The Book of Judges, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Judges chapter by chapter. If you have not read our study on Joshua we suggest you start there. Because Judges picks up right where Joshua leaves off. Joshua ended with Israel serving the LORD “all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua” (Joshua 24:31). Judges tells us what happened after those elders died. “And there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD” (2:10). We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Judges is a hard book to read. It has some of the most famous stories in the Bible. Deborah and Gideon and Samson. But it also has some of the darkest. Israel goes down hill the whole way through. The judges at the start are better than the judges at the end. And by the last chapters Israel is acting worse than the Canaanites they were supposed to drive out. But all the way through God keeps hearing their cry and sending someone to save them.

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Judges is about what happens when God’s people forget him. They fell into the same sin over and over. Judges is about the mercy of God. Every time they cried out he raised up a deliverer. Even when they did not deserve it. And Judges shows us that Israel needed a king. Not just any king. A righteous king. That points us to Jesus Christ. We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

The book is named after the leaders God raised up. In Hebrew a judge is a shophet. They did settle disputes like Deborah did (4:5). But most of them were deliverers. Military leaders that God used to save Israel from their enemies. “Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them” (2:16). We are not told who wrote the book. The Jews believed it was Samuel.¹ The book says four times that “there was no king in Israel” (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). So it was probably written after there was a king.

Judges has three parts. A double introduction (1:1–3:6). The stories of the judges (3:7–16:31). And two stories at the end that show how bad things got (17–21). In the middle part the same cycle happens over and over.² Israel sins. God gives them to an enemy. Israel cries out. God raises up a judge. The land has rest. Then the judge dies and Israel sins again. “And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers” (2:19). Notice the word more. It is not just a circle. It is a spiral going down.

There are 12 judges in the book. Six get long stories. Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson. Six get just a few verses. Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon. Some of these judges probably ruled at the same time in different parts of the land.³ We will break the book down like this. A generation that knew not the LORD (1:1–3:6). Othniel, Ehud and Deborah (3:7–5:31). Gideon and Abimelech (6–9). Jephthah and the minor judges (10–12). Samson (13–16). Micah and the Danites (17–18). And Gibeah and Benjamin (19–21).

Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. When we use Hebrew words we will transliterate them and give a brief explanation. We will also let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference. If they disagree with what we believe we will tell you what they think and why we disagree.

Judges 1: The Land Not Taken

“Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first” (v.1). The book starts well. They asked God. And God said Judah. Judah won battles. They captured Adonibezek and cut off his thumbs and great toes. He said “As I have done, so God hath requited me” (v.7). Caleb’s nephew Othniel took Kirjathsepher (v.13). Just like we saw in Joshua 15.

But then the chapter changes. “The LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron” (v.19). The LORD was with them. But they were afraid of chariots. Joshua told the house of Joseph they would drive out the Canaanites “though they have iron chariots” (Joshua 17:18). Then the rest of the chapter is a list of tribes that did not drive out the Canaanites. Benjamin. Manasseh. Ephraim. Zebulun. Asher. Naphtali. Dan (vv.21–36). Some of them made the Canaanites pay tribute instead (v.28). They took the money instead of obeying God.

Judges 2: Bochim and the Cycle

Notice who is speaking. The angel of the LORD. But he says “I made you to go up out of Egypt.” “I sware unto your fathers.” “My covenant.” “My voice.” No angel brought Israel out of Egypt. God did. This is what we saw all through the books of Moses and in Joshua 5. The angel of the LORD is God himself speaking to his people. The one God. The people wept and they called the place Bochim. Which means weepers (v.5).

Then the book goes back and tells us how Joshua died (vv.6–9). And then we get the key verse of the whole book. “And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel” (v.10). One generation. That is all it took. Their parents saw the Jordan stop and the walls of Jericho fall. They did not. Nobody told them. Moses warned them in Deuteronomy 6:7 to teach their children. They did not do it.

The rest of the chapter lays out the cycle we talked about. They served Baalim (v.11). God gave them to their enemies (v.14). God raised up judges (v.16). “For it repented the LORD because of their groanings” (v.18). Then the judge died and they went back to their sin (v.19). Then God tells us why he left the nations in the land. “That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD” (v.22).

Judges 3:1–6: The Nations Left to Prove Israel

God left the Philistines and the Canaanites and others “to prove Israel by them” and to teach war to the generations that never fought (vv.1–2). But Israel did not pass the test. “They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods” (v.6). This is exactly what Moses and Joshua warned them not to do (Deuteronomy 7:3–4; Joshua 23:12–13).

Judges 3:7–11: Othniel

Othniel is the model judge. His story is short and it has every part of the cycle. Israel “did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God” (v.7). God sold them to the king of Mesopotamia for 8 years. They cried out. God raised up Othniel. “And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel” (v.10). He won. And the land had rest 40 years (v.11). Notice where the power came from. The Spirit of the LORD. Not Othniel. All through Judges we will see that the Spirit of the LORD came upon the judges. This is not a second or third person. It is God himself giving power to a man for a task.

Judges 3:12–31: Ehud and Shamgar

Israel sinned again. And this time God strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against them for 18 years (v.14). God raised up Ehud. “A Benjamite, a man lefthanded” (v.15). Benjamin means son of the right hand. And the deliverer from that tribe was left handed.⁴ He made a dagger a cubit long and hid it on his right thigh. Where no one would check. He brought the tribute to Eglon. “And Eglon was a very fat man” (v.17). Ehud said “I have a message from God unto thee” (v.20). And he killed him. Ehud escaped and led Israel against Moab. The land had rest 80 years (v.30). Then there is one verse about Shamgar. He killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad (v.31). God used whatever was in their hands.

Judges 4: Deborah and Barak

Israel sinned again. And God sold them to Jabin king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor (v.2). Joshua burned Hazor in Joshua 11. Now it was back. What Israel did not finish came back to fight them. Jabin’s captain was Sisera. He had 900 chariots of iron and oppressed Israel 20 years (v.3).

“And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time” (v.4). She sat under a palm tree and the people came to her for judgment (v.5). She called Barak and told him God commanded him to take 10,000 men to mount Tabor. Barak said “If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go” (v.8). She went. But she told him “the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (v.9). The LORD routed Sisera and his chariots. Sisera ran away on foot and hid in the tent of a woman named Jael. When he fell asleep she drove a tent nail through his head (v.21). The honor went to a woman. Just like Deborah said.

Judges 5: The Song of Deborah

Deborah and Barak sang a song about the victory. It tells us things chapter 4 does not. “They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The river of Kishon swept them away” (vv.20–21). It seems God sent a storm and the river flooded. The chariots of iron got stuck in the mud. The very thing Israel was afraid of in chapter 1 was useless against God.

The song also names the tribes that came and the tribes that did not. Reuben stayed home with “great searchings of heart” (v.16). They thought about it but did not go. And Meroz was cursed “because they came not to the help of the LORD” (v.23). Then the song ends. “So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years” (v.31).

Judges 6: The LORD Is With Thee

Israel sinned again. This time Midian came every harvest like grasshoppers and took everything (v.5). Israel hid in caves and dens for 7 years (vv.1–2). They cried out. And before God sent a deliverer he sent a prophet to remind them what he did and that they did not obey (vv.8–10).

Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under an oak at Ophrah. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites (v.11). The angel said “The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour” (v.12). Gideon did not feel like a mighty man. He said “if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?” (v.13). Then notice verse 14. “And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might.” The text goes from calling him the angel of the LORD to calling him the LORD.

Gideon brought an offering. The angel touched it with his staff and fire came out of the rock and burned it up. Then he was gone. Gideon was afraid. “Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face” (v.22). And the LORD said “Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die” (v.23). Gideon knew that seeing the angel of the LORD was seeing God. Trinitarians will say this is the Son appearing before he was born. But the text never says there are two persons here. It calls him the angel of the LORD and it calls him the LORD. It is the one God appearing to Gideon.⁵ Gideon built an altar and called it Jehovahshalom. The LORD is peace (v.24).

That night God told Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal. He did it at night because he was afraid (v.27). The men of the city wanted to kill him. But his father said “If he be a god, let him plead for himself” (v.31). So they called Gideon Jerubbaal. Which means let Baal plead (v.32). Then “the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon” (v.34). In Hebrew it says the Spirit clothed Gideon.⁶ God put Gideon on like a garment. Then Gideon asked for a sign with a fleece. Wet fleece and dry ground. Then dry fleece and wet ground (vv.36–40). God was patient with him.

Judges 7: Three Hundred Men

Gideon had 32,000 men. God said that was too many. “Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me” (v.2). So Gideon sent home everyone who was afraid. Just like Deuteronomy 20:8 said. 22,000 went home (v.3). Then God tested the 10,000 at the water. Only 300 lapped the water with their hand to their mouth. God said “By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you” (v.7).

God let Gideon hear a Midianite tell his dream. A cake of barley bread rolled into the camp and knocked a tent flat. His friend said it was “the sword of Gideon” and that God had given Midian into his hand (vv.13–14). Gideon worshipped. Then he gave each man a trumpet and an empty pitcher with a lamp inside. At night they surrounded the camp. They blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers and shouted “The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon” (v.20). The Midianites turned on each other (v.22). 300 men with lamps and pitchers. Paul says “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Judges 8: Gideon’s Ephod

Gideon chased the kings of Midian across the Jordan. The men of Succoth and Penuel would not give his tired men bread. When he came back he punished them (vv.16–17). He killed the two kings Zebah and Zalmunna. Then Israel asked Gideon to be their king. And he gave a great answer. “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you” (v.23).

But then he asked for their gold earrings. And he made an ephod out of them. “And all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house” (v.27). He refused to be king. But he lived like one. He had many wives and 70 sons. And a concubine in Shechem had a son named Abimelech (vv.30–31). Abimelech means my father is king. As soon as Gideon died Israel went back to Baal (v.33). “And the children of Israel remembered not the LORD their God” (v.34).

Judges 9: Abimelech

Abimelech went to Shechem and got money from the temple of Baalberith. He hired vain men and killed his 70 brothers on one stone (v.5). Only the youngest, Jotham, escaped. Jotham stood on mount Gerizim and told a story. The trees wanted a king. The olive tree and the fig tree and the vine all said no. They had better things to do. But the bramble said yes (vv.8–15). A bramble gives no shade. It only burns. Abimelech was the bramble.

Abimelech ruled 3 years. Then God sent an evil spirit between him and the men of Shechem (v.23). They turned on each other. Abimelech destroyed Shechem and sowed it with salt (v.45). Then he attacked Thebez. A woman dropped a piece of a millstone on his head from a tower. He told his armourbearer to kill him so no one would say a woman killed him (v.54). “Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren” (v.56). Abimelech was never called a judge. God did not raise him up. He made himself king. And it ended in disaster.

Judges 10: Go Cry Unto Your Gods

Tola judged Israel 23 years (vv.1–2). Jair judged 22 years. He had 30 sons who rode on 30 ass colts (vv.3–4). Then Israel sinned again. And this time it was worse than ever. They served Baalim and Ashtaroth and the gods of Syria and Zidon and Moab and Ammon and the Philistines (v.6). Seven sets of gods. God gave them to the Philistines and the Ammonites for 18 years.

They cried out. But this time God said no. “Ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen” (vv.13–14). So Israel put away their strange gods and served the LORD. “And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (v.16). God was angry. But he still felt for them.

Judges 11: Jephthah’s Vow

Jephthah was a mighty man of valour. But he was the son of a harlot. His brothers threw him out (vv.1–2). He gathered vain men around him. When the Ammonites attacked the elders of Gilead came and asked Jephthah to lead them. The man they rejected was the man they needed. Jephthah sent a message to the king of Ammon and told him the history of how Israel got the land (vv.15–27). He said Israel had been there 300 years (v.26). He said “the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon” (v.27). Notice that. The LORD is the true Judge.

“Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah” (v.29). God had already given him what he needed. But then Jephthah made a vow. “If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me … shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering” (vv.30–31). God gave him the victory. And when he came home his only daughter came out to meet him with dancing (v.34).

Jephthah kept his vow. His daughter asked for 2 months to “bewail my virginity” (v.37). Then he “did with her according to his vow” (v.39). There are two main views on what happened. Some believe he offered her as a burnt offering. Others believe he gave her to serve at the tabernacle for the rest of her life and she never married.⁷ We will not go into all the arguments here. But notice that God never asked for this vow. And the law said that a person vowed to God could be redeemed with money (Leviticus 27:2–8). Jephthah did not need to make this vow. He was acting like the Canaanites around him who made deals with their gods. Even so Hebrews 11:32 lists Jephthah among those who had faith. God uses imperfect people.

Judges 12: Shibboleth

The men of Ephraim were angry that Jephthah did not call them to the battle. They threatened to burn his house. So Jephthah fought them. The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan. When a man of Ephraim tried to cross they made him say Shibboleth. Ephraim could not say it right. They said Sibboleth. And they were killed. 42,000 men of Ephraim died (v.6). Israel was now fighting Israel. Then come three more judges. Ibzan judged 7 years. Elon 10 years. And Abdon 8 years. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 ass colts (vv.8–15).

Judges 13: The Name That Is Secret

Israel sinned again. And God gave them to the Philistines 40 years (v.1). Notice that this time we are not told that Israel cried out. They had gotten used to it. But God sent a deliverer anyway. The angel of the LORD appeared to the barren wife of Manoah. He told her she would have a son. He would be a Nazarite from the womb. No razor would touch his head. “And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (v.5). Begin. Samson would not finish the job. That would wait for David.

Manoah prayed and the angel came back. Manoah wanted to know his name.

The Hebrew word for secret is peli. Which means wonderful. It comes from the same root as the word in Isaiah 9:6. “His name shall be called Wonderful.”⁸ Notice what else Isaiah says that child would be called. “The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” The one whose name was too wonderful for Manoah to know would one day be born as a child. And his name would be Jesus.

Manoah offered a kid on a rock. And the angel “did wondrously” (v.19). He went up to heaven in the flame from the altar (v.20). Then Manoah said “We shall surely die, because we have seen God” (v.22). Not an angel. God. Manoah’s wife had better sense than he did. She said if God wanted to kill them he would not have taken their offering (v.23). Samson was born. “And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times” (v.25).

Judges 14: The Lion and the Riddle

Samson saw a Philistine woman in Timnath and wanted to marry her. His parents asked why he could not find a wife from Israel (v.3). Samson said “Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well” (v.3). In Hebrew it says she is right in my eyes. That is the same phrase the book ends with. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. But the text tells us “it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines” (v.4). God used even Samson’s weakness.

On the way a lion attacked him. “And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid” (v.6). Later he found bees and honey in the dead lion and ate it (vv.8–9). A Nazarite was not supposed to touch anything dead (Numbers 6:6). He did not tell his parents. At the wedding feast he gave the Philistines a riddle about it. They threatened his wife and she got the answer out of him. “If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle” (v.18). He killed 30 Philistines at Ashkelon to pay his bet (v.19).

Judges 15: The Jawbone

Samson found out his wife was given to another man. So he caught 300 foxes and tied them tail to tail with firebrands and burned the Philistines’ grain (vv.4–5). The Philistines burned his wife and her father. Samson killed many of them. Then the Philistines came after Judah. And 3000 men of Judah came to Samson and said “Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?” (v.11). They tied him up and handed him over. Israel was not even trying to be free anymore.

“And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him” (v.14). The ropes melted off like burnt flax. He picked up a fresh jawbone of an ass and killed 1000 men (v.15). Then he was so thirsty he thought he would die. He called on the LORD. And God split a hollow place and water came out (v.19). He judged Israel 20 years (v.20).

Judges 16: Samson and Delilah

Samson went to a harlot in Gaza. The Philistines waited at the gate to kill him in the morning. But he got up at midnight and carried the doors of the gate up a hill (v.3). Then he loved a woman named Delilah. The lords of the Philistines each offered her 1100 pieces of silver to find out where his strength came from (v.5). Three times he lied to her. Green withs. New ropes. Weaving his hair into the loom. Every time the Philistines came and he broke free. But she kept pushing him “so that his soul was vexed unto death” (v.16). And he told her all his heart.

She shaved his head while he slept. He woke up and said “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him” (v.20). That is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. The strength was never in his hair. It was the LORD. The hair was the sign of his vow. When he gave that up he lost what the vow stood for. The Philistines put out his eyes and made him grind in the prison (v.21). “Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again” (v.22).

The Philistines had a feast to their god Dagon. They brought Samson out to make fun of him. He asked the boy leading him to let him feel the pillars. Then he prayed. “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once” (v.28). He pushed the pillars and the house fell on the lords and all the people. “So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life” (v.30). Hebrews 11:32 lists Samson among those who had faith. His life was full of failure. But at the end he called on God. And God remembered him.

Samson defeated more of the enemy by his death than by his life. Jesus did the same. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that “through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” But Samson died because of his own sin. Jesus died for ours. And Samson stayed dead. Jesus rose again.

Judges 17: Micah’s Idol

The last five chapters are not about judges. There is no cycle. No one cries out to God. These stories probably happened early in the book. Because Phinehas the grandson of Aaron is still alive (20:28). They are put at the end to show us how bad things were on the inside.

A man named Micah stole 1100 pieces of silver from his mother. When he gave it back she said “I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image” (v.3). She dedicated it to the LORD to make an idol. The second commandment said not to do that. Micah made a house of gods and an ephod and teraphim. And he made his son a priest (v.5). Then the book tells us why. “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (v.6).

A young Levite from Bethlehem came by looking for a place to stay. Micah hired him as his priest for 10 shekels a year and clothes and food (v.10). Then Micah said “Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest” (v.13). He had an idol and a hired priest. And he thought God would bless him. He made up his own religion and put the LORD’s name on it.

Judges 18: The Danites

“In those days there was no king in Israel” (v.1). The tribe of Dan still had not taken its land. They sent 5 men to look for a place. They stayed at Micah’s house and asked the Levite if they would succeed. He told them what they wanted to hear. “Go in peace” (v.6). They found Laish. A quiet city with no one to help it (v.7). Then 600 men of Dan came. On the way they stole Micah’s gods and talked the Levite into coming with them. “Is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?” (v.19). He was glad to go. Micah chased them. He cried “Ye have taken away my gods which I made” (v.24). A god you can steal is not much of a god.

Dan destroyed Laish and renamed it Dan. They set up the graven image. And the Levite became their priest. Then we find out his name. “Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh” (v.30). In the Hebrew text the name Manasseh is written with a letter raised above the line. Without that letter it reads Moses. Gershom was the son of Moses (Exodus 2:22). Many believe the scribes added that letter to protect the name of Moses.⁹ The grandson of Moses was a priest to an idol. One generation. That is all it took.

Judges 19: The Sin of Gibeah

“And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel” (v.1). Another Levite went to Bethlehem to bring back his concubine. On the way home he would not stay in Jebus because it was a city of strangers. He went on to Gibeah. A city of Benjamin. An Israelite city. And no one would take them in except an old man (vv.15–20). Then the men of the city surrounded the house. What happened next is almost the same as what happened in Sodom (Genesis 19:4–8).¹⁰ We will not go into the details here. But the concubine died. The Levite cut her body into 12 pieces and sent them to all the tribes of Israel (v.29). And everyone said “There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day” (v.30). Israel had become Sodom.

Judges 20: War With Benjamin

All Israel gathered at Mizpeh. 400,000 men (v.2). They told Benjamin to hand over the men of Gibeah. Benjamin refused and gathered to fight the rest of Israel. They had 700 chosen men who were lefthanded. “Every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss” (v.16). Israel asked God who should go up first. God said Judah (v.18). Just like chapter 1. But this time they were fighting their own brother.

Israel lost the first day. 22,000 died (v.21). They wept and asked God again. They lost the second day. 18,000 died (v.25). Then they fasted and offered and asked a third time. Phinehas was the priest (v.28). And God said “Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand” (v.28). Israel won. And Benjamin was almost wiped out. Only 600 men escaped to the rock Rimmon (v.47).

Judges 21: No King in Israel

Israel had sworn not to give their daughters to Benjamin. Now they were sorry. One tribe was almost gone (vv.1–3). So they came up with their own solutions. They destroyed Jabeshgilead because it did not come to the battle and gave Benjamin 400 young women from there (vv.10–12). That was not enough. So they told the men of Benjamin to hide in the vineyards at Shiloh and catch the daughters of Shiloh when they came out to dance at the feast (vv.20–21). That way no one would break their oath. They kept the letter of their vow and ignored everything else.

That is how the book ends. No victory. No rest. Just this verse. Also notice where this story happened. Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul the first king of Israel came from Gibeah of Benjamin (1 Samuel 10:26). And the first thing Saul did as king was rescue Jabeshgilead (1 Samuel 11). The next books will show us that Israel needed more than just a king. They needed the right king.

We have gone through Judges chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Judges shows us what happens when God’s people forget him. It only took one generation (2:10). They did not drive out the Canaanites. Then they married them. Then they served their gods. By the end a Levite was a hired priest to an idol and an Israelite city was acting like Sodom. Sin does not stay the same. It gets worse. “They returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers” (2:19).

Second Judges shows us the mercy of God. Over and over Israel sinned. And over and over “the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them” (2:16). Even when they did not cry out God sent Samson. “His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (10:16). God did not give up on his people. And he used people like a left handed man and a woman with a tent nail and a farmer hiding in a winepress and a man with long hair and no self control. Not because they were great. Because he was.

Third Judges is monotheistic. The angel of the LORD at Bochim said “I made you to go up out of Egypt” (2:1). The angel of the LORD who spoke to Gideon is called the LORD (6:14). And Manoah said “we have seen God” (13:22). The name of the one who appeared to Manoah was Wonderful (13:18). The same name Isaiah gives the child who is “The mighty God, The everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6). And the Spirit of the LORD that came upon the judges was the one God himself giving them power. The same Spirit that was poured out on the day of Pentecost. Not just upon a few judges for a time. But upon all who obey the gospel (Acts 2:38–39).

Judges ends with “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (21:25). The answer was a king. Gideon was right when he said “the LORD shall rule over you” (8:23). Israel needed God to be their king. And that is what God did. Isaiah tells us that the child whose name is Wonderful would sit “upon the throne of David” (Isaiah 9:7). The LORD himself came to be our king. But first God would give Israel a story of faithfulness in the middle of all this darkness. It happened “in the days when the judges ruled” (Ruth 1:1). That is where Ruth begins.