Table of Contents
The Hebrew name of the Book of Judges is Shoftim, from the word shoftim, “judges”. Mauro Biglino points out, in his talk on the riddle of Samson, that one of the biggest questions in the Bible is the meaning of Elohim, a plural word that theology reads as a singular God.
Biglino says the Bible never uses “Elohim” when it speaks of the Judges. It uses shoftim, or “malché-eretz”, which he renders as Lords of the Earth, and “roznim”, rulers. For Biglino this matters: the Elohim may have carried out judicial work, but they were not the same as the Judges.
The Hebrew words he names do appear together elsewhere. Strong’s Concordance (7336) gives razan, in the plural rozenim, as “prince, ruler”. It stands beside “kings” in the Song of Deborah, beside malkhei eretz, “the kings of the earth”, in Psalm 2:2, and beside the “judges of the earth” in Isaiah 40:23. Some readers set this against the King James Version, which translates the Hebrew ha-elohim as “the judges” in Exodus 21:6 and 22:8 to 9.
In Exodus the servant is brought before “the judges”, a word the Hebrew writes as elohim.
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post…
Exodus 21:6, KJV
Who the Judges were
The Book of Judges presents them as deliverers raised up by the LORD.
Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
Judges 2:16, KJV
The book names twelve leaders who “judged Israel”. Alan J. Hauser, in “The ‘Minor Judges’: A Re-Evaluation” (1975), notes that the text rarely calls any of them “a judge”; it uses the verb shafat, “to judge”. By the length of each story they are divided into six major and six minor judges. Biglino describes the major judges as called by Yahweh in times of danger to free Israel from its enemies, and the minor judges as administrators of a tribe, area or clan.
The major judges
Othniel, son of Kenaz and Caleb’s younger brother, freed Israel from Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram-naharaim, which the King James Version calls Mesopotamia, after eight years of servitude; the land then had rest forty years (Judges 3:7 to 11). Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite, killed Eglon, king of Moab, after eighteen years of Moabite rule, and Moab was subdued (Judges 3:12 to 30); see also the Moabites.
Deborah, a prophetess and the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel and with Barak defeated Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, and his captain Sisera (Judges 4 to 5). Gideon defeated the Midianites with the three hundred men “that lapped” (Judges 6 to 8, with 7:7). Jephthah led Israel against the Ammonites, made his vow to the LORD, and judged Israel six years (Judges 10:6 to 12:7). Samson fought the Philistines, who had ruled Israel forty years, and judged Israel twenty years (Judges 13 to 16). Biglino calls Samson’s place among the major judges somewhat mistaken, since Samson only began Israel’s freedom from the Philistines and did not complete it.
The minor judges
Shamgar, son of Anath, slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad, “and he also delivered Israel” (Judges 3:31). Tola, a man of Issachar who lived in Shamir in mount Ephraim, judged Israel twenty-three years (Judges 10:1 to 2). Jair, a Gileadite, judged twenty-two years and had thirty sons who rode thirty ass colts and held thirty cities, called Havoth-jair (Judges 10:3 to 5).
Ibzan of Bethlehem had thirty sons and thirty daughters and judged seven years (Judges 12:8 to 10). Elon, a Zebulonite, judged ten years, and the text gives almost nothing else (Judges 12:11 to 12). Abdon, son of Hillel, a Pirathonite of Ephraim, had forty sons and thirty grandsons, “thirty nephews” in the King James Version, who rode seventy ass colts, and he judged eight years (Judges 12:13 to 15).
Notes on the list
Shamgar is the hardest to place. Peake’s Commentary on the Bible notes that his verse has no introduction, no closing formula and no length of rule, and the text never says he judged Israel. The Jewish Encyclopedia even suspects he was a foreign oppressor rather than an Israelite ruler. He is usually counted among the minor judges because his account is so short.
The book frames the judges in a repeated pattern of sin, oppression, repentance and rescue. J. Alberto Soggin (1981) describes the cycle: Israel falls away, cries out, a judge delivers it, and it falls away again. Judges 2:18 to 19 sets out the same pattern.
