, dis- tinguishing it from all other books of the Old Testa- ment. The idea of the Israelites being overcome by their enemies he expresses often in this way: "The an- ger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies" (ii, 14 ; iii, 8 ; iv, 2 ; X, 7). A courageous and valiant warrior is described as a person upon whom rests the spirit of Jehovah, or as a person whom the spirit of Jehovah clothed (vi, 34; ix, 29 ; xiv, G, 19 ; xv, 14, etc.).
Stiihelin (Kiif. Untersuch. p. lOG) thinks that iii, 7- xvi present the same manner and diction throughout, and that there is no need to suppose written sources. So Hiivernick {Einkitung, i, 1, p. 68 sq., 107) only recog- nises the use of documents in the appendix. Other critics, however, trace them throughout. Bertheau {On Jitdfjes, p. xxviii-xxxii) says that the difference of the diction in the principal narratives, coupled with the fact that they are united in one plan, points to the incorpo- ration of parts of previous histories. Thus, according to him, the author found the substance of iv, 2-24 al- ready accompanying the song of Deborah ; in ch. vi-ix two distinct authorities are used — a life of Gideon, and a history of Shechem and its usurper ; in the account of Jephthah a history of the tribes on the east of Jordan is employed, which meets us again in different parts of the l^entateuch and Joshua ; and the history of Samson is taken from a longer work on the Philistine wars. Ewald's view is similar (Gesch. i, 184 sq. ; ii, 486 sq.).
V. Unity. — This has already been pretty fully vindi- cated in the above remarks on the design of the writer (§ iii). The attacks that have been made upon the unity of the book are rested on very trifling grounds. The chief one is the existence of the appendix, though it is not difficult to see the two great reasons for this part of the book assuming such a form : the one, that the his- torical development according to plan was not to be in- terrupted ; the other, that the two events which it nar- rates are to be looked on less as single events than as permanent influences. The permanence of the wor- ship at Dan is expressly mentioned (xviii, 30, 31), and "the captivity of the land" for the twenty years before Samuel assumed ofKce is traced to it with tolerable dis- tinctness. The permanence of the moral evil which came out at Gibeah is not so plainly intimated; on the contrary, it might have been supjiosed to be eradicated by the vengeance taken on Benjamin. Yet the evil to be fomid in the whole tribes is indicated by their share in the terrible chastisement; and there is a hint of the continuance of some equally potent mischievous influ- ence in the similar slaughter of the tribe of Ephraim by Jephthah. The prophet Hosea ift so many words in- forms us that the days of Gibeah never ceased in Israel, and that the root of the evil had not been taken away (Hos. ix, 9 ; x, 9). There have been, indeed, some very unsuccessfid efforts to establish a difference of the words in use and the style of composition in the appendix and in the body of the book, but there has been little ap- pearance of success in the undertaking. Even these objectors have frequently admitted a resemblance and unity between the appendix and the introduction, on account of which some of them have gone so far as to say that both these may belong to a later editor, who prefixed and annexed his new materials to a previously existing work, the history of the judges strictly so call- ed. The argument from internal chronological data will be examined below (§ vii). The attempts to discover contradictions in the book, with a view to show a plu- rality of authors, have also signally failed.