Commentary on the Book of Judges of Israel

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Book title. The Book of Judges (Sefer schofeitm, Κριται, liber Judicum, sefar daione) received its name on behalf of those persons, i.e., the Judges of Israel, about whose activities it mainly narrates. Composition of the book and division into parts. The Book of Judges contains twenty-one chapters and is divided into three parts according to its structure: a) Judges 1:1–3:1–6, b) Judges 3:7–16:31 and c) Judges 17:1–21:1. The first part represents the introduction to the book and contains a general description of the time of the Judges. The second represents the body of the book itself and contains the story of the Israelites’ repeated deviation from faith in the true God, their oppression by neighboring tribes, repentance and salvation from the oppressors through the Judges sent by God, and, in addition, the history of the life and work of the Judges themselves. Finally, the third part represents an addition to the corpus of the book of Judges and contains a story about two incidents, in their significance especially clearly characterizing the time of the Judges from the anarchy that then prevailed among the people. Origin of the book. The language of the book of Judges contains signs that it belongs to one author. Its origin from one author is also evidenced by the presentation of the book, in which a single holistic plan is noticeable. The question of the lifetime of the author of the book can only be resolved with a greater or lesser degree of probability. The solution to this question is facilitated by some data presented by the contents of the book itself. These include: a) the remark, which appears several times in the third part of the book (Judges 17:6, 21:25, cp. Judges 18:1, 19:1), “in those days Israel had no king, everyone did what seemed fair to him.” This remark gives reason to assume that the person who wrote the above words lived at a time when the Jews already had royal power and when the beneficial consequences of this institution were discovered, b) the remark found in the first part of the book (Judges 1.21) “but the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem were not driven out by the sons of Benjamin, and the Jebusites live (literally from Hebrew and Masoric “and lived”) the Jebusites with their sons Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day." From this remark it is clear that the author of the book lived before the complete conquest of Jerusalem by the Israelites, which happened already under King David, who went against Jerusalem, took the fortress of Zion and, calling it the city of David, made it his residence and the main city of the kingdom (2 Sam. 5.6-9, cf. and 1 Chr. 11.4-9), remark Judges 18.30 “and the sons of Dan set up an image for themselves, And Jonathan the son of Gershon the son of Manasseh, himself and his sons, were priests in the tribe of Dan until the day of the migration of the land.” The last words of this verse (ad jom geloth haarez - literally “until the day of the captivity of the earth”), which have the character of a chronological date and are interpreted differently by commentators, according to a more likely explanation, accepted since the time of David Kimhi by many interpreters, indicate the captivity of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines (1 Sam. 4.10-11), which captivity was, as it were, tantamount to the captivity of the earth itself (cf. Ps. 77.59–64), c) remark Judges 18.31 “and they had with them the image made by Micah all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.” As is clear from these words, the writer of the book looked at the fact of the presence of the tabernacle in Shiloh as already past and could have written them after the presence of the tabernacle in Shiloh. The Tabernacle appears for the last time in Shiloh during the time of Eli and Samuel (1 Samuel 1.3 et al. 1 Kings 3.21, 1 Samuel 4.3), under Saul it appears in Nob (1 Samuel 21.21), and under David in Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16.39, 1 Chronicles 21.29). Thus, the “house of God,” or the tabernacle, was in Shiloh only until the reign of Saul, but later it was no longer moved here. From a comparison of all these data, it is clear that the author of the book of Judges, to whom the above evidence belongs, lived after the captivity of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines and after the stay of the tabernacle in Shiloh, lived at a time when royal rule had already been established among the Jews and when the beneficence of such rule was discovered, but even before the conquest of Jerusalem by King David. According to these data, Jewish tradition considers the author of the book of Judges to be the prophet Samuel, as the Talmud says, “Samuel wrote his book, Judges and Ruth” (Baba bathra, f 14, 6) and as Kimhi, Abarbanel and most of the rabbis admit. Most Christian exegetes, based on the above data, consider the prophet Samuel to be the author of the book of Judges. Later writers of other sacred books were undoubtedly familiar with the book of Judges. Thus, the writer of 2 Kings pragmatically illuminates the Assyrian captivity (2 Kings 17.7–23), in the same way Nehemiah with his repentant prayer (Neh. 9.26 et c., cf. Ps. 105.34 et c.) point to Judges 2.11–23. The prophet Hosea (Hos. 9.9; Hos. 10.9) mentions the sin of the inhabitants of Gibeah (Judges 19). The prophet Isaiah (Is. 9.4; Is. 10.26) mentions the day of Midian (Judges 6:1–7:1). The psalmist in Psalm 67.8–13 (according to the Hebrew text) quotes almost literally several verses from the song of Deborah (Judges 5.4–5, Judges 5.28–30), and in Ps. 82.7–12 mentions events during the time of Deborah and Gideon. In Zechariah's prophecy about the time of the Messiah (Zechariah 9.9), the description of the King riding on a donkey and a colt is reminiscent of the expression in the book of Judges about the sons of Jairus (Judges 10.4) and the sons of Abdon (Judges 12.14), as well as the expression of Deborah (Judges 5.10) about all the leaders of Israel in general as riding on white asses. In addition, St. Basil the Great under those mentioned in Isa. 1.26 judges finds it possible to understand the judges from the time of the Judges of Israel. The canonical dignity of the book of Judges has never been questioned in either the Jewish or Christian churches. It is found in all translations and lists of canonical books of the Old Testament, in particular in Melito of Sardis, Origen, in the 85th Apostolic Rule, in the 60th Rule of the Council of Laodicea, in the synopses of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, and St. John Chrysostom, and St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in Epiphanius of Cyprus, St. Ephraim the Syrian, blessed. Theodorit, blessed Augustine, translated by Blessed. Jerome, etc., and everywhere takes place immediately after the book of Joshua. You might be interested in: