JUDGES

The second book of the 12 historical books

The Tanakh lists this book as the second of the Neviim Rishonim (Early Prophets)

The book of Judges appears to have been written by Samuel during the time of King Saul, by the fact that the text frequently says, "at that time there was no king in Israel".

A “judge” in Hebrew is one that God has raised up to lead His people during the period of time between the conquest of Canaan and when the Kings ruled over Israel.

The Hebrew title "Shoftim" or "Shophetim: means judges, rulers, deliverers or saviors

The Greek title "Kritai" means "Judges"

The Latin title "Liber Judicum" means "The book of Judges"

Some also call it the book of failures. Although the Law had been given by Moses, the people had fallen away from it's statutes. As the author of the book recorded;

JUDGES 21:25

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

The book of Judges covers an approximate time of 400 years, ranging from the death of Joshua to the selection of Saul as king of Israel. Samson was the last judge of Israel listed in Judges, but Samuel was the thirteenth and last judge of the nation, followed by the reigns of the kings.

Each judge was a savior, a ruler, a spiritual and political deliverer, but only Samuel and Deborah were also prophets. They were forerunners and examples of Jesus Christ as Savior, Ruler, Judge, Deliverer, Prophet and High Priest of His people.

The book of Judges was written on a thematic (theme) order instead of in chronological order, chapters 17-21 actually precede chapters 3-16. The theme being a repeating 5 point cycle of ......

1. Sin 2. Servitude 3. Supplication 4. Salvation 5. Silence

There were 12 judges mentioned in the book of Judges...........

1.         Judges 3:8-11             Othniel                                               

2.         Judges 3:12-30           Ehud

3.         Judges 3:31                 Shamgar

4.         Judges 4:1 - 5:31        Deborah                                             

5.         Judges 6:1 - 9:57        Gideon                                               

6.         Judges 10:1-2             Tola                                                    

7.         Judges 10:3-5             Jair

8.         Judges 10:6 - 12:7      Jephthah

9.         Judges 12:8-10           Ibzan

10.       Judges 12:11-12         Elon

11.       Judges 12:13-15         Abdon

12.       Judges 13:1 - 16:31    Samson

Chapter Summary of the Book of Judges

Chapter 1 - Further conquests of Canaan; some Canaanite nations not conquered

Chapter 2 - Death of Joshua; Israel turns to idolatry; remaining nations to plague Israel

Chapter 3 - List of unconquered nations; Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar are made judges

Chapter 4 - Deborah and Barak destroy Sisera and armies of Canaanite king Jabin

Chapter 5 - Song of Deborah and Barak after the battle with Sisera

Chapter 6 - Gideon selected by God to destroy Midianite armies; miracles with the fleece

Chapter 7 - God selects 300 men for Gideon’s army. Midianites are defeated and pursued.

Chapter 8 - Gideon personally destroys Midianite kings, refuses to be a judge of Israel.

Chapter 9 - Abimelech destroys Gideon’s sons, claims himself ruler of Shechem; is killed

Chapter 10 - Tola and Jair judge; Israel sins, are oppressed by Philistines and Ammonites

Chapter 11 - Jephthah defeats the Ammonites, makes a foolish vow to the Lord

Chapter 12 - Ephraimites attack Jephthah, are defeated; Ibzan, Elon and Abdon judge Israel

Chapter 13 - Angel of the Lord visits Manoah’s wife, birth of Samson

Chapter 14 - Samson kills lion barehanded, is betrothed to Philistine woman, is betrayed

Chapter 15 - Samson burns fields of Philistines, kills 1,000 Philistines with a jawbone

Chapter 16 - Samson is betrayed by Delilah; is enslaved; dies destroying Philistine temple

Chapter 17 - Micah’s creation of idols; Levite hired to be Micah’s priest

Chapter 18 - Tribe of Dan takes Micah’s idols and priest; slaughter people of Laish

Chapter 19 - Levite’s concubine raped and murdered by Benjamites; all Israel is horrified,

Chapter 20 - Israel goes to war with tribe of Benjamin, all but 600 men of Benjamin destroyed

Chapter 21 - Israel provides wives for the remaining men of Benjamin

JUDGES 1:1-8

1 NOW after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, "Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?"

2 And the LORD said, "Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand."

3 So Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory." And Simeon went with him.

4 Then Judah went up, and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek.

5 And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

6 Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

7 And Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me." Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

8 Now the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it; they struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.

The tribe of Judah was the largest of all the tribes, and had been chosen by God to be the tribe from whom the future kings of Israel would come. Adoni-Bezek's words are interesting in that he had seventy kings that were his prisoners. This shows that Canaanite internal conquests had weakened the country internally which would make it easier for Israel to conquer the area.

Bezek was just to the west of the Jordan valley, about 80 miles north of Jerusalem in the territory that would later be given to the tribe of Manasseh. Adoni-Bezek (Hebrew: Lord of Bezek) was apparently one of the local kings of the region.

Why Israel cut off his thumbs and big toes isn't clear, although it would be impossible for a prisoner to put up any kind of resistance as the removal of his thumbs would keep him from being able to grasp a sword, and without his big toes for balance, he couldn't run. Also, as he himself said, this was his punishment from God for what he had done.

JUDGES 1:9-10

9 And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountains, in the South, and in the lowland.

10 Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kirjath Arba.) And they killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

Kirjath Arba (city of Arba) was where Arba who was the father of the giants (known as the Anakim) dwelt. Arba was the father of Anak. Sheshai, Talmai and Ahiman were the descendants of Anak.

JOSHUA 15:13

13 Now to Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a share among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, namely, Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak).

NUMBERS 13:22

22 And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

JUDGES 1:11-15

11 From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. (The name of Debir was formerly Kirjath Sepher.)

12 Then Caleb said, "Whoever attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife."

13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife.

14 Now it happened, when she came to him, that she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, "What do you wish?"

15 So she said to him, "Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water." And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

It was not unusual for men in leadership positions to offer their daughters in marriage as a reward for daring deeds. In this case, Othniel, Caleb's nephew took the city and received Caleb's daughter as his bride. Caleb had granted them a field outside of Kirjath Arba for an inheritance, but as it was in the Negev area which was desert, Achsah asked for springs of water also.

JUDGES 1:16-20

16 Now the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up from the City of Palms with the children of Judah into the Wilderness of Judah, which lies in the South near Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.

17 And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah.

18 Also Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.

19 So the LORD was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron.

20 And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said. Then he expelled from there the three sons of Anak.

The children of Jethro, Moses' father in law, had dwelt in Jericho (the City of Palms), but when Israel invaded the land and destroyed Jericho, Jethro's children went to dwell with the Israelites.

Judah fought against the Canaanites and the Lord was with them, because they were obeying Him. They gave Caleb the villages and surrounding lands of Hebron as was commanded by Moses.

It is interesting that it says that Judah conquered Gaza and Ashkelon, two of the territories of the Philistines. Apparently Judah conquered the smaller villages in the vicinity but not the fortified capital cities, as these cities had belonged to the Philistines for several hundred years before Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed them. These same Philistines had chariots of iron, which disheartened the people of Judah, so they could not drive them out of the land.

JUDGES 1:21

21 But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; so the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

Benjamin disobeyed God and didn't drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem, but dwelt among them even after destroying the city. They destroyed the city itself but allowed it to later be rebuilt by the Jebusites. It would not be completely conquered until the time of king David.

JUDGES 1:22-28

22 And the house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.

23 So the house of Joseph sent men to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city was formerly Luz.)

24 And when the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, "Please show us the entrance to the city, and we will show you mercy."

25 So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go.

26 And the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.

27 However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.

28 And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out.

On the surface it seems somewhat weird that Israel asked a man to show them the entrance to the gate of the city, when it would be obvious where the gates to the city were just by observation. What they were really asking was for the man to open the gates for them to allow them entry. Thus Israel would not need to besiege the city for a year or more, starving the city into submission.

But again, the tribe of Manasseh, like Benjamin and others grew weary of war and didn't destroy all of the Canaanites out of their territories as God commanded. Instead, they forced them to pay tribute in the form of goods and money. This disobedience would cost Israel dearly in years to come.

JUDGES 1:29-36

29 Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; so the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.

30 Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites dwelt among them, and were put under tribute.

31 Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob.

32 So the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

33 Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but they dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were put under tribute to them.

34 And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;

35 and the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; yet when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they were put under tribute.

36 Now the boundary of the Amorites was from the Ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela, and upward.

Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali failed to drive out the Canaanites and lived with them. Dan failed to drive out the Amorites and Dan had to live in the mountains instead. Although the tribe of Joseph did force the Amorites to pay tribute (taxes) to them, they still didn't follow God's command to drive them out.

The tribe of Dan had actually tried to conquer the lands of the Philistines on the Mediterranean coast but had been repulsed. They also tried to move into the Jordan valley area, but also had been pushed out. They then moved northward and conquered an area in the farthest northern reaches of Israel's territory just below Lebanon.

JUDGES 2:1-5

1 Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you.

2 'And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?

3 "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"

4 So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

5 Then they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the LORD.

"Bochim" means "weepers", because this is where the Israelites repented of their sin. It is near Gilgal, on the west side of the Jordan river where they crossed into Canaan.

Note that the "Angel of the Lord" speaks in the first person saying "I" when he accuses Israel of their disobedience. Angels do not speak for God in the first-person perspective, as that would make them equal with God.

Also note that it says THE angel of the Lord, not AN angel of the Lord. The wording here is critical as to the identity of the speaker. This means that God Himself was speaking to Israel in the second person of the Trinity, namely Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate form.

JUDGES 2:6-10

6 And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.

7 So the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD which He had done for Israel.

8 Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old.

9 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.

10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.

Joshua, Caleb and the generation of Israelites that originally came into the land of inheritance served the Lord for the rest of their lives after repenting before the Lord in Bochim.

But for some reason, their knowledge of the Lord and His works wasn't passed on to their children. I don't think it was the fault of the fathers in not telling their children about the Lord, I suspect it was that the children didn't listen or take the stories to heart.

JUDGES 2:11-13

11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals;

12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.

13 They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

It only took one generation for the curse of the Lord to take affect on Israel. As He had promised, Israel became snared by the gods of the Canaanites and began serving Ba'al (Hebrew: Master) and Ashtoreth instead of the Lord. (Ashtoreth was a female Canaanite deity).

JUDGES 2:14-16

14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

16 Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

People tend to forget that while God is a God of mercy, He is also a God of judgment, One who punishes sin. He will punish us as a lesson concerning our disobedience, but He will also help after the punishment has been administered.

JUDGES 2:17-19

17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.

18 And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.

19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.

Sin is like a malignant cancer in the body. Unless it is completely removed, it will return with a vengeance and will be worse than before. The Lord time and again delivered Israel from their oppressors, but as soon as the oppression ceased, they immediately went back to their old ways.

JUDGES 2:20-23

20 Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, "Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice,

21 "I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,

22 "so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not."

23 Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

Israel time and again broke the covenant and commandments of God, so He left the remnants of the nations of the land of Canaan to afflict Israel because of their continued disobedience. He kept His promise in giving them the land of Canaan, but now they were going to pay a high price for it.

JUDGES 3:1-4

1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan

2 (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it),

3 namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.

4 And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

The Lord used these nations to test Israel's willingness to obey Him. Remember He had told them that He would make any nation not driven out by the Israelites a constant source of problems. Therefore these nations would become oppressors to Israel if they disobeyed Him.

JUDGES 3:5-7

5 Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.

7 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.

God left seven nations in Canaan as foes of Israel, namely the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Hivites, Jebusites, Perrizites, Amorites and Hittites. If you think about it, this was an early attempt for Satan to prevent the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, by attempting to corrupt the bloodline of Judah through whom the Messiah was prophesied to come.

JUDGES 3:8-11

8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years.

9 When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim.

11 So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

God allowed the king of Mesopotamia to oppress Israel for 8 years as a lesson for their continued disobedience. When the people repented and cried out to the Lord, He put His spirit on Caleb's nephew Othniel to deliver His people. God had Othniel rule and judge the people for 40 years, giving Israel time to relearn His commandments and to have rest.

JUDGES 3:12-30

12 And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.

13 Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel, and took possession of the City of Palms.

14 So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

15 But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

16 Now Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh.

17 So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)

18 And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute.

19 But he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." He said, "Keep silence!" And all who attended him went out from him.

20 So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." So he arose from his seat.

21 Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.

22 Even the hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out.

23 Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

24 When he had gone out, Eglon's servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, "He is probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber."

25 So they waited till they were embarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master, fallen dead on the floor.

26 But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Seirah.

27 And it happened, when he arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and he led them.

28 Then he said to them, "Follow me, for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand." So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over.

29 And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped.

30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.

After serving The Lord for 40 years, the next generation of Israelites turned away from God, just as their parents had done early in their lives. The Israelites were forced to serve the Moabites for 18 years, 10 years longer than their parents had been servants of Mesopotamia.

This story is interesting, as it is one of the few in which it tells how the judge delivered Israel from an oppressor. Ehud's dagger blade was a cubit (18 inches) long plus the handle. It is a graphic example of how fat king Eglon was, in that all of the dagger including the handle went into king!

This is fascinating in that Ehud was left-handed, meaning that he would have drawn a sword from his right side. Most of the men of that time were right-handed, so Eglon's guards would have been looking for a weapon on Ehud's left side.

JUDGES 3:31

31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and he also delivered Israel.

After Ehud, God set Shamgar to judge over Israel and deliver them from the Philistines. An ox goad is still used in western Asia and southern Europe. It is a stout rod about 8 feet long, brought to a sharp point and some times the opposite end is encased with iron, used to clear the plow of clay. It can a formidable weapon, much like the fearsome quarterstaff of medieval times.

JUDGES 4:1-3

1 When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.

2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim.

3 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel.

Shamgar apparently stopped attacks by the Philistines, but the Philistines didn't actually rule over Israel, which explains why it says that after Ehud died, Jabin was the next oppressor. But notice that again, as soon as the ruling judge was dead, Israel went back to their old ways.

JUDGES 4:4-9

4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

5 And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

6 Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, "Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, 'Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun;

7 'and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand'?"

8 And Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!"

9 So she said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Barak believes he will win only if Deborah is with him. His lack of faith would cost him the greatest prize of the battle, the capture of the commander of the mighty army of the enemy. This prize was usually reserved for the man leading his men into battle. The fact that Sisera would be brought down by a woman would be a great humiliation to Barak.

JUDGES 4:10-16

10 And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; he went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him.

11 Now Heber the Kenite, of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zaanaim, which is beside Kedesh.

12 And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor.

13 So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon.

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

15 And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot.

16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.

The fact that it states that Sisera had chariots of iron may not seem to be too bad, but we need to remember that most of the area (including Israel) was still in the Bronze Age. Therefore iron chariots would have been a formidable weapon to have to face in battle, especially since Israel didn't have chariots! One wonders how a 10,000 man army of foot soldiers could defeat an army backed by chariots, but an important clue is listed in the next chapter.

JUDGES 4:17-22

17 However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear." And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket.

19 Then he said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.

20 And he said to her, "Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, 'Is there any man here?' you shall say, 'No."'

21 Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

22 And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, "Come, I will show you the man whom you seek." And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple.

Here the word of the Lord through Deborah was fulfilled in that a woman received the glory of destroying Sisera, rather than Barak.

JUDGES 4:23-24

23 So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel.

24 And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

After the destruction of Sisera and his army God then helped Israel destroy Jabin the king of Canaan, who had harshly oppressed them.

JUDGES 5:1-5

1 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:

2 "When leaders lead in Israel, when the people willingly offer themselves, bless the LORD!

3 "Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes! I, even I, will sing to the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

4 "LORD, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens poured, the clouds also poured water;

5 The mountains gushed before the LORD, this Sinai, before the LORD God of Israel.

A massive thunder storm with heavy rains would have caused flooding and deep mud, slowing down the 900 heavy chariots of iron commanded by Sisera. Apparently the thunder was great enough that the ground shook from the intensity. It is interesting to note that the storm came from the south, from the desert of Edom, which is unusual.

The chariots were the main strength of their army, the foot soldiers of their army were mostly used to loot and pillage after the chariots had massacred the enemy.

JUDGES 5:6-7

6 "In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, and the travelers walked along the byways.

7 Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel.

The reign of king Jabin of Canaan was so harsh that the people abandoned their cities and villages to live in the wilderness and caves for greater protection.

JUDGES 5:8-17

8 They chose new gods; then there was war in the gates; not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

9 My heart is with the rulers of Israel who offered themselves willingly with the people. Bless the LORD!

10 "Speak, you who ride on white donkeys, who sit in judges' attire, and who walk along the road.

11 Far from the noise of the archers, among the watering places, there they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts for His villagers in Israel; then the people of the LORD shall go down to the gates.

12 "Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and lead your captives away, O son of Abinoam!

13 "Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles; the LORD came down for me against the mighty.

14 From Ephraim were those whose roots were in Amalek. After you, Benjamin, with your peoples, From Machir rulers came down, And from Zebulun those who bear the recruiter's staff.

15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; As Issachar, so was Barak Sent into the valley under his command; Among the divisions of Reuben there were great resolves of heart.

16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, to hear the pipings for the flocks? The divisions of Reuben have great searchings of heart.

17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan, And why did Dan remain on ships? Asher continued at the seashore, And stayed by his inlets.

Reuben, Benjamin, Ephraim (Gilead), Dan and Asher didn't fight in this war for the survival of Israel, even though they were called to help the rest of their brethren. An especially hard slam was made against Ephraim by saying that "their roots were in Amalek", for the Amalekites were cowards who attacked the rear most flanks of Israel as they came out of the wilderness, causing God to command Moses to wipe out Amalek entirely.

DEUTERONOMY 25:17-19

17 "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt,

18 how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.

19 Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.

The tribe of Reuben was accused of staying with their flocks, Gilead was accused of staying on the eastern bank of the Jordan river, Dan remained with their ships, and Asher with their fishing businesses. They were accused of cowardice also, but not to the extent of Ephraim.

JUDGES 5:18-21

18 Zebulun is a people who jeopardized their lives to the point of death, Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.

19 "The kings came and fought, then the kings of Canaan fought in Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they took no spoils of silver.

20 They fought from the heavens; the stars from their courses fought against Sisera.

21 The torrent of Kishon swept them away, that ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon. O my soul, march on in strength!

The sudden storm caused a flash flood in the valley of Jezreel, sweeping away a large portion of Sisera's army.

JUDGES 5:22-23

22 Then the horses' hooves pounded, the galloping, galloping of his steeds.

23 'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the LORD, 'Curse its inhabitants bitterly, because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.'

The Lord cursed the village of Meroz in the valley of Jezreel because the battle was right in front of them and they turned their backs on the Israelites that needed help. By the implications of the text, most if not all of the village was caught in the flash flood and was swept away.

JUDGES 5:24-31

24 "Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; blessed is she among women in tents.

25 He asked for water, she gave milk; she brought out cream in a lordly bowl.

26 She stretched her hand to the tent peg, her right hand to the workmen's hammer; she pounded Sisera, she pierced his head, she split and struck through his temple.

27 At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; at her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell dead.

28 "The mother of Sisera looked through the window, and cried out through the lattice, 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?'

29 Her wisest ladies answered her, Yes, she answered herself,

30 'Are they not finding and dividing the spoil: to every man a girl or two; for Sisera, plunder of dyed garments, plunder of garments embroidered and dyed, two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter?'

31 "Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But let those who love Him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength." So the land had rest for forty years.

The final victory, as Deborah had prophesied, went to a woman. Jael was given the victory of killing the commander of the enemies army, this honor was usually reserved for the commander of the army exclusively.

JUDGES 6:1-10

1 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,

2 and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.

3 So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.

4 Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.

5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.

6 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites,

8 that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage;

9 'and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.

10 'Also I said to you, "I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell." But you have not obeyed My voice.'"

The Midianites were nomadic Arabic tribes that lived in what is presently Saudi Arabia. It is interesting that they kept Israel oppressed, namely by bringing their cattle and livestock to eat Israel's crops and grasslands as a form of a "scorched earth" policy.

The Amalekites were descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau, who were bitter enemies of Israel. They fought against Israel when they came out of Egypt, and in cowardly manner apparently harassed the stragglers of Israel as they moved through the lands east of the Jordan river on their way to Canaan, causing Moses to remind Israel;

DEUTERONOMY 25:17-19

17 "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt,

18 how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.

19 Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.

Israel was supposed to have completely wiped Amalek out when they conquered Canaan, but they didn't follow God's commandments and again they reaped a bitter harvest for their disobedience.

JUDGES 6:11-24

11 Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.

12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"

13 Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."

14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"

15 So he said to Him, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."

16 And the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."

17 Then he said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me.

18 "Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You." And He said, "I will wait until you come back."

19 So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them.

20 The Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.

21 Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

22 Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face."

23 Then the LORD said to him, "Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die."

24 So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress for winepresses back then were located in a tower which would have hidden Gideon from the sight of any who might report him to the Midianites.

Note carefully that the "Angel of the Lord" speaks as God in the first-person in verses 14 and 16 indicating that it was God Himself in the form of the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ speaking to Gideon. Neither would Gideon have made an offering or have built an altar to an angel but to God alone.

The wording of the text is interesting for Gideon is in fear, having seen the "Angel of the Lord" face to face. This indicates that the Triune nature of God was known even then, as Gideon realized he had seen God face to face and would die for having done so. This also indicates that he knew of Moses' request to see God and God's response to him.

EXODUS 33:18-23

18 And he said, "Please, show me Your glory."

19 Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

20 But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live."

21 And the Lord said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.

22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.

23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen."

What Moses saw was Jesus Christ in His glory, but what Gideon saw was Jesus appearing apart from His glorified state just as He had appeared to Abraham concerning the matter of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Note that God chose one of the least of men in one of the least of the clans of the tribe of Manasseh to perform His deliverance for Israel. This was to show that it is by the power of God alone that this deliverance was to happen.

JUDGES 6:25-27

25 Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, "Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it;

26 "and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down."

27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.

Tearing down of the altar of Ba'al (Hebrew: Master, owner) would remove Satan's right to remain in that place. The burning of the wooden image (more than likely the female deity Ashtaroth, Ba'al's consort) would also do the same thing. By this one act, Satan would be cast out and God's supremacy would be established in that place.

JUDGES 6:28-32

28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built.

29 So they said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And when they had inquired and asked, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing."

30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it."

31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, "Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!"

32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, "Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar."

Joash's words seem to be out of place with the fact that an altar to Ba'al was on his property in the first place, yet when the men of the city wanted to put Gideon to death for destroying it, Joash defends Gideon. Basically Joash is saying that if Ba'al is truly a god, he can defend himself and can kill Gideon if he is powerful enough. But if Ba'al cannot defend himself or kill Gideon, he is no god to be worshiped.

The name Jerub-ba'al is uncertain in Hebrew, but it seems to mean "Ba'al contends" or "Ba'al accuses", showing that Ba'al has a contention against Gideon.

JUDGES 6:33-40

33 Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.

34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.

35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

36 So Gideon said to God, "If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said

37 "look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said."

38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.

39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew."

40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

Gideon can't be blamed for testing to be sure it was the Lord who spoke to him. And while the first test might be accepted by some, Gideon wanted to be sure that it wasn't a coincidence and asked for a second test. Apparently God didn't have a problem with it, as He didn't rebuke Gideon. The apostle John tells us to test any spiritual manifestations we might encounter;

I JOHN 4:1-3

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

JUDGES 7:1-3

1 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

2 And the LORD said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'

3 "Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.'" And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.

This must have been disheartening and frightening for Gideon. Over 2/3 of his army left him, leaving only a fraction to fight with.

JUDGES 7:4-7

4 But the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' the same shall not go."

5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink."

6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.

7 Then the LORD said to Gideon, "By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place."

The people that got down on their knees to drink water weren't diligent to watch for enemies as they drank. The people in turn that brought water to their mouths could watch for enemies as they drank.

JUDGES 7:8-14

8 So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

9 It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, "Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.

10 "But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant,

11 "and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp." Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp.

12 Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.

13 And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, "I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed."

14 Then his companion answered and said, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp."

Gideon must have been jittery by this time, having only 300 men against several hundred thousand Midianites! Yet God in His mercy gave Gideon one final sign that He was with Gideon, in having Gideon hear a pair of men discuss a dream in which he conquered the Midianites. I suspect that the men he heard were angels placed by God there for that very purpose.

JUDGES 7:15-25

15 And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, "Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand."

16 Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers.

17 And he said to them, "Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do:

18 "When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, 'The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!'"

19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.

20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing and they cried, "The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!"

21 And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled.

22 When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the LORD set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.

23 And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.

24 Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against the Midianites, and seize from them the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan." Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan.

25 And they captured two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

This is a fascinating bit of deception on Gideon's part. The Midianites were relaxed and sleeping, assured that their numbers would prevail against Israel without problem as in times past. Then suddenly there are torches and shouts from men all around the camp and it seems that a massive force of men has surrounded them.

The sudden appearance of torches, shouting men and the sound of breaking pitchers sowed panic among suddenly awakened and confused Midianites and Amalekites so that they fled, striking at anything moving that they saw, namely each other. Panic is contagious, and the Lord sowed panic among the members of the armies so that they fled in all directions, making them easy prey for Gideon and his men.

Gideon, not wanting the armies to escape ensured that all of the oases and fords of the Jordan were captured ahead of the fleeing armies so that the maximum destruction of the armies could occur and the report would go out to their homelands, ensuring that the fear of Israel would be spread abroad.

In ancient times if a major event happened somewhere it became a landmark. Midianite prince Oreb was captured and killed by a huge rock, and Zeeb was killed by a winepress. Their names were used to mark the locations for later Israeli history.

JUDGES 8:1

1 Now the men of Ephraim said to him, "Why have you done this to us by not calling us when you went to fight with the Midianites?" And they reprimanded him sharply.

NOW the Ephraimites show their bravery after the Midianites and Amalekites have been defeated, but where were they when Midian and Amalek invaded in the first place, and Gideon called for help in fighting them?

JUDGES 8:2-3

2 So he said to them, "What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?

3 "God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you?" Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that.

Gideon, not wanting to start a civil strife states that the best of his clan can't compare with the leftovers of Ephraim when it comes to bravery. He also reminds them that they captured and killed the princes of Midian while Gideon and his men had defeated an army of lesser officers and men, thereby salving the pride of the Ephraimites.

JUDGES 8:4-13

4 When Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the three hundred men who were with him crossed over, exhausted but still in pursuit.

5 Then he said to the men of Succoth, "Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian."

6 And the leaders of Succoth said, "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?"

7 So Gideon said, "For this cause, when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers!"

8 Then he went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way. And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.

9 So he also spoke to the men of Penuel, saying, "When I come back in peace, I will tear down this tower!"

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East; for one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword had fallen.

11 Then Gideon went up by the road of those who dwell in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah; and he attacked the army while the camp felt secure.

12 When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the whole army.

13 Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle, from the Ascent of Heres.

Succoth and Penuel were on the east side of the Jordan valley directly east of Shechem, just across the river from Ephraimite territory.

Note that none of the brave Ephraimites followed Gideon across the river in pursuit of the Midianite kings who had fled to the hill country southeast of the two cities.

The cities of Succoth and Penual created a serious breach of trust when they refused their brethren food and sustenance as they pursued the remnant of the armies of Midian. The cities knew that the kings of Midian were fleeing from Gideon, yet they didn't want to help Gideon and his men.

JUDGES 8:14-17

14 And he caught a young man of the men of Succoth and interrogated him; and he wrote down for him the leaders of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.

15 Then he came to the men of Succoth and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you ridiculed me, saying, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your weary men?'"

16 And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.

17 Then he tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

Gideon executed vengeance on both cities for their betrayal and cowardice by flogging the men of Succoth with thorns and briers, and killing the men of Penuel as an example to the rest of the cities of the area. This was God's justice against the two cities for their cowardice.

JUDGES 8:18-21

18 And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor?" So they answered, "As you are, so were they; each one resembled the son of a king."

19 Then he said, "They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you."

20 And he said to Jether his firstborn, "Rise, kill them!" But the youth would not draw his sword; for he was afraid, because he was still a youth.

21 So Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Rise yourself, and kill us; for as a man is, so is his strength." So Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels' necks.

Apparently Gideon cut an impressive figure if the Midianite kings thought he looked like the son of a king. Tabor, the city that Gideon mentions, was a Levitical city whose present location is unknown.

JUDGES 8:22-23

22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian."

23 But Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you."

Gideon makes a very wise decision here. Israel was asking him to be king, and he refused, reminding them that God alone was their king.

JUDGES 8:24-32

24 Then Gideon said to them, "I would like to make a request of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder." For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.

25 So they answered, "We will gladly give them." And they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder.

26 Now the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around their camels' necks.

27 Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

28 Thus Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for forty years in the days of Gideon.

29 Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house.

30 Gideon had seventy sons who were his own offspring, for he had many wives.

31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, whose name he called Abimelech.

32 Now Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Gideon took the gold plunder for himself. 1,700 shekels is about 42 1/2 pounds of gold for the ephod he made for his city. (The exact description of an ephod is unclear, but it appears to have been an undergarment of some sort. Gideon may have meant for it to be a symbol of God's protection in the form of a piece of golden armor.) But the Israelites began to worship the ephod, causing them to turn away from God again.

JUDGES 8:33-35

33 So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god.

34 Thus the children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side;

35 nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel.

It didn't take Israel long to forget God and Gideon after their deliverance. Israel made the Canaanite deity Ba'al-Berith (Hebrew: Master of the covenant) their god and went about their former ways.

JUDGES 9:1-6

1 Then Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem, to his mother's brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,

2 "Please speak in the hearing of all the men of Shechem: 'Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal reign over you, or that one reign over you?' Remember that I am your own flesh and bone."

3 And his mother's brothers spoke all these words concerning him in the hearing of all the men of Shechem; and their heart was inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, "He is our brother."

4 So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men; and they followed him.

5 Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, because he hid himself.

6 And all the men of Shechem gathered together, all of Beth Millo, and they went and made Abimelech king beside the terebinth tree at the pillar that was in Shechem.

It is astounding what the lust for power can do to people. Gideon did not want either he or his sons to rule over Israel, and here the son of one of his concubines seeks to be a king. To ensure there is no competition for his seeking of kingly power, he ruthlessly slaughtered all of his brothers on a slab of rock.

From the way that Abimelech spoke to his mother's people at Shechem, it appears that she was a Canaanite woman as Abimelech speaks of being "of their flesh and bone", setting himself apart from Gideon's family lineage.

Remember, Shechem was a Canaanite Hivite prince who raped Jacob's daughter Dinah when Jacob and his sons settled outside of the city of Shechem in Genesis 33-35. Shechem then asked Jacob for Dinah as his wife, but Simeon and Levi tricked him and killed him and all of the men of the city because of what Shechem had done.

JUDGES 9:7-15

7 Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them: "Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you!

8 "The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us!'

9 But the olive tree said to them, 'Should I cease giving my oil, with which they honor God and men, and go to sway over trees?'

10 "Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come and reign over us!'

11 But the fig tree said to them, 'Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to sway over trees?'

12 "Then the trees said to the vine, 'You come and reign over us!'

13 But the vine said to them, 'Should I cease my new wine, which cheers both God and men, and go to sway over trees?'

14 "Then all the trees said to the bramble, 'You come and reign over us!'

15 And the bramble said to the trees, 'If in truth you anoint me as king over you, then come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon!'

In this allegory, Jotham cites trees that want a king to rule over them so they petition other trees and plants of lesser stature to rule over them. But the other trees and plants understand their role in life given them by God and refuse to disobey Him by ruling over the trees. Finally in their desperation, the trees ask a thistle to rule over them. The lowly thistle mockingly replies that the trees should shelter themselves in it's shade and protection, but knowing that this is impossible and not in accordance with God's purpose, the thistle then curses the trees for their foolishness.

Jotham is essentially saying that the men of Shechem will not prosper, seeking a king other than God to be over them, and that a curse of destruction from God will come from Abimelech, a destruction that will destroy the men of Shechem.

JUDGES 9:16-21

16 "Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves

17 "for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian;

18 "but you have risen up against my father's house this day, and killed his seventy sons on one stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother

19 "if then you have acted in truth and sincerity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.

20 "But if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo and devour Abimelech!"

21 And Jotham ran away and fled; and he went to Beer and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

Shechem was located in central Israel at the foot of Mount Gerizim, about 13 miles west of the Jordan river in the mountains of Ephraim, and Beth-Millo (Hebrew: house of the fortress) must have been close by.

It is on Mount Gerizim just to the southwest in which would later become Samaria that the Samaritans built a temple to rival the Temple of the Jews.

JUDGES 9:22-29

22 After Abimelech had reigned over Israel three years,

23 God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,

24 that the crime done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be settled and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who aided him in the killing of his brothers.

25 And the men of Shechem set men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way; and it was told Abimelech.

26 Now Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.

27 So they went out into the fields, and gathered grapes from their vineyards and trod them, and made merry. And they went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.

28 Then Gaal the son of Ebed said, "Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him?

29 "If only this people were under my authority! Then I would remove Abimelech." So he said to Abimelech, "Increase your army and come out!"

A little bit of wine and dissension can cause a lot of trouble. Just as Abimelech used his bloodline to make himself king, Gaal calls Abimelech a "half-breed" and says that he himself is a full-blooded member of the men of Shechem and in a drunken display of bravado, commands Abimelech to come out and fight.

JUDGES 9:30-45

30 When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was aroused.

31 And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly, saying, "Take note! Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem; and here they are, fortifying the city against you.

32 "Now therefore, get up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field.

33 "And it shall be, as soon as the sun is up in the morning, that you shall rise early and rush upon the city; and when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may then do to them as you find opportunity."

34 So Abimelech and all the people who were with him rose by night, and lay in wait against Shechem in four companies.

35 When Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance to the city gate, Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from lying in wait.

36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, "Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!" But Zebul said to him, "You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men."

37 So Gaal spoke again and said, "See, people are coming down from the center of the land, and another company is coming from the Diviners' Terebinth Tree."

38 Then Zebul said to him, "Where indeed is your mouth now, with which you said, 'Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?' Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out, if you will, and fight with them now."

39 So Gaal went out, leading the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled from him; and many fell wounded, to the very entrance of the gate.

41 Then Abimelech dwelt at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, so that they would not dwell in Shechem.

42 And it came about on the next day that the people went out into the field, and they told Abimelech.

43 So he took his people, divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the field. And he looked, and there were the people, coming out of the city; and he rose against them and attacked them.

44 Then Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city; and the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the fields and killed them.

45 So Abimelech fought against the city all that day; he took the city and killed the people who were in it; and he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.

Here we see the partial fulfillment of the curse of Jotham, in that fire came from the thistle (Abimelech) and destroyed the cedars of Lebanon (men of Shechem and Beth-Millo).

Sowing a city with salt was symbolic that the ruins were to be accursed forever. (The Romans sowed the ruins of Carthage with salt after they finally destroyed the city). Salt would also poison the soil and keep any green thing from growing there for a long time.

But the curse isn't finished yet.

JUDGES 9:46-49

46 Now when all the men of the tower of Shechem had heard that, they entered the stronghold of the temple of the god Berith.

47 And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.

48 Then Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it and laid it on his shoulder; then he said to the people who were with him, "What you have seen me do, make haste and do as I have done."

49 So each of the people likewise cut down his own bough and followed Abimelech, put them against the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire above them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.

The tower in Shechem would have been made of mud brick with wooden beams to give it strength. Remember, mud brick of that time would have been heavily mixed with straw stubble to strengthen the bricks.

Archaeological digs have shown that when structures of wood and mud brick of this nature catch fire, they burn with heat intense enough that the mud becomes the consistency of magma and literally flows like molten rock.

JUDGES 9:50-57

50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he encamped against Thebez and took it.

51 But there was a strong tower in the city, and all the men and women all the people of the city fled there and shut themselves in; then they went up to the top of the tower.

52 So Abimelech came as far as the tower and fought against it; and he drew near the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

53 But a certain woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull.

54 Then he called quickly to the young man, his armorbearer, and said to him, "Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, 'A woman killed him.'" So his young man thrust him through, and he died.

55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every man to his place.

56 Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers.

57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem God returned on their own heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

The curse of Jotham is finally fulfilled with the destruction of Abimelech.

Millstones were used to hand-grind grain into flour. A lower millstone (a hard round stone with a wooden pole sticking up from a hole in the middle) sat on a blanket and grain was placed on the surface of the lower stone. An upper stone which had a hole in the center and a wooden handle attached near one edge was placed on top of the lower stone, and the upper stone was rotated with the wooden handle, grinding the grain into flour. An upper millstone would have weighed approximately 15 pounds and when dropped from a tower would have had some serious velocity when it struck Abimelech's skull.

The duties of an armorbearer during ancient times was to not only carry his master's armor, but was to protect his master in battle, and if need be, kill his master if he requested it to keep his master from being captured by the enemy.

JUDGES 10:1-2

1 After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim.

2 He judged Israel twenty-three years; and he died and was buried in Shamir.

Notice that the men that God called to be judges were righteous and came from all different tribes in Israel, unlike the priests that came only from the tribe of Levi.

JUDGES 10:3-5

3 After him arose Jair, a Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years.

4 Now he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; they also had thirty towns, which are called "Havoth Jair" to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.

5 And Jair died and was buried in Camon.

"Havoth Jair" translates to "huts of Jair". The towns were more than likely tiny villages in which Jair's extended family dwelt. It was customary of that time that high officials rode on donkeys rather than walk from place to place.

JUDGES 10:6-9

6 Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.

7 So the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon.

8 From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen years, all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead.

9 Moreover the people of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah also, against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed.

The Philistines from the west and the Ammonites from the east. The Ammonites not only afflicted the Israelites who dwelt east of the Jordan, but they also crossed westward over the Jordan to afflict Israel from the east.

Note that it apparently took Israel 18 years to finally repent and turn to the Lord.

JUDGES 10:10-14

10 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!"

11 So the LORD said to the children of Israel, "Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines?

12 "Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand.

13 "Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more.

14 "Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress."

The Israelites called on God to save them again, but God reminded them He had saved them time and again before, and they had returned to their foreign gods as soon as they were safe once again. This time He tells them to let the gods they are worshiping save them from their enemies.

JUDGES 10:15-16

15 And the children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray."

16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.

Now He has their full attention, and only now are they willing to get rid of their idols and serve the Lord alone.

JUDGES 10:17-18

17 Then the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah.

18 And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, "Who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."

The Ammonites were camped on the eastern side of the Jordan and Israel was encamped on the western side. No leader had shown himself yet to Israel, so they were seeking a God-appointed leader under whom they could rally for the coming war.

JUDGES 11:1-11

1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah.

2 Gilead's wife bore sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, "You shall have no inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman."

3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him.

4 It came to pass after a time that the people of Ammon made war against Israel.

5 And so it was, when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

6 Then they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the people of Ammon."

7 So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?"

8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."

9 So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and the LORD delivers them to me, shall I be your head?"

10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD will be a witness between us, if we do not do according to your words."

11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpah.

It's amazing how fickle people can be. They drove out Jephthah because he was the son of a harlot, but now that they were in dire straits they were asking him to save them from their enemies?

Tob was actually pretty far east (about 40 miles) of the Jordan river, deep in Ammonite territory. Chances are that Jephthah's mother was an Ammonite which would have made it easier for him to dwell among the Ammonites.

JUDGES 11:12-28

12 Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon, saying, "What do you have against me, that you have come to fight against me in my land?"

13 And the king of the people of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore, restore those lands peaceably."

14 So Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon,

15 and said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: 'Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the people of Ammon;

16 'for when Israel came up from Egypt, they walked through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

17 'Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, "Please let me pass through your land." But the king of Edom would not heed. And in like manner they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained in Kadesh.

18 'And they went along through the wilderness and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab, came to the east side of the land of Moab, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

19 'Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, "Please let us pass through your land into our place."

20 'But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together, encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

21 'And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. Thus Israel gained possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.

22 'They took possession of all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

23 'And now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel; should you then possess it?

24 'Will you not possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the LORD our God takes possession of before us, we will possess.

25 'And now, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel? Did he ever fight against them?

26 'While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities along the banks of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?

27 'Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the LORD, the Judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Ammon.'"

28 However, the king of the people of Ammon did not heed the words which Jephthah sent him.

Jephthah pointedly reminds the Ammonite king that the lands which he claims Israel took from him originally belonged to the Amorites, not the Ammonites. He reiterated how Israel didn't forcibly take anyone's land but had sought safe passage through their lands. Jephthah also states that just as Chemosh their god has given them the land that they dwell in, the Lord had given Israel the land of Gilead and Bashan as a possession and that the Ammonites should be happy with what they had.

JUDGES 11:29-33

29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced toward the people of Ammon.

30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands,

31 "then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."

32 So Jephthah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hands.

33 And he defeated them from Aroer as far as Minnith twenty cities and to Abel Keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

This is a very puzzling (and unthinking) vow that Jephthah made. If he had thought of it, he would have realized that it could very well be a member of his household that would come out to greet him when he returned home.

Remember, the tribe of Manasseh had split in two when Israel came to possess Canaan, with half of the people staying in Gilead and Bashan on the northeastern side of the Jordan river. Therefore Jephthah and Israel traveled south along the eastern bank of the Jordan to engage the Ammonites.

JUDGES 11:34-40

34 When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing; and she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot go back on it."

36 So she said to him, "My father, if you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon."

37 Then she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my friends and I."

38 So he said, "Go." And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains.

39 And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel

40 that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

There is much controversy over whether or not he actually offered up his daughter as he had vowed to do. The clue however is found in verse 39, in which it says that she "knew no man", in other words, she remained a virgin, dedicated to the Lord for the rest of her life. It is reasonably speculated that she served in the tabernacle for the rest of her life, but there is no further information to show this.

She was his only child and his only hope of grandchildren to continue his line, and because of his foolish vow, his lineage would end with him. But he had made a vow to the Lord, and he could not go back on it. But she couldn't have been made a burnt offering to God (called 'passing through the fire'), for this was an abomination to Him and He would never have accepted such an offering;

DEUTERONOMY 18:9-12

9 "When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.

10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,

11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.

JUDGES 12:1-6

1 Then the men of Ephraim gathered together, crossed over toward Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, "Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire!"

2 And Jephthah said to them, "My people and I were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon; and when I called you, you did not deliver me out of their hands.

3 "So when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon; and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?"

4 Now Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, "You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites."

5 The Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites arrived. And when any Ephraimite who escaped said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead would say to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said, "No,"

6 then they would say to him, "Then say, 'Shibboleth'!" And he would say, "Sibboleth," for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.

Again we see a case where people who were not to be found before a battle, are suddenly forceful and brave afterward. They had no reason for their accusations against Jephthah, especially since the Ephraimites had remained on the western side of the Jordan river during the battle, which Jephthah pointedly reminds them.

Note that they had to cross over the Jordan to reach Jephthah. The Ephraimites were envious because they couldn't partake of the glory and spoils of the defeated Ammonites, so they sought to take what they wanted by force. But God wouldn't allow them to defeat Jephthah and his men, people who had risked their lives fighting to protect their homeland.

In a fascinating account, while the Gileadites and the Ephraimites spoke the same language, they spoke with different dialects, much like the different pronunciations in the United States between states such as Alabama, Maine, Texas and California. The words are the same but the pronunciations are greatly different. The Ephraimites apparently couldn't make the "sh" sound like the Gileadites. The people of Gilead were of the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, so they were killing their own kinsmen.

JUDGES 12:7-10

7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in among the cities of Gilead.

8 After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.

9 He had thirty sons. And he gave away thirty daughters in marriage, and brought in thirty daughters from elsewhere for his sons. He judged Israel seven years.

10 Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

Jephthah of the tribe of Manasseh, ruled only 6 years as judge of Israel. This also proves that God can and will use anyone He pleases to accomplish His purposes, even the son of a harlot. Ibzan of the tribe of Judah, judged and ruled for 7 years. He had 60 children! His family line would definitely continue for a long time.

JUDGES 12:11-15

11 After him, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel. He judged Israel ten years.

12 And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the country of Zebulun.

13 After him, Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.

14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy young donkeys. He judged Israel eight years.

15 Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mountains of the Amalekites.

Note that the judges of Israel were selected from various tribes, with Ibzan being from Judah, Elon from Zebulun, and Abdon from Ephraim. God chooses men by their hearts, not by their origins or lineage.

JUDGES 13:1

1 Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

God was apparently thoroughly disgusted with Israel in that He gave Israel to the Philistines for 40 years this time.

JUDGES 13:2-5

2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children.

3 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.

4 "Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean.

5 "For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."

This is the first known case of a child being dedicated as a Nazirite from birth. Usually a Nazirite took a vow to become a Nazirite for a period of time, and then upon completion of the vow was released from being a Nazirite. But this child would be a Nazirite his entire life.

JUDGES 13:6-25

6 So the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name.

7 "And He said to me, 'Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'"

8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, and said, "O my Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born."

9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her.

10 Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband, and said to him, "Look, the Man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me!"

11 So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the Man, he said to Him, "Are You the Man who spoke to this woman?" And He said, "I am."

12 Manoah said, "Now let Your words come to pass! What will be the boy's rule of life, and his work?"

13 So the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful.

14 "She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her let her observe."

15 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You."

16 And the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the LORD.)

17 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?"

18 And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?"

19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the LORD. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on

20 it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

21 When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the LORD.

22 And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!"

23 But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time."

24 So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.

25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

The "Angel of the Lord" appears to prophesy concerning Samson's birth, and not only will not give his name, but accepts the burnt offering made by Manoah and his wife. No angel is allowed to accept offerings made to God. And as they see this, Manoah is frightened, knowing that he has seen the face of God and is in fear that he and his wife will die. Again this proves the "Angel of the Lord" to be the pre-incarnate form of Jesus Christ.

God raises up a final judge, Samson, (Hebrew: Shimshon, "little sun") to deliver His people from the rule of the Philistines.

JUDGES 14:1-4

1 Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.

2 So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, "I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife."

3 Then his father and mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" And Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she pleases me well."

4 But his father and mother did not know that it was of the LORD that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

Timnah was about 5 miles east of Ekron in Philistine territory in the hill country of Judea. It was not uncommon at that time for Israelites to intermarry with foreigners even though God had commanded them not to do so. But in this case, God had moved Samson to do this.

JUDGES 14:5-6

5 So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him.

6 And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

Lions of Judea were particularly savage creatures and not many who encountered them survived the meeting. Note that Scripture doesn't say that Samson was of great stature like Goliath, it just says that he was incredibly strong. He may not have looked much different than anyone else.

JUDGES 14:7-9

7 Then he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.

8 After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion.

9 He took some of it in his hands and went along, eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.

This is unusual in that the bees would build a hive and honeycomb in the carcass of the lion, as honeybees do not consume animal proteins like related species such as yellow jackets do.

JUDGES 14:10-13

10 So his father went down to the woman. And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so.

11 And it happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

12 Then Samson said to them, "Let me pose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.

13 "But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing." And they said to him, "Pose your riddle, that we may hear it."

Remember, back then clothing was all hand woven and hand made and was quite expensive, especially linen which required fine weaving. So what Samson was proposing was a very expensive wager!

JUDGES 14:14-20

14 So he said to them: "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet." Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.

15 But it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?"

16 Then Samson's wife wept on him, and said, "You only hate me! You do not love me! You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me." And he said to her, "Look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother; so should I

explain it to you?"

17 Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people.

18 So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down: "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?" And he said to them: "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!"

19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father's house.

20 And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

One has to wonder in that Samson's betrothed didn't go to him with the threat made against her family. But she eventually wrung the secret from him, and Samson, not having expected to pay the debt of the riddle killed 30 men and gave their clothing to the thirty men at the party.

To keep Samson from sinning, God didn't allow the marriage to be consummated as this would have been a violation of His commandments concerning marrying foreigners. But in this way, God was able to start using Samson against the Philistines.

JUDGES 15:1-8

1 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, "Let me go in to my wife, into her room." But her father would not permit him to go in.

2 Her father said, "I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead."

3 And Samson said to them, "This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!"

4 Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

6 Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" And they answered, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion." So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

7 Samson said to them, "Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease."

8 So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

Some people have a problem with Samson being married to a Philistine wife, as this seems to violate God's commandments concerning Israelites intermarrying with Canaanites. But Samson was only engaged to the Philistine woman, he was not yet married to her. Being betrothed to her would have been as binding on both as if they were truly married, but the marriage was not considered to be completed until it was consummated, which had not happened.

God here has created two occasions for Samson to wreak God's wrath on the Philistines in the fact that his betrothed had been given to another, and the fact that the Philistines had murdered both his betrothed and her father.

JUDGES 15:9-17

9 Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi.

10 And the men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" So they answered, "We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us."

11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?" And he said to them, "As they did to me, so I have done to them."

12 But they said to him, "We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines." Then Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves."

13 So they spoke to him, saying, "No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you." And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.

15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

16 Then Samson said: "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!"

17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.

The men of Judah were afraid of the Philistines who had ruled over Israel for 40 years now. They believed that the only recourse was to deliver Samson to the Philistines for justice.

Note that they were so afraid of his great strength that they used two new ropes to bind him, one for his hands, another for his arms.

Some find it hard to believe that a single man could kill 1,000 men with a jawbone. Bear in mind though, a man skilled in hand-to-hand combat can use anything at hand as a weapon. That combined with Samson's great strength makes this indeed believable. "Ramath Lehi" means "lifting up (or wielding) of the jawbone"

JUDGES 15:18-20

18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"

19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

20 And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

We need to remember that God will provide for our needs and as long as we are doing His will, He will take care of us. "En Hakkore" meaning "fountain of the crier".

JUDGES 16:1-3

1 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

2 When the Gazites were told, "Samson has come here!" they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, "In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him."

3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

This give an idea of Samson's strength, as the gates of a fortified city such as Gaza were designed to withstand assaults from besieging armies. The posts of the gates would have been driven deep into the ground, the bar of the gates would have been probably made of iron and the gates themselves would have been at least 2 feet thick.

Some have questioned the truth of this story, but is this any stranger than seeing pictures of a single man pulling a 70+ ton locomotive engine?

JUDGES 16:4-5

4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, "Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."

There were five lords of the Philistines (from Gath, Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod and Ashkelon), so she would get 5,500 pieces of silver! This would equate to about 137.5 pounds of silver! (Remember, coins were not produced until much later. During Samson's time gold and silver pieces were weighed to determine their value).

This shows how desperate the Philistines were to get their hands on Samson. The Valley of Sorek lies in the low hills abutting the coastal plain about 20 miles due west of Jerusalem.

JUDGES 16:6-9

6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you."

7 And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."

8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them.

9 Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

Bowstrings were usually made from animal sinew and needed to be dried before use as they would be too elastic when wet. Samson was apparently amusing himself when he said this, as he would have had to allow Delilah to bind him with the strings.

JUDGES 16:10-11

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with."

11 So he said to her, "If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."

Apparently the Philistines didn't know that this had been done to Samson before at Ramath Lehi. Samson seems to believe that this is a fun game.

JUDGES 16:12-14

12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And men were lying in wait, staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.

13 Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom"

14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom.

The loom in question seems to have been some kind of comb with wire filigree, probably used by women to hold up their long hair.

JUDGES 16:15-18

15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies."

16 And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death,

17 that he told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man."

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart." So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.

Constant nagging will wear down the strongest of men, and Samson was no different. To shut her up, he finally gave in and told her the secret of his strength, not thinking that she had an ulterior motive in her questioning.

JUDGES 16:19-21

19 Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.

20 And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" So he awoke from his sleep, and said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!" But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.

The true secret of Samson's strength wasn't in his hair, it was in his obedience to God's commands concerning Nazirites. When Delilah had his locks cut off, the Spirit of the Lord left him and his source of strength was gone.

The Philistines gouged out his eyes (and probably did more than that) and set him to grinding grain in a prison. This was usually consigned to women and slaves, and required that a heavy millstone be turned to grind the grain into flour.

JUDGES 16:22-25

22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said: "Our god has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy!"

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said: "Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, The destroyer of our land, and the one who multiplied our dead."

25 So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, "Call for Samson, that he may perform for us." So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars.

The Philistines probably had Samson dance for them or perform some other sort of demeaning behavior. Temples such as the one where they brought Samson were usually open-air buildings which were supported by wooden pillars along the outside and had a set of pillars set in pairs down the center for support. It would have been between a set of these center pillars that Samson would have been chained.

JUDGES 16:26-31

26 Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, "Let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them."

27 Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were thereabout three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed.

28 Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, "O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!"

29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.

30 Then Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

31 And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

From the description, this Temple had an open square in the center in which the Philistines on the roof were able to watch Samson performing below. The ceiling was more than likely made of stone blocks to be able to support 3,000 people so the support pillars would have been under quite a bit of strain.

Verse 30 says that Samson pushed with all of his might against the support pillars, and as they were probably made of wood any side directed pressure would cause them to splinter and break. I have seen numerous paintings that show Samson between two huge stone pillars, when actually archaeology shows that they were wooden pillars probably no bigger than 8 inches in diameter.

We know that there were at least 3,000 Philistines on the roof and probably an equal number if not more inside, including the five rulers of the five cites of the Philistines. I have an idea that Delilah may have been there also, possibly to be publicly honored for her part in trapping Samson which would have given Samson revenge upon her also. Samson didn't want to live his life as a blind slave, so he asked God to take his life along with his enemies.

JUDGES 17:1-6

1 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.

2 And he said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears here is the silver with me; I took it." And his mother said, "May you be blessed by the LORD, my son!"

3 So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, "I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you."

4 Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.

5 The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

After the death of Joshua the people continued to make their own rules to live by, instead of living by the laws God had established. Note that Micah only returned the silver he had stolen after his mother placed a curse on the silver. (The 1100 pieces of silver would be about 27 1/2 pounds)

Micah, an Ephraimite "consecrated" one of his own sons to be his personal priest. According to God, all priests were to be descendants of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron the Levite. God gave the priesthood to Phinehas in the book of Numbers;

NUMBERS 25:10-13

10 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

11 "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.

12 Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace;

13 and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.'"

The case with Micah is an example of the terrible fulfillment of God's curse on Israel for their disobedience in not destroying the Canaanites as He had commanded. God had said;

JUDGES 2:1-4

1 Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you.

2 And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?

3 Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"

4 So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

Micah and his mother had created their own idols to worship, combining the worship of the Lord and Baal into one form of worship, essentially considering the Lord and Ba'al (Hebrew: Master, possessor) to be one and the same being, which is blasphemy. Many false religions around the world have a grain of God's Word here and there mixed with paganism, diluting and distorting the Truth of God's Word.

Paul refers to this practice of compromising the Word of God when he said;

GALATIANS 1:6-9

6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,

7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

JUDGES 17:7-13

7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and was staying there.

8 The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

9 And Micah said to him, "Where do you come from?" So he said to him, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay."

10 Micah said to him, "Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance." So the Levite went in.

11 Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him.

12 So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah.

13 Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!"

This man was apparently not a priest, but was of the priestly tribe of Levi. As such, he should have known better than to become Micah's priest to his pagan gods. The fact that this Levite was content to do this, shows that it had been a long time since the Law had been read to the people, possibly not for generations.

Again we see the combination of worship of the Lord and Ba'al being combined, as Micah feels Ba'al will bless him because he has a Levite as his priest.

JUDGES 18:1

1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them.

The tribe of Dan had been assigned by lot to the area of the coastal plain, occupied by the Philistines;

JOSHUA 19:40-46

40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.

41 And the territory of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir Shemesh,

42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Jethlah,

43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron,

44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,

45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon,

46 Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the region near Joppa.

However the Philistines were too heavily entrenched for Dan to defeat them, so they were forced back into the mountains of Ephraim;

JUDGES 1:34-36

34 And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;

35 and the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim yet when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they were put under tribute.

Note that it says the "house of Joseph" (Ephraim) would eventually put the area under tribute, not the tribe of Dan.

JUDGES 18:2-6

2 So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and search it. They said to them, "Go, search the land." So they went to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

3 While they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?"

4 He said to them, "Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I have become his priest."

5 So they said to him, "Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous."

6 And the priest said to them, "Go in peace. The presence of the LORD be with you on your way."

The Levite "priest" wasn't sanctified by the Lord and had no authority to enquire anything of the Lord! All Israelites should have understood that nobody could hire a priest for their own personal use.

JUDGES 18:7-10

7 So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone.

8 Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to them, "What is your report?"

9 So they said, "Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go, and enter to possess the land.

10 "When you go, you will come to a secure people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth."

The tribe of Dan looked for the easiest piece of land to take as an inheritance instead of the land that fell by lot as God had commanded. They found an area that was not fortified, peaceable, and was isolated from help.

They also seemed to be looking for a place where there wouldn't be any Israelite rulers to put them to shame for all of their idol worshiping and no Canaanite rulers to lose the campaign against in the battle for their inheritance, also putting them to shame in the eyes of the other tribes.

This cowardly behavior was actually predicted by Jacob when he pronounced the birthright blessings on his sons just before his death, when he said;

GENESIS 49:16-17

16 "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider shall fall backward.

Dan was indeed a judge of his people, as Samson was from the tribe of Dan. And as we can see, the tribe of Dan would be treacherous, a veritable poisonous viper in the bosom of Israel. And we shall see later that worship of the golden calf in Israel started with the tribe of Dan. The tribe of Dan settled in Laish which is in northern Palestine around the base of Mt. Hermon, instead of the coastal plain west of Judah that the lot cast for inheritance gave them.

JUDGES 18:11-26

11 And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.

12 Then they went up and encamped in Kirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. There it is, west of Kirjath Jearim.)

13 And they passed from there to the mountains of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

14 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brethren, "Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore, consider what you should do."

15 So they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young Levite man to the house of Micah and greeted him.

16 The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

17 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were armed with weapons of war.

18 When these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them, "What are you doing?"

19 And they said to him, "Be quiet, put your hand over your mouth, and come with us; be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?"

20 So the priest's heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.

21 Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them.

22 When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan.

23 And they called out to the children of Dan. So they turned around and said to Micah, "What ails you, that you have gathered such a company?"

24 So he said, "You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, 'What ails you?'"

25 And the children of Dan said to him, "Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household!"

26 Then the children of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

They put the women and children in front of them as they left Micah's place, because they knew when he found out what they had done he would come after them. Having the men of war as a barrier between the men of Micah and the children of Dan gave them protection.

The Levite was now elevated to being a "priest" of a whole tribe instead of a priest for one man. Note that Micah bewailed the taking of "the gods I have made", showing that he knew that they were idols.

JUDGES 18:27-31

27 So they took the things Micah had made, and the priest who had belonged to him, and went to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.

28 There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no ties with anyone. It was in the valley that belongs to Beth Rehob. So they rebuilt the city and dwelt there.

29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel. However, the name of the city formerly was Laish.

30 Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.

31 So they set up for themselves Micah's carved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Instead of worshiping at Shiloh about 80 miles away to the south as God had commanded they built their own shrine including idols they had stolen and the priest they brought with them. The deep spiritual corruption of the tribe is evident in their using men from their own tribe for their priests.

These practices continued until the "the captivity" which is the Assyrian captivity of the 10 northern tribes of Israel in (721 B.C.) during Israel's King Hoshea's reign and Judah's King Ahaz' reign. Only Israel would be taken captive by the Assyrians; Judah would pay tribute and go unharmed;

II KINGS 17:1-6

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years.

2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his vassal, and paid him tribute money.

4 And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

5 Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

JUDGES 19:1-2

1 And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

2 But his concubine played the harlot against him, and went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there four whole months.

The definition of a "concubine" is a difficult one, as it tends to mean different things in different cultures. A concubine in Biblical times was a woman, usually a servant, who was given the privileges of a wife, but did not have the social and legal status of a wife. Thus her children would be acknowledged as being the children of her husband, but they could not inherit the property or possessions of their father. Basically her social status was above that of a servant, but below that of a true wife.

The best example of this would be Hagar, whom Abraham's wife Sarah gave to him to be his wife when Sarah could not have children. Hagar was Sarah's servant, but was given to him as a wife by Sarah so that Abraham could have children to carry on his name and heritage. Hagar bore Abraham a son, named Ishmael and was the only child of Abraham for 12 years. But Sarah conceived and had a son, Isaac, and Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, as she didn't want Ishmael, the son of a concubine, to be an inheritor with Isaac, the true son of Abraham.

Abraham was deeply troubled by this, but God commanded that he follow Sarah's demands and cast out Hagar and Ishmael, for it would be through Isaac, Abraham's true son that his possessions, inheritances and promises from God would be given.

The Levite had paid the dowry of a wife to the father of the woman, but she deserted him and went back to her father's house. She highly likely to have slept around on him during that time also, for Scriptures says she played the part of a harlot against him.

Bethlehem in Judah was about 10 miles south of Jerusalem, approximately 50-60 miles south of the Levite's homeland in the mountains of Ephraim.

JUDGES 19:3-9

3 Then her husband arose and went after her, to speak kindly to her and bring her back, having his servant and a couple of donkeys with him. So she brought him into her father's house; and when the father of the young woman saw him, he was glad to meet him.

4 Now his father-in-law, the young woman's father, detained him; and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank and lodged there.

5 Then it came to pass on the fourth day that they arose early in the morning, and he stood to depart; but the young woman's father said to his son-in-law, "Refresh your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go your way."

6 So they sat down, and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the young woman's father said to the man, "Please be content to stay all night, and let your heart be merry."

7 And when the man stood to depart, his father-in-law urged him; so he lodged there again.

8 Then he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart, but the young woman's father said, "Please refresh your heart." So they delayed until afternoon; and both of them ate.

9 And when the man stood to depart he and his concubine and his servant his father-in-law, the young woman's father, said to him, "Look, the day is now drawing toward evening; please spend the night. See, the day is coming to an end; lodge here, that your heart may be merry. Tomorrow go your way early, so that you may get home."

It sounds as if the father of the young woman was delaying him so as to possibly persuade the Levite to dwell with him. That way, he could keep the dowry price of his daughter and keep her as part of his household at the same time.

JUDGES 19:10-14

10 However, the man was not willing to spend that night; so he rose and departed, and came to opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). With him were the two saddled donkeys; his concubine was also with him.

11 They were near Jebus, and the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, "Come, please, and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites and lodge in it."

12 But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside here into a city of foreigners, who are not of the children of Israel; we will go on to Gibeah."

13 So he said to his servant, "Come, let us draw near to one of these places, and spend the night in Gibeah or in Ramah."

14 And they passed by and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.

Remember, they had to walk everywhere during those days. It was afternoon when they set out, and after walking 10 miles that came alongside Jebus (the Canaanite name for Jerusalem) which still belonged to the Canaanites. Not wanting to stay there, the Levite went on another 5 miles to Gibeah, reaching there just after sunset.

JUDGES 19:15-19

15 They turned aside there to go in to lodge in Gibeah. And when he went in, he sat down in the open square of the city, for no one would take them into his house to spend the night.

16 Just then an old man came in from his work in the field at evening, who also was from the mountains of Ephraim; he was staying in Gibeah, whereas the men of the place were Benjamites.

17 And when he raised his eyes, he saw the traveler in the open square of the city; and the old man said, "Where are you going, and where do you come from?"

18 So he said to him, "We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah toward the remote mountains of Ephraim; I am from there. I went to Bethlehem in Judah; now I am going to the house of the LORD. But there is no one who will take me into his house,

19 "although we have both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and bread and wine for myself, for your female servant, and for the young man who is with your servant; there is no lack of anything."

In many Middle-Eastern countries it was customary for someone of a town or city to lodge travelers who were passing through, as a courtesy so that the travelers wouldn't have to spend the night in the streets. It was also a protection measure for the travelers to ensure that they wouldn't be robbed or worse.

The Levite states that his destination is Shiloh, another 15 miles northward, for the Ark of the Covenant was in Shiloh in those days. Note carefully that he calls his concubine a "female servant", reinforcing the concept that concubines were a form of a servant.

JUDGES 19:20-25

20 And the old man said, "Peace be with you! However, let all your needs be my responsibility; only do not spend the night in the open square."

21 So he brought him into his house, and gave fodder to the donkeys. And they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

22 As they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may know him carnally!"

23 But the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brethren! I beg you, do not act so wickedly! Seeing this man has come into my house, do not commit this outrage.

24 "Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine; let me bring them out now. Humble them, and do with them as you please; but to this man do not do such a vile thing!"

25 But the men would not heed him. So the man took his concubine and brought her out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until morning; and when the day began to break, they let her go.

This is reminiscent of Sodom, in which perverted men wanted to rape the angels who had come under Lot's roof. These men of Benjamin wanted to rape the Levite who was a guest in the house of the old man in like fashion.

To us this may seem to be a horrifying thing, for a man to offer his daughter to rapists, but especially to Israelites homosexual rape was an abomination, forbidden by God in the Law;

LEVITICUS 18:22

22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.

DEUTERONOMY 23:17

17 There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

Israelites vividly remembered the story of Sodom, and even the author of Hebrews mentioned people being visited by angels posing as strangers;

HEBREWS 13:2

2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have entertained angels.

In light of these things, it can be understood how the man would rather have his daughter abused than to have the Benjamites rape a possible angelic visitor.

JUDGES 19:26-28

26 Then the woman came as the day was dawning, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, till it was light.

27 When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.

28 And he said to her, "Get up and let us be going." But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and went to his place.

God had passed judgment on the woman. She had played the part of a harlot against her husband, and she was in turn treated as a harlot by the Benjamites.

JUDGES 19:29-30

29 When he entered his house he took a knife, laid hold of his concubine, and divided her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.

30 And so it was that all who saw it said, "No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!"

The tribe of Benjamin had become no better than the people of Sodom! The people of Israel were outraged with righteous anger, and feared what God's judgment would be if they ignored this thing. The more often you ignore the voice of the Lord and your own conscience the easier it becomes, until you no longer hear anything no matter what you are doing!

JUDGES 20:1

1 So all the children of Israel came out, from Dan to Beersheba, as well as from the land of Gilead, and the congregation gathered together as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.

Mizpah (not to be confused with Mizpeh in Gilead) was a city about 3 miles northeast of Gibeah, in the territory of Benjamin. This shows the magnitude of the horror of the people of Israel in that all Israel gathered, some from over 70 miles away to discuss this issue.

JUDGES 20:2-13

2 And the leaders of all the people, all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand foot soldiers who drew the sword.

3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the children of Israel said, "Tell us, how did this wicked deed happen?"

4 So the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, "My concubine and I went into Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, to spend the night.

5 "And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house at night because of me. They intended to kill me, but instead they ravished my concubine so that she died.

6 "So I took hold of my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel, because they committed lewdness and outrage in Israel.

7 "Look! All of you are children of Israel; give your advice and counsel here and now!"

8 So all the people arose as one man, saying, "None of us will go to his tent, nor will any turn back to his house;

9 "but now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: We will go up against it by lot.

10 "We will take ten men out of every hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to make provisions for the people, that when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may repay all the vileness that they have done in Israel."

11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united together as one man.

12 Then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What is this wickedness that has occurred among you?

13 "Now therefore, deliver up the men, the perverted men who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel!" But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel.

Again this shows that there is no central authority such as a judge in Israel during this time. And it also shows the moral decay of the people of Benjamin and Gibeah in the fact that they were willing to risk war with the rest of Israel, rather than punish the men responsible for the rape and murder of the concubine.

JUDGES 20:14-17

14 Instead, the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to Gibeah, to go to battle against the children of Israel.

15 And from their cities at that time the children of Benjamin numbered twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who numbered seven hundred select men.

16 Among all this people were seven hundred select men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair's breadth and not miss.

17 Now besides Benjamin, the men of Israel numbered four hundred thousand men who drew the sword; all of these were men of war.

In the hands of a skilled slinger, a slung stone could be a deadly weapon, capable of dropping an enemy many yards away. It is also stated that these men were left-handed slingers, which would allow them to use slings for approaching enemies, then quickly switch to swords in their right hands for close combat.

JUDGES 20:18-28

18 Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God. They said, "Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?" The LORD said, "Judah first!"

19 So the children of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.

20 And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel put themselves in battle array to fight against them at Gibeah.

21 Then the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day cut down to the ground twenty-two thousand men of the Israelites.

22 And the people, that is, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and again formed the battle line at the place where they had put themselves in array on the first day.

23 Then the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, "Shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin?" And the LORD said, "Go up against him."

24 So the children of Israel approached the children of Benjamin on the second day.

25 And Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah on the second day, and cut down to the ground eighteen thousand more of the children of Israel; all these drew the sword.

26 Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

27 So the children of Israel inquired of the LORD (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

28 and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, "Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?" And the LORD said, "Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand."

Israel lost 40,000 men in the two battles against the tribe of Benjamin. But if you notice, they didn't ask the Lord what to do, they only asked which tribe should go first to battle. And the second time, they didn't offer sacrifices for their own sins before they went to battle. Then, and only then, did the Lord tell them that they would be victorious.

We need to remember this in our own lives also. We can't fight Satan and his servants if we have unforgiven or active sins in our lives. Before any battle, we must seek the forgiveness and cleansing of the Lord before we set out.

JUDGES 20:29-35

29 Then Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah.

30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in battle array against Gibeah as at the other times.

31 So the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the

city. They began to strike down and kill some of the people, as at the other times, in the highways (one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah) and in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

32 And the children of Benjamin said, "They are defeated before us, as at first." But the children of Israel said, "Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways."

33 So all the men of Israel rose from their place and put themselves in battle array at Baal Tamar. Then Israel's men in ambush burst forth from their position in the plain of Geba.

34 And ten thousand select men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them.

35 The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel. And the children of Israel destroyed that day twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites; all these drew the sword.

The location of Ba'al Tamar is unknown, but it may have been a small village just north of Gibeah This ambush was a classic tactic earlier used by Joshua when fighting against the city of Ai.

The Israelites would flee before the enemy, and the excited enemy would empty the city of defenders in their eagerness to kill and plunder the besiegers. Then the ambushers would enter the defenseless city and destroy it.

Note that while Israel lost about 10% of it's people, the tribe of Benjamin only had 1600 men left; 94% of their men had been killed. We can pretty much assume that the men who had raped and killed the concubine were among the dead.

JUDGES 20:36-48

36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. The men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.

37 And the men in ambush quickly rushed upon Gibeah; the men in ambush spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.

38 Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city,

39 whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said, "Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle."

40 But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and there was the whole city going up in smoke to heaven.

41 And when the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin panicked, for they saw that disaster had come upon them.

42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and whoever came out of the cities they destroyed in their midst.

43 They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and easily trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah toward the east.

44 And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor.

45 Then they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon; and they cut down five thousand of them on the highways. Then they pursued them relentlessly up to Gidom, and killed two thousand of them.

46 So all who fell of Benjamin that day were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these were men of valor.

47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.

48 And the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin, and struck them down with the edge of the sword from every city, men and beasts, all who were found. They also set fire to all the cities they came to.

Many of the houses in the cities of ancient times were built of clay bricks mixed with straw, braced with wooden support beams. When Joshua destroyed the royal city of Hazor in northern Canaan, archaeologists discovered that the heat was so intense that the clay bricks melted and flowed like lava through the streets. So setting the city on fire wouldn't have been much of a problem.

Rimmon was a village about 8 miles northeast of Gibeah, and apparently some of the surviving Benjamites fled there and created some kind of defensive fortifications. In the mean time, Israel burned a number of their cities and killed a number of inhabitants of Benjamin in vengeance. If only the Benjamites had given up the men who had caused this problem in the first place, none of this would have happened.

JUDGES 21:1

1 Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, "None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife."

The Israelites were so angry at what the Benjamites had become and their wicked ways that they had sworn an oath in the heat of anger to not allow any of their daughters to marry Benjamites. This would doom the tribe of Benjamin for God had forbidden Israel to intermarry with the Canaanites.

JUDGES 21:2-7

2 Then the people came to the house of God, and remained there before God till evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly,

3 and said, "O LORD God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?"

4 So it was, on the next morning, that the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

5 The children of Israel said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the assembly to the LORD?" For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who had not come up to the LORD at Mizpah, saying, "He shall surely be put to death."

6 And the children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, "One tribe is cut off from Israel today.

7 "What shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them our daughters as wives?"

All Israel was filled with remorse for what had happened, and were in a quandary for they had made oaths in their wrath, oaths that could not be rescinded. They had also made an oath to destroy anyone who didn't come to the battle for this had affected all Israel.

JUDGES 21:8-12

8 And they said, "What one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Mizpah to the LORD?" And, in fact, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly.

9 For when the people were counted, indeed, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead was there.

10 So the congregation sent out there twelve thousand of their most valiant men, and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including the women and children.

11 "And this is the thing that you shall do: You shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has known a man intimately."

12 So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man intimately; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

Jabesh Gilead was about 60 miles northeast of Jerusalem, in the Jordan valley, just east of the river. Even though it was on the eastern side of the Jordan, it was still part of Israel, and belonged to the half-tribe of Manasseh which had remained in Gilead when the rest of the tribes of Israel claimed their inheritances in Canaan. This would be a way for Israel to provide wives for men of Benjamin without violating their oath.

JUDGES 21:13-15

13 Then the whole congregation sent word to the children of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and announced peace to them.

14 So Benjamin came back at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead; and yet they had not found enough for them.

15 And the people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a void in the tribes of Israel.

There were not enough women for all of the Benjamites even after the women of Jabesh-Gilead had been brought. The tribe of Benjamin could survive, but family lines and land inheritances would disappear if wives were not supplied to all of the remaining men of Benjamin.

JUDGES 21:16-25

16 Then the elders of the congregation said, "What shall we do for wives for those who remain, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?"

17 And they said, "There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, that a tribe may not be destroyed from Israel.

18 "However, we cannot give them wives from our daughters, for the children of Israel have sworn an oath, saying, 'Cursed be the one who gives a wife to Benjamin.'"

19 Then they said, "In fact, there is a yearly feast of the LORD in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah."

20 Therefore they instructed the children of Benjamin, saying, "Go, lie in wait in the vineyards,

21 "and watch; and just when the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, then come out from the vineyards, and every man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh; then go to the land of Benjamin.

22 "Then it shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, that we will say to them, 'Be kind to them for our sakes, because we did not take a wife for any of them in the war; for it is not as though you have given the women to them at this time, making yourselves guilty of your oath."'

23 And the children of Benjamin did so; they took enough wives for their number from those who danced, whom they caught. Then they went and returned to their inheritance, and they rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them.

24 So the children of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and family; they went out from there, every man to his inheritance.

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Shiloh was about 30 miles north of Gibeah. It was a custom in Israel that after the grape harvest, there was dancing and celebration. During this time, grapes were pressed to make wine and usually it was the young maidens who trampled the grapes to make the wine. It was of these maidens that the men of Benjamin were to kidnap as wives.

Note that they didn't consult the Lord concerning this, but then again neither did the Lord condemn them for the action.

As one can see from this story it didn't take very long after Joshua for the Israelites to fall away from the Lord. This should be a very powerful reminder for us today. If we don't read the Word daily and don't talk and listen to the Lord daily we can also begin "doing what is right in our own eyes", instead of following the Lord.

Questions? Comments? E-mail: watchmen_777@yahoo.com

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