The Book Of Judges

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Recommended: Use of Symbolism

The Book of Judges In this essay I hope to introduce you to the Book of Judges, its narrative world and its theological themes and vision. Judges is a very repetitive book. It is structured with an introduction to the incomplete conquest of Canaan, a middle section with stories of the various judges/deliverers and then a few chapters of crazy to wrap up. In the middle section there are six longer stories and six short stories about various judges/rulers. As we read we won’t even need to think “did we just read something like this earlier?” The repetition is glaring and we must embrace it. The cycle we see over and over is itself a literary message. Two major sections of the book are marked out for us with two memorable, repeated and striking phases. The first marks the repeated cycle in the book and shows us the repeated folly of God’s people in her pursuits of joy apart from Him and his covenant. It is found in Judges 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6 and 13:1: “And the people of Israel did what is evil in the sight of the Lord.” The second phrase marks the chaotic final portion …show more content…

This phrase, coupled with the first really tells us, with some precision, what the book of Judges is all about. It appears in Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own

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