THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
were subject for twenty years to the Canaanitic Jabin and Sisera, to which period belongs the heroic deed of Shamgar, which freed a portion of the land from the oppression of the Philistines (Judges iii. 31; cf. v. 6). Relief from their bondage, which by some is held to be Hittite, was brought to Israel, especially in the north, by the prophetess and judge Deborah, who roused Barak to war against Jabin and Sisera (Judges iv. 2 sqq.); though the tribes east of the Jordan, as well as Dan and some on the sea, took no part in the struggle for freedom (Judges v. 15 sqq.); while Judah seems to have been prevented from cooperating by its own war with the Philistines. Another forty years of peace ensued; but then the Midianites and other nomadic tribes invaded the plain of Jezreel, oppressing the Israelites for seven years, until they were driven out by Gideon (Judges vi.-vii.). Gideon piously declined the proffered kingship (Judges viii. 22 sqq. ; but after his death his unworthy son Abimelech brought misfortune on his house (Judges ix.). Abimelech was followed by Tola, of the tribe of Issachar, who ruled twenty-three years (Judges x. 1 sqq.), and by Jair, a Gileadite, who was judge twenty-two years (x. 3-5). With the death of Jair, Israel was oppressed on the east by the Ammonites and on the west by the Philistines. The former, after oppressing Israel eighteen years, were conquered by Jephthah (Judges x.-xi.), who was also later involved in a civil war with the tribe of Ephraim (Judges xii. 1 sqq.). He ruled in peace only seven years, and was succeeded by Izban of Bethlehem (seven years), Elon, a Zebulonite (ten years), and Abdon, an Ephraimite (eight years; Judges xii. 8 sqq.). After their rule, the Philistines oppressed Israel forty years (Judges xiii. 1), their deliverer being the hero Samson (Judges xiii.xvi.). The power of the Philistines revived, however, in the latter part of the judgeship of Eli, who ruled forty years (I Sam. iv. 18), and they were crushed only by Samuel and the kings anointed by him. The thread of the book of Judges breaks off with the death of Samson, and, although Eli is said to have " judged " Israel, and the same is stated concerning Samuel (I Sam. vii. 6, viii. 1 sqq., xii. 1 sqq.), they form the transition from the judges to the kings.
The chronology of this period is difficult. The period given by the book of Judges from the subjugation by Chushan-rishathaim (Judges iii. 8) to
the death of Samson (xvi. 31) is 410
4. Chronol- years; but this is far too long when
ogy of the compared with I Kings vi. 1, which
Judges. gives only 480 years for the time from
the Exodus to the commencement of the Temple in the fourth year of the reign of Solomon, including the forty years in the wilderness, the equal length of David's reign, and the unknown duration of the rule of Samuel, Saul, etc. The best explanation of these conflicting data seems to be the synchronization of Judges x. 8 sqq. with xiii. 1 sqq., thus placing the oppression by the Philistines at the same time as that by the Ammonites, and regarding Samson as the contemporary of Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon; with a resultant reduction of the 140 years to about 360 (cf. Judges x. 6 sqq.;
the figures in Judges xi. 26 would then be round numbers) . It is also tempting to assume a further synchronism between the forty years' oppression by the Philistines (Judges xiii. 1) and the rule of Eli and the early part of Samuel's judgeship, thus reducing the period to about 340 years. See Time, Biblical Reckoning of.
II. The Book: 1. Conservative View: In its present form this book is relatively late, although its oldest sources date from the events they describe. It falls into three parts : an introduction (i.-iii. 6) ■
the main portion, a unified narrative (iii.
1. Divi- 7-xvi.); and two additions (xvii.-xxi.).
sions; the The introduction treats of the general
Narrative, condition of Israel after the death of
Joshua and gives the underlying relation of the stormy events of the period, together with the occupation of the land by the tribes (i.) and their impious toleration of the former inhabitants (ii. 1-5). In ii. 6 the thread of the narrative is taken up, with a preliminary prophetic description of the period (ii. 6-23). A list of the peoples still unsubdued is given in iii. 1-6, this passage being by another hand. Nevertheless, it is clear that the redactor deliberately planned the introduction in its present form, and that he interwove fragments of other historical writings wherever he thought best, doubtless drawing from some source common to Judges and Joshua (cf. Judges i. 10-15 with Josh. xv. 14-19; Judges i. 20 with Josh. xv. 13; Judges i. 21 with Josh. xv. 63; Judges i. 27-28 with Josh. xvii. 11 sqq.; Judges i. 29 with Josh. xvi. 10). The main portion narrates six great events, the heroes of which are Othniel, the conqueror of the Arameans (iii. 7 sqq.); Ehud, the liberator from the Moabites (iii. 12 sqq.); the victory of Deborah and Barak over Jabin and Sisera (iv.-v.); Gideon and his sons (vi.-ix.); Jephthah's victory over the Ammonites (x. 6 sqq., xi.-xii.); and Samson, the hero against the Philistines (xiii.-xvi.). Six other judges are also briefly mentioned. The two additions on the sanctuary at Dan (xvii.xviii.) and the war against Benjamin (xix.-xxi.) seem to have been written by one who lived in the flourishing period of the kings (cf. xviii. 1, xix. 1, xxi. 25).
It is assumed by the majority of modern scholars that the redactor of the book of Judges had two systems of chronology before him: one of generations of forty years each; and the other of smaller,
but more accurate, figures. These
2. Critical two systems were then interwoven,
View the smaller being assumed to refer to
Rejected, the periods of subjugation, and the
larger to the rules of the judges. But the problem is still unsolved, although it would seem that the apparently over-long period arose from the addition of contemporaneous periods, and that the number forty is only approximate. The critical school has assailed not only the chronology, but also the historicity of the book of Judges. Thus Othniel, Ehud, Tola, Jair, and Elon are resolved into " eponymous heroes "; but in no case is the evidence favorable to the theories of this school. On the contrary, the book gives an impression of relative unity and independence; nor