This Book of Judges in the Old Testament is so called, because it is a history of the Jews under the government of the Judges, men, like Gedeon and Samson, who were raised up to rule Israel before they had kings. It describes the religious and political condition of the Jews and the work of the twelve Judges.
My first impression of Judges is that this is a repeat of earlier books and I am disappointed. Then I question my thinking. Why be disappointed prior to experiencing something? Aren’t expectations just a precursor to resentments? So if I am already disappointed and resenting something before even starting then there is definitely something wrong with me.
After all in life the end of anything is very rarely the same as the beginning.
Please agree with me, no rather accept my perspective as it is true for me. My analysis was based on honesty and spiritual principles. I am perfect, except when I am not and that means I am not perfect quite frequently!
A lot of the four gospels in the New Testament are repeating the same story but there is always that one little twist, how a passage is stated, and a certain phrase emerges that connects directly with me. Directly with my heart.
No moment in my life needs to be repeated. No moment in anyone’s life can be repeated. Time moves forward and we either adjust and move with it to some degree or not. If we cannot we are most likely dead already. If we don’t have the proper perspective or are unwilling or so egocentric that we cannot, well we might as well be dead to some degree.
Open-minded and open-hearted is the key to peace, joy and freedom in life, right?
After the death of Josue, the children of Israel consulted the Lord saying: Who shall go up before us against the Chanaanite, and shall be the leader of the war?
And the Lord said: Juda shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hands.
Juda to Simeon his brother: Come up with me into my lot, and fight against the Chanaanite, that I may go along with thee into thy lot. And Simeon went with him.
And then Chanaanite began to dwell with them. But after Israel was grown strong he made them tributaries…
Tributaries—a person or nation that pays tribute in acknowledgment of subjugation or the like; subject; subordinate: a tributary nation.
I did not know that use of the word tributary but it flows from what we see with rivers and tributaries in nature… sorry. My apology for the pun! Remember I am a writer and humorist at heart!
History repeats itself unless we learn from it and pass it along to future generations… God used other nations to tempt Israel or in His words “that through them I may try Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.”
God is always testing us too!
And Josue the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old…
And all that generation was gathered to their fathers: and there arose others that knew not the Lord, and the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served Baalim. And they left the Lord the God of their fathers… and they followed strange gods, and the gods of the people that dwelt round them, and they adored them: and they provoked the Lord to anger, forsaking him…
And all that generation was gathered to their fathers as so too will we be called to a spiritual life after death. Hopefully.
God is always loving us too!
Baalim—a false god; any of numerous local deities among the ancient Semitic peoples, typifying the productive forces of nature and worshiped with much sensuality.
And the Lord being angry against Israel, delivered them into the hands of plunderers: who took them and sold them to their enemies, that dwelt round about: neither could they stand against their enemies.
Seems like maybe they were addicted to something other than serving their Lord?
And the Lord raised up judges, to deliver them from the hands of those that oppressed them: but they would not harken to them, committing fornication with strange gods, and adoring them.
They quickly forsook the way, in which their fathers had walked: and hearing the commandments of the Lord, they did all things contrary.
And when the Lord raised up judges, in their days he was moved to mercy, and heard the groanings of the afflicted, and delivered them from the slaughter of their oppressors. But after the judge was dead, they returned, and did much worse things than their fathers had done, following strange gods, serving them, and adoring them. They left not their own inventions, and the stubborn way, by which they were accustomed to walk.
And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said: “Behold this nation hath made void my covenant, which I had made with their fathers, and hath despised to hearken to my voice. I also will not destroy the nations which Josue left, when he died, that through them I may try Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not. The Lord therefore left all these nations, and would not quickly destroy them, neither did he deliver them into the hands of Josue.
And the Lord being angry with Israel, delivered them into the hands of Chusan Rasathaim king of Mesopotamia, and they served him eight years.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord… and the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years… and afterward they cried to the Lord, who raised them up a savior called Aod… and the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord after the death of Aod, and the Lord delivered them up into the hands of Jaban king of Chanaan… for he had nine hundred chariots set with scythes, and for twenty years had grievously oppressed them…
This redemption of the children of Israel, now not the first children of Israel but many, many generations later… seems to go on and on in the Old Testament.
But then we are brought to perhaps the very first song in the Bible, the triumphal song of Debbora and Barac—“O you of Israel, that have willingly offered your lives to danger, bless the Lord. Hear, O ye kings, give ear, ye princes: It is I, it is I, that will sing to the Lord the God of Israel.”
So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love thee shine, as the sun shineth in his rising. And the land rested for forty years.
Brings to my mind the quotation from Alexander Tyler, a Scottish historian circa 1787 that I used first and foremost in the Introduction to my book, The Approach, written in 2005, perhaps foretelling the Global Financial Crisis of 2008:
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilization has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; and from dependence back into bondage.”
Am I in bondage once again?
God knows this sequence well as demonstrated in the Old Testament…
I will seek God in hopes of being free from all these self-bondages I have created in life!
TROML Baby!
Splendid Spiritual Self…
Day 81: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; Judges, Judges, Judges… Strong Tributaries, Broken Covenants, & Rested Souls….
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Judges Chapters 1-5
Bible Notes:
This Book is so called, because it is a history of the Jews under the government of the Judges, men, like Gedeon and Samson, who were raised up to rule Israel before they had kings. It describes the religious and political condition of the Jews and the work of the twelve Judges.
Judges Chapter 1: Juda and Simeon fight the Chanaanites; Punishment of Adomibezec; Attacks on Jerusalem, Hebron, and Dabir; Othoniel wins Axa as his wife; More cities captured; Hebron given to Caleb; Jebusites not annihilated; Capture of Bethel; Chanaanites become tributaries; Danites forced into the mountains.
After the death of Josue, the children of Israel consulted the Lord saying: Who shall go up before us against the Chanaanite, and shall be the leader of the war?
And the Lord said: Juda shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hands.
Juda to Simeon his brother: Come up with me into my lot, and fight against the Chanaanite, that I may go along with thee into thy lot. And Simeon went with him.
And they slew of them in Besec ten thousand men…
And Adonibezec fled: and they pursued after him, and cut off his fingers and toes.
Adonibezec: Seventy kings having their fingers and toes cut off, gathered up the leavings of the meat under my table: as I have done, so hath God requited me.
Requited—to give or do in return.
And the children of Juda beseiging Jerusalem, took it, put it to sword, and set the whole city on fire…
Caleb: Othoniel took Cariath-Sepher (Dabir) and Caleb gave him his daughter Axa to wife.
And the children of the Cinite, the kinsman of Moses…
And Juda took Gaza with its confines…
And the Lord was with Juda, and he possessed the hill country: but was not able to destroy the inhabitants of the valley, because they had many chariots armed with scythes.
Scythe—an agricultural implement consisting of a long, curving blade fastened at an angle to a handle, for cutting grass, grain, etc., by hand.
Show us the entrance into the city, and we will show thee mercy…
And then Chanaanite began to dwell with them. But after Israel was grown strong he made them tributaries…
Tributaries—a person or nation that pays tribute in acknowledgment of subjugation or the like; subject; subordinate: a tributary nation.
Judges Chapter 2: An angel reproves the Israelites; Death and burial of Josue; Wickedness of the new generation; The Lord punishes the people; The Lord provides judges for the people; Other nations left to try Israel.
An Angel of the Lord to the Israelites: I made you go out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land for which I swore to your fathers: and I promised that I would not make void my covenant with you for ever, on condition that you should not make a league with the inhabitants of this land, but should throw down their altars: and you would not hear my voice: why have you done this?
Children of Israel: They lifted up their voices, and wept… and there they offered sacrifices to the Lord.
And Josue the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old…
And all that generation was gathered to their fathers: and there arose others that knew not the Lord, and the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served Baalim. And they left the Lord the God of their fathers… and they followed strange gods, and the gods of the people that dwelt round them, and they adored them: and they provoked the Lord to anger, forsaking him…
Baalim—a false god; any of numerous local deities among the ancient Semitic peoples, typifying the productive forces of nature and worshiped with much sensuality.
And the Lord being angry against Israel, delivered them into the hands of plunderers: who took them and sold them to their enemies, that dwelt round about: neither could they stand against their enemies.
And the Lord raised up judges, to deliver them from the hands of those that oppressed them: but they would not harken to them, committing fornication with strange gods, and adoring them.
They quickly forsook the way, in which their fathers had walked: and hearing the commandments of the Lord, they did all things contrary.
And when the Lord raised up judges, in their days he was moved to mercy, and heard the groanings of the afflicted, and delivered them from the slaughter of their oppressors. But after the judge was dead, they returned, and did much worse things than their fathers had done, following strange gods, serving them, and adoring them. They left not their own inventions, and the stubborn way, by which they were accustomed to walk.
And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said: “Behold this nation hath made void my covenant, which I had made with their fathers, and hath despised to hearken to my voice. I also will not destroy the nations which Josue left, when he died, that through them I may try Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not. The Lord therefore left all these nations, and would not quickly destroy them, neither did he deliver them into the hands of Josue.
Judges Chapter 3: List of the nations left to try Israel; Israel punished for idolatry; Othoniel saves Israel; Israel again punished by God; Aod slays Eglon; Aod escapes; Aol leads Israel against Moab; Samgar defends Israel.
List of nations left to try Israel…
And the Lord being angry with Israel, delivered them into the hands of Chusan Rasathaim king of Mesopotamia, and they served him eight years.
And they cried to the Lord, who raised them up a savior, and delivered them, to wit, Othoniel, the son of Cenez, the younger brother of Caleb, and the spirit of the Lord was in him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to fight, and the Lord delivered into his hands Chusan Rasathaim king of Syria, and he overthrew him. And the land rested forty years, and Othoniel the son of Cenez died.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; who strengthened against them Eglon king of Maob… and he went and overthrew Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees (Jericho.
And the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years…and afterward they cried to the Lord, who raised them up a savior called Aod… who used his the left hand as well as the right… and Aod put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into Eglon’s belly with such force that the haft went in after the blade into the wound, and was closed up with the abundance of fat. So that he did not draw out the dagger, but left it in his body as he had stuck it in.
Haft–a handle, especially of a knife, sword, or dagger.
Follow me for the Lord hath delivered our enemies the Moabites into our hands… they slew all the Moabites at that time, about ten thousand, all strong and valiant men: none of them could escape. And Moab was humbles that day under the hand of Israel; and the land rested eighty years.
Judges Chapter 4: Jaban oppresses the Israelites; Conspiracy of Debbora and Barac; Barac destroys the army of Sisara; Jahel kills Sisara; The Israelites destroy Jabin.
And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord after the death of Aod, and the Lord delivered them up into the hands of Jaban king of Chanaan… and the children of Israel cried to the Lord; for he had nine hundred chariots set with scythes, and for twenty years had grievously oppressed them.
Debbora a prophetess the wife of Lapidoth… and the children of Israel came up to her for all judgment… and she sent and called Barac… The Lord God of Israel hath commanded thee… and will deliver them into thy hand… and Barac said to her: If thou wilt come with me, I will go: if thou wilt not come with me, I will not go… Debbora to Barac: Arise, for this us the day wherein the Lord hath delivered Sisara into thy hands… leaping down from off his chariot, fled away on foot…. And all the multitudes of the enemies were utterly destroyed.
Sisara fleeing came to the tent of Jahel the wife of Haber the Cinite… Come in to me, my lord, come in, fear not… she put the nail upon the temples of his head, and striking it with the hammer, drove it through his brain fast into the ground; and so passing from deep sleep to death, he fainted away and died… and when Barac came into her tent, he saw Sisara lying dead, and the nail fastened in his temples..
So God that day humbled Jabin the king of Chanaan before the children of Israel, who grew daily stronger, and with mighty hand overpowered Jabin king of Chanaan, till they quite destroyed him.
Judges Chapter 5: Triumphal song of Debbora and Barac; Power of the Lord; The weakness of Israel; The call to battle; The battle; Meroz cursed; Jahel blessed; Sorrow of Sisara’s mother; Epilogue.
In that day Debbora and Barac, son of Abinoem, sung, and said: O you of Israel, that have willingly offered your lives to danger, bless the Lord. Hear, O ye kings, give ear, ye princes: It is I, it is I, that will sing to the Lord the God of Israel.
… the paths rested: and they went by them, walked through byways. The valiant men ceased, and rested in Israel until Debbora arose: a mother arose in Israel.
… there let the justices of the Lord be rehearsed, and his clemency towards the brave men of Israel: then the people of the Lord went down to the gates, and obtained their sovereignty.
Review of what transpired in Judges Chapters 1 to 4…
So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love thee shine, as the sun shineth in his rising. And the land rested for forty years.
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