Judges Part One Deep Dive

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS | EMMA AUSTIN

The Book of Judges reminds me a bit of A Series of Unfortunate Events, where each mini-narrative has a crisis that the hero overcomes, and yet there never seems to be a satisfying resolution. Something “unfortunate” always happens, namely, that the people fall back into sin again. Each time this happens, the story draws you in further, wondering who the next hero will be, what problems they will face, and whether they will finally be the leader after God’s own heart (foreshadowing) who will finally be able to unite the people.

I want to draw your attention to another literary device that you may not have noticed before, and that is the role of women in the story. As a woman myself, I have grown up inspired by the strength and courage of biblical characters like Deborah and Jael. We should, however, be mindful of the different cultural lenses held by the biblical authors and their readers. The role of women in Judges is more than arbitrary: they highlight the inadequacies of the Israelite men to lead and form a metanarrative (that is, a plot within the overall plot) that emphasises the degrading of the people of Israel.

The first woman we are introduced to is Achsah, the daughter of Caleb (Judg. 1:12). She is promised as the wife of the man who captures Kiriath-Sepher, Othniel the son of Kenaz. Achsah then asks her father for a blessing, some land with a spring in the Negev. So Judges opens with the story of a woman who has a name, a voice, and the respect of her father, who provides her with land and a brave, godly husband who God later uses to deliver the people of Israel (3:9-10). 

The next woman we meet is the powerhouse prophetess Deborah, whose character sets the contrast with the military commander Barak. Deborah summons Barak and gives him the word of the Lord. Barak’s response sounds almost childish: “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go” (4:8). The consequence of his cowardice is that the honour for the victory over the Canaanite commander Sisera will belong not to him, but to a woman. 

Here we are introduced to Jael, who uses quick wits to lure Sisera into a false sense of security and resourcefully kills him with a tent peg (4:18-21). Chapter 5 recounts a song of praise to Jael the hero, instead of to Barak. Interestingly, we encounter another woman in this poem, Sisera’s mother, who is waiting for her son to return home victorious (5:29). Ironically, her companions assure her his delay is due to taking advantage of his spoils by raping a woman or two (30), while in reality, he has met his death at the hand of a courageous woman. 

Following the well-known story of Gideon, the next woman we meet is an unnamed hero who throws an upper millstone (used for grinding wheat or other grains) out of the window on to Abimelech’s head. The story tells us that all the men and women of the city had fled into the tower, but the author makes a point of saying that it was “a certain woman” (9:53) who again receives the honour over the men of the city. Note, too, that Abimelech is not an outsider, but rather the son of Gideon who is terrorising the countryside. The degradation of the people of Israel is becoming more pronounced.

The next major female character is known only as the daughter of Jephthah. Jephthah is introduced as “a mighty warrior” of illegitimate birth (11:1). But for all his reputation and skills, at the moment of crisis, he rashly made a foolish bargain with God, to offer as a sacrifice whatever first comes out of the doors of his house in exchange for victory over the Ammonites. Tragically, it was his daughter who exited the house first with tambourines and dances to celebrate his return. What a stark contrast to the blessings Achsah received from her father Caleb. Jephthah’s story ends in battle, not against foreigners, but against the men of Ephraim. His daughter's sad story draws attention to her father’s lack of faith and wisdom as, on the edge of our seats, we begin the next episode.

We encounter several women in the story of Samson. Firstly, it is Samson’s mother to whom the angel of the Lord twice appears with the promise of a child. When finally Manoah also speaks with the angel, he despairs that they will surely die, whereas his wife provides the words of wisdom and faith (13:23).

When Samson is born, he has all the makings of a great leader. “Finally,” we think, “we have met our true hero!” But his lust for Philistine women leads to his downfall. Ironically, his encounters with women occur because he “saw” the woman at Timnah (14:2) and “saw” a prostitute at Gaza (16:1), yet his ruin at the hands of Delilah results in losing his eyes (16:21). Here we also find a contrast between Jael, who lured a foreign general to his death, and Delilah, who is a foreign woman luring a hero of Israel to his death. Once again, the role of women in the story augments the insufficiencies of the sons of Israel.

The next woman we meet is the mother of Micah, who gives her son 1100 pieces of silver that he uses to create idols for a shrine in his home, even appointing a Levite priest (17:3). His vanity results in the destruction of his household and the idols being set up as a shrine in Dan. By this point in our Netflix saga, we are feeling pretty hopeless about the state of things, but the story is not over yet. In fact, it is about to hit rock bottom. 

A Levite is traveling with his concubine and decides it is safer to spend the night in an Israelite town than in “the city of foreigners” (19:12). But in yet another ironic twist, this decision proves detrimental. The Israelite men come to the place he is staying, demanding sexual relations. To satisfy their lusts, he sends out his concubine, who heartbreakingly dies after being abused all night. The Levite then cuts her body into 12 pieces and sends a piece to each of the tribes of Israel, igniting a civil war that almost annihilates the Benjamites. Yet, to the 600 surviving Benjamites, the people give 400 women from Jabesh Gilead and kidnap 200 women at Shiloh during the harvest celebration. In response to the heinous crime committed against the Levites concubine, the Israelites stooped so low to commit the same crime on a mass scale.

By the end of the Book of Judges, we can see that they are in complete moral decline. The metanarrative of the women drives this point home: at the beginning of the book, they are cared for, then they are the deliverers over external oppressors. By now, it is their own people who are raping, kidnapping, and slaughtering them. A Series of Unfortunate Events, biblical edition?

Yes, this is hard-hitting, difficult to swallow, and may make you want to flip back to the comforting pages of the New Testament. But I want to leave you with a few takeaways. Firstly, the Book of Judges shows us what a difference even just one person of faith makes. God can use anyone who is willing to be obedient, even a humble tent-dwelling woman. Secondly, this book is supposed to shock us with how horrific things turned out. It is not an example of a perfect society. It shows us a society that turns its back on God. That may well be a challenge for our generations today. And finally, the disastrous story of the Israelites is a fundamentally necessary part of the Bible. Armed with the striking revelation of how depraved we are without God, we turn the page, and there is Jesus who, despite knowing all that we have done and will do, “became obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). There is no happier ending than the all-consuming love of our Saviour God who paved our way into eternity with him.

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extra resources

judges part one

judges part two