Othniel
Ehud
Shamgar
Deborah
Gideon
Tola
Jair
Jephthah
Izban
Elon
Abdon
Samson
Eli
Samuel
Introduction
The book of Judges covers the time period between Joshua and King Saul when Israel had no king. After Joshua’s death, the tribes of Israel continued their conquest of the southern regions of Canaan, but they were unable to cleanse the land thoroughly of its native inhabitants. God declared that these remaining people would be an impediment to Israel’s enjoyment of the promised land. Generations pass, and the younger Israelites turned away from God, intermarrying with the Canaanites and worshipping the local deities. The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, so He delievered them into the hands of their enemies. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
Throughout the lives of these judges, Israel’s behavior followed a consistent pattern: the people of Israel fell into evil, God sent a judge to save them, and, once the judge died, the people committed even greater evil by playing the harlot with other gods.
Othniel [3:9-11]
Othniel, Israel's first Judge, was the nephew and son-in law to Caleb (one of the spies Moses sent to inspect the promise land.) Cushan-Rishathaim, King of Mesopotamia had enslaved Israel for eight years. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Cushan-Rishathaim into his hand. Israel enjoyed freedom for forty years. Othniel was the first Judge recorded to have the Spirit of the Lord.
Ehud [3:11-29]
Ehud was the second Judge of Israel. Israel turned away from the Lord after Othniel died. This time they fell to the Moabites and were under bondage for eighteen years. The people of Israel repented once again and God raised up Ehud, a left-handed man from the tribe of Benjamin, to deliver them.
Eglon, the fat King of Moab demanded the Israelites to pay tribute. Ehud appeared at his palace to deliver the tribute. He asked to speak to the King privately, and his request was granted. Once the two were alone the left-handed Ehud pulled his double-edged dagger from his right thigh under his clothes and stabbed Eglon. The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade and the king's entrails came out.
After the assassination Ehud fled to Ephraim and raised an Army to defeat the Moabites. Israel had peace for eighty years.
Shamgar [3:31]
The story of Shamgar is told only in one verse. It records that he killed 600 Phillistines with an ox goad.
Deborah [4-5]
Deborah, a prophetess, was the wife of Lapidoth. She rendered her judgments beneath a palm tree between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim.
After being oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan, in Hazor, for twenty years, Deborah summoned Barak to take 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and Zebulun to face Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his 900 iron chariots in battle. He said he would go only if she would go. Deborah agreed to go, but told Barak he would receive no glory for the Lord would sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
As Deborah prophesied, the Lord gave the victory to the Israelites. Sisera fled the battle site seeking refuge in the tent of the woman Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite (children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses), for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. She gave Sisera milk to drink and he fell asleep. Then Jael killed him by hammering a tent peg into his temple while he was fast asleep.
The victory song of Deborah and Barak is recorded in Judges Chapter 5. Israel is at peace for forty years. Barak is listed as one the people of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Gideon [6-8]
Gideon is the next man to serve as Israel's Judge to save Israel from its next invaders, the Midianites, who impoverished and scattered the people. Gideon came from the weakest clan of the tribe of Manasseh.
When he was threshing wheat in the winepress, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and sent him to save Israel. He asked for a sign to prove that it is God who was talking to him. Gideon went back home, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. He put his offering on a rock with the broth. The angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff and fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” The same night, Gideon tore down his father’s altar to the god Baal and the Asherah pole beside it. Since that day they called Gideon, “Jerub-Baal,” meaning, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he broke down Baal’s altar.
Then Gideon asked God for another sign. He put a wool fleece on the threshing floor. He asked God that if there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then he will know that God will save Israel by his hand. And that was what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
After that, Gideon took 32,000 men with him and camped across the Midianites. God told him that was too many men. He sent home those who were afraid and 10,000 remained. God told him that was still too many men and instructed him to take the men to a river for a drink. Those who knelt down to drink were sent home, and the remaining three hundred men who lap the water with their tongues were chosen for God’s army.
That night, Gideon went to the enemy's camp and heard a Midianite soldier telling his friend about a dream in which a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed. The friend interpreted the dream as a sign that Midian will be defeated by Israel.
Gideon and his 300 men were divided into three companies. They surrounded the camps, and—with the sound of trumpets and broken jars of torches inside—the Israelites emitted such a clamorous war cry that the Midianites turned and slayed each other.
After the victory, the Ephraimites came to question Gideon for not inviting them to the war. Gideon said he is in no comparison with the Ephraimites and their anger subsided.
Gideon turned down an offer to become ruler of Israel, proclaiming that the Lord is the ruler of Israel. But he requested gold from the people and 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. But after his death his son Abimelech becomes King of Shecem and rules Israel by force for three years.
Gideon is the second Judge that is recorded to have the Spirit of the Lord. He is mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11 as one of the people of faith. He had 70 sons and many wives.
Tola [10:1-2]
Tola, a man of Issachar, became Judge after Israel's death. He served as Judge for twenty three years.
Jair [10:3-5]
Jair, a Gileadite succeeded Tola, and his thirty sons assisted him. They were assigned thirty cities in Gilead know as Havoth Jair. He judged Israel twenty two years.
Jephthah [11-12:1-7]
Jephthat the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of harlot and was expelled from his father's house. Israel was under the oppression of the Philistines and Ammonites for 18 years. When the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders went to seek out Jephthah to be their commander.
Jephthah was famous for making a foolish vow. He made an oath that if he wins in battle he will sacrifice the first thing he sees coming out of his house as a burnt offering. Upon returning home from a victorious battle his daughter came out his house to meet him.
After the victory, the Ephraimites accused him of not inviting them to battle together against the Ammonites and they threatened to burn his house down on him with fire. Jephthah and the the men of Gilead fought against Ephraim and killed 42,000 of them.
Jephthah was the third Judge to have the Spirit of the Lord. He defeated the Ammonites after eighteen years of oppression. Jephthat is also one of the people of faith mentioned in Heb 11. He judged Israel six years.
Izban [12:8-10]
Izban of Bethlehem had thirty sons. He gave away thirty daughters in marriage, and brought in thirty daughters from elsewhere fro his sons. He judged Israel seven years.
Elon [12:11-12]
Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel ten years.
Abdon [12:13-15]
Abdon the Pirathonite judged Israel eight years. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy young donkeys.
Samson [13-16]
After forty years of oppression by the Philistines, Samson was made Judge of Israel. At birth God said he was to be a Nazirite - a person who expresses his devotion to God by never drinking wine, cutting his hair, or touching any dead bodies - from the womb to the day of his death.
God blessed Samson with exceptional abilities, and one day Samson tore a lion apart with his bare hands. Contrary to his parents’ urging, Samson chose a Philistine woman to be his wife. During the wedding ceremony, he baffled the Philistines with a riddle, the answer to which they discovered only when Samson’s wife revealed the answer to them. To pay those who had explained the riddle, he went and killed thirty men in Ashkelon. He took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to them. Burned with anger, Samson went home without his wife, but when he returned to retrieve her, the Philistines had given her to his best man. Samson captured three hundred foxes and tied torches to their tails, setting the Philistine crops ablaze. The Philistines burned his wife and father with fire. Samson slaughtered the Philistines in revenge. When the Philistines pursued Samson, the Israelites handed him over to his enemies, bound at the wrist. With God’s power, Samson broke his bindings and used the jawbone of a donkey to kill a thousand Philistine men. Then he became very thirsty and cried out to the Lord. God split the hollow place and water came out.
Again, Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman, Delilah. The Philistine officials urged Delilah to discover the secret of Samson’s strength. Three times, Delilah asked Samson the source of his power, and Samson lied to her each time, duping the officials in their attempts to subdue him. After a while, Samson told her the truth, informing her that his long hair is the source of his strength. While Samson was asleep, Delilah called for a man to shave off the seven locks of his head. The Lord departed from him and his strength left him. The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They bound him with bronze fetters and he became a grinder in the prison. Samson’s hair began to grow again, and, during a Philistine religious festival when they offered a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, the blind Samson was brought out to entertain the crowds. They stationed him between the pillars. Samson asked the lad who held his hand to guide him to touch the pillars, and—crying out to God—Samson knocked down the pillars of the temple, killing about 3000 Philistine men and women, including the lords of the Philistines.
Samson was Judge for twenty years and the forth Judge to have the Spirit of the Lord. He is also mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11 as one of the people of faith.
Eli [1 Sam 1-4]
Eli, who was also a priest, judged Israel forty years in Shiloh. The sons of Eli were corrupt. They took advantage of the people who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the Lord. They laid with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Eli reprimanded his sons for their evil doing, but they did not heed his voice. A man of God came to Eli and reprimanded him for honoring his sons more than God. He prophesied that there would be no old man in his house forever and that the descendants of his house would die in the flower of their age. Also, his sons Hophni and Phinehas would die and God would raise up for Himself a faithful priest. God told Samuel the boy the same message.
The Philistines came to battle against Israel and Hopni and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant. They were killed and the ark was captured. Eli heard of the news and fell off his seat backward by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died at the age of ninety eight.