The Histories · Old Testament
Judges
Judges is book 7 of 66 and belongs to the Histories in the Old Testament. It has 21 chapters, each with source-checked General, Historical and Literary context. 80 people are indexed in its passages.
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Chapters
- Judges 1: Early victories and peoples who remain in the land
After Joshua's death, Israel asks who should fight first, and the Lord names Judah. Judah and Simeon cooperate in their allotted territories. At… - Judges 2: A new generation and the recurring pattern of the judges
The Lord's angel comes from Gilgal to Bochim and recalls the exodus and covenant. Israel is accused of disobeying the commands to make no agreements… - Judges 3: Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar deliver Israel
The remaining nations are described as testing Israel's obedience and teaching warfare to a generation without that experience. Israel lives among… - Judges 4: Deborah summons Barak and Jael kills Sisera
After Ehud's death, Israel again does evil and is subjected to Jabin of Hazor. His commander Sisera has nine hundred iron chariots, and twenty years… - Judges 5: Deborah and Barak's song of victory
Deborah and Barak sing praise after the victory. The song depicts the Lord coming from Seir and Edom amid trembling earth, water from heaven and… - Judges 6: Gideon's call, the destroyed Baal altar and the fleece signs
Seven years under Midian leave Israel hiding in caves and losing crops and livestock to repeated raids. When the people cry to the Lord, an unnamed… - Judges 7: Gideon's reduced force and Midian's flight
The Lord says Gideon's force is too large, lest Israel claim to have saved itself. Twenty-two thousand fearful men leave and ten thousand remain. A… - Judges 8: Gideon's pursuit, reprisals and troubled legacy
Gideon calms Ephraim's complaint by praising its capture of Oreb and Zeeb. He and the exhausted three hundred continue after the Midianite kings… - Judges 9: Abimelech's kingship and Jotham's warning
Abimelech secures support from his mother's relatives in Shechem and temple silver to hire followers. He kills his brothers at Ophrah; the account… - Judges 10: Tola and Jair, renewed oppression and Israel's cry
After Abimelech, Tola of Issachar rises to deliver Israel and judges for twenty-three years from Shamir, where he is buried. Jair the Gileadite… - Judges 11: Jephthah's leadership, victory and vow concerning his daughter
Jephthah, Gilead's son by a woman called a harlot, is expelled from his father's household by his brothers. He settles in Tob, where men gather… - Judges 12: The Gilead–Ephraim conflict and three later judges
Ephraim confronts Jephthah for fighting Ammon without calling it and threatens to burn his house over him. Jephthah replies that he had asked for… - Judges 13: Samson's birth is announced to Manoah's wife
During forty years of Philistine rule, the Lord's angel appears to Manoah's childless wife and announces a son. She must avoid wine, strong drink and… - Judges 14: Samson's marriage feast and the riddle's violent outcome
Samson wants a Philistine woman from Timnath as his wife despite his parents' objection. The narrator connects the affair with the Lord's purpose… - Judges 15: Retaliation, the jawbone battle and water at Lehi
At wheat harvest Samson returns to visit his wife with a young goat, but her father refuses entry and says he gave her to Samson's companion. Samson… - Judges 16: Delilah's questioning, Samson's capture and his final act
At Gaza, Samson visits a woman called a harlot and escapes an ambush by carrying away the city gates. Later he loves Delilah in the Sorek valley… - Judges 17: Micah's household shrine and hired Levite
Micah of Ephraim returns eleven hundred silver shekels he took from his mother after hearing her curse. She blesses him in the Lord's name and says… - Judges 18: Dan takes Micah's shrine and conquers Laish
Dan sends five scouts from Zorah and Eshtaol to seek land. At Micah's house they recognize the Levite's voice and ask for divine counsel; he gives a… - Judges 19: The violence at Gibeah and the Levite's summons to Israel
In the period without a king, a Levite from Ephraim goes to Bethlehem to bring back his concubine, who has spent four months at her father's house… - Judges 20: Israel's war against Benjamin
Israel gathers at Mizpeh to hear the Levite's account of Gibeah. He says the men intended to kill him and assaulted his concubine, who is dead. The… - Judges 21: Preserving Benjamin through further killing and abduction
Israel mourns the danger that Benjamin will disappear, but an oath prevents the men from giving their daughters as wives to its survivors. Another…
