Barak: verbal rebuke of non-participating tribes (5:15b–17, 23); Gideon: diplomacy with Ephraimites (8:1–3), but cruelty towards Succothites and brutality towards Penuelites (8:4–9, 13–17); Jephthah: slaughter of Ephraimites (12:1–6).
55. Yahweh personally raises up Othniel and Ehud (3:9, 15); then he sends a representative to do so for Barak (4:4–7); subsequently, he first sends a prophet to rebuke his people, accusing them of disobedience, before the angel of Yahweh raises up Gideon (5:7–10, 11–24); later, in a direct and irate remonstrance, he completely refuses to help the Israelites in the Jephthah narrative, accusing them of forsaking him (10:11–14). (Nevertheless, in all the narratives, Yahweh graciously deigns to help his people in distress.) This corresponds to the Israelites’ increasing disloyalty to, and unconcern for, Yahweh: they cry, desperate for release from oppression, in the narratives of Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, and Jephthah (3:9, 15; 4:3; 6:6; 10:10), but not in the story of Samson, where Israelites seem to be content with living under a foreign hand, and this for forty years (13:1). Indeed, though they started out worshiping only the Baals and the Ashtaroth (2:13), by the time of Jephthah, they had aligned themselves not only to these false gods, but also to a number of other pagan deities, forsaking Yahweh completely (10:6).
56. “Forsaking” Yahweh is also a theme introduced in Jdg 2:12, 13, 21 that shows up again in 10:6, 10, 13, the only instances of the verb in Judges.
57. Ibid., 139.
58. See ibid., 87–88.
59. See ibid., 89–96.
60. A specific refrain that there was no king in Israel in those days, a shortened version of the narrator’s comment in 17:6 and 21:25, brackets the Danites’ campaign (18:1; 19:1). The omission of “doing right in his own eyes” in 18:1 suggests that the concrete illustration of that axiom was the Danites’ “rape” of Laish, just as the actualization of that axiom in 19:1 was the brutal rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine (ibid., 99 n.59). Of course, the ophthalmic deficiencies of Samson drive his entire story. See ibid., 97–99; and Pericope 12 with Pericopes 10 and 11.
61. See ibid., 103–9.
62. This description of the seven hundred Benjaminite warriors in 20:16 seems rather incidental, for these fighters, their lefthandedness, and their slings play no role in the ensuing war with the Israelites. Instead, it is “sword” that occurs frequently (20:15, 17—Benjaminite swordsmen; and 20:25, 35, 37, 46, 48—Israelite swordsmen), making it quite likely that the description of their leftie “stonesmanship” was introduced as a deliberate link to the only other left-handed Benjaminite in Judges, Ehud.
63. See ibid., 112–24.
64. See ibid., 125–30.
65. Wong notes that the two words are synonymous (see Num 30:2; Ps 132:2; the former of these even has the phrase “all that came out of his mouth,” identical to “that which came out of your mouth,” Jdg 11:36). See ibid., 133–34.
66. These are the only two instances in Judges of the phrase “did not know a man” and of the noun “dancing” (another closely related verb, “to dance,” is found in 21:23).
67. See ibid., 132–35; and Pericope 14 (Jdg 20:1–21:25) with Pericope 9 (Jdg 10:6—12:15).
68. Ibid., 140.
Pericope 1
Failure and Indictment
Judges 1:1—2:5
[Failure of the Conquest; God’s Indictment]
SUMMARY, PREVIEW
Summary of Pericope 1: The first pericope of Judges (1:1—2:5) comprises Prologue I of the book. It sets the sociopolitical stage of the rest of the narrative, depicting the failure of God’s people to live in uncompromising godliness and to trust him for success. The consequence of this failure is a progressively worsening state of coexistence with the native Canaanites; these defeats culminate in a divine indictment.
Preview of Pericope 2: The next pericope (Jdg 2:6—3:11) is made up of Prologue II of the book and the story of Othniel. It details the religious decline of the Israelites, the unfaithfulness of the new generation after Joshua who did not know or experience God firsthand. A cycle of evildoing, punishment, and deliverance is described. Othniel, the first judge, is the parade example of a godly leader: his narrative follows the paradigm for the judge stories precisely and, with divine aid, he becomes the deliverer of Israel.
1. Judges 1:1—2:5
| THEOLOGICAL FOCUS OF PERICOPE 1 | ||
| 1 | Uncompromising faithfulness to God manifest in behavior distinct from that of unbelievers, maintenance of godly traditional values, and reliance on divine strategies for success results in the enjoyment of divine blessing (1:1—2:5). | |
| 1.1 | Failure of uncompromising obedience to divine commands precludes the enjoyment of divine blessing. | |
| 1.2 | Faithfulness to God involves behavior distinct from that of unbelievers, maintenance of godly traditional values, and abandonment of reliance on human strategies for success. |
OVERVIEW
The Prologues (I: Jdg 1:1–2:5 and II: Jdg 2:6—3:6) and the Epilogues (I: Jdg 17:1—18:31 and II: Jdg 19:1—21:25) are structured around the Body (Jdg 3:7—16:31) as follows69:
Joshua, the one who had begun to lead the Israelites so successfully against the Canaanites, and who was God’s agent for assigning land to the various tribes, was now gone. At his departure he had exhorted his people to follow after Yahweh, and not after the gods of the Canaanites—an apostasy that would jeopardize the Israelites’ taking over of the Promised Land (Joshua 22–24). Would they heed the words of this worthy one? An era had concluded with the death of Joshua. A new beginning was at hand, and with it the challenge of finding godly leaders. This is the burden of the book of Judges.
There appears to be a clear demarcation between Jdg 1:1—2:5 and 2:6—3:6: the first pericope is more narratival and descriptive, dealing with the sociopolitical decline of Israel, while the second pericope is more sermonic and evaluative, dealing with the religious decline of God’s people. Besides, Joshua’s death, noted in 2:6–9, seems to be starting a fresh unit, as also did the first pericope with a mention of that valiant one’s demise (1:1).70 In Judges 1, there are almost verbatim repeats of the central themes of Joshua:
