MSB introduction:
Judges, as the title of this book, refers to the unique leaders God used to preserve His people from their enemies.  There were twelve judges prior to Samuel, and then Samuel and Eli made the count 14.  The events in this book cover about 350 years from Joshua's conquest in about 1395 BC until Eli and Samuel judge just prior to establishment of the monarchy, in about 1043 BC.  We don't really know who wrote this book, but the Jewish Talmud identifies Samuel as the likely author, and the time of writing was probably right after Saul became King.  

MSB says 7 different cycles of Israel's drifting away from God, beginning even before Joshua died.  Five reasons that lead to this are listed in MSB: 1) disobedience in failure to drive out all the Canaanites, 2), idolatry, 3) intermarriage with the Canaanites, 4) not heeding the judges, and 5) turning away from God after the death of the judges.  

The seven cycles all follow the same pattern:  1) Israel departs from God, 2), God chastises them by permitting military defeat and subjugation, 3) Israel prays for deliverance from their oppressors, and 4), God raises up a judge to deliver them.  

MSB says this book is thematic rather than chronological.  The book shows that these cycles of falling away and then repenting covered the whole land.  This is part of the theme instead of chronology.  The falling away of different parts of the land are covered in some of the cycles - not necessarily in the order they happened.

Among the interpretive challenges listed is "how to view men's violent acts against enemies or fellow countrymen, whether with God's approval or without it."  (This one sure gives me problems in this book.)  

Chapter 1
The book starts this way:
1 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the LORD, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" [Jdg 1:1 ESV]
So we know we are taking up about where Joshua leaves off.  The last few verses of Joshua are written by someone else after his death.  Further, though we have been told twice at least that God has kept all his promises to Israel about the land, there is still fighting to be done.  The land is divided, but there is still opposition, there are still enemies in the land, and they are still capable of making a defense.  So in what sense really are we to see the promises as fulfilled?  That opposition is so reduced that the whole of the nation of Israel is not required to finish the job?  The big tasks are done, and only mopping up is necessary for complete occupation?

2024 - Look at vs 4.  Even at this time the inhabitants of the land put together a 10,000 man army to oppose Judah and Simeon.  That's a lot of resistance from a "conquered" land.  

With Joshua dead, Judah and Simeon team up to rid Judah's portion of more Canaanites, and then Judah is to help Simeon.  God had told Judah to do this, and was with them as they conquered. One of the kings they capture in Judah's territory has previously cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 other kings.  So they decide to cut off his big toes and thumbs.  The first of many interpretive challenges.  Remember that in Jacob's final blessings, Judah and Simeon didn't fare all that well.

They also capture Jerusalem on this campaign.  Then they capture Simeon's land, various places.  Then, though it says they defeated Jerusalem and set it on fire in vs. 8, in vs. 21 it says Benjamin did not drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, and they lived with them.  Manasseh did not drive out many of the inhabitants of his land.  They put them to forced labor, but didn't drive them out.

The rest of chapter 1 is about the inhabitants who were not run off the land God had given Israel.  Many were allowed to stay, and some were used as a forced labor pool.

This was not what God had said.  Both God, Moses, and Joshua had warned that if they left foreigners in the land, and mingled with them and intermarried with them, that the foreigners would lead the people to worship their false gods, and bring about the wrath of the true God.

2024 - So this first chapter is much more about the failure of Israel to secure the land than it is about continued conquest.  Especially in the north, the Canaanites were allowed to remain, though eventually as forced labor - as slaves to Israel.  I do note in vs. 18 that Gaza is taken.  It seems to me that in the south, for the most part, the Canaanites were run off, though with notable exceptions.s would lead the people to worship their false gods, and bring about the wrath of the true God.

Chapter 2
Chapter 2 starts with what I said about incomplete conquest at the end of 1.
An angel comes and tells them they have been incomplete.  It also tells them that God will no longer help them drive out these people, but that the natives will be a thorn in Israel's side from now on.  They name the place "Bochim".
So they could have had peace, had they done as they were told, and as God said he would be with them to complete.  But they got lazy, and instead of guaranteed peace, they are guaranteed constant problems, wars, brush wars, raids, and all the atrocities that can go with the hatred of the semi-conquered against their semi-conquerors.

Joshua dies at 110.  (weren't we told this in Joshua?  So some of this is a repeat.)  The way this is put together, it looks like the Judah/Simeon campaign, and even these others that failed to drive out all the people of Canaan, may have occurred prior to Joshua's death.  It might be a recounting, or maybe it is filling in those last 45 years or so of Joshua's time, when the conquest continued piecemeal?  

As time goes on, all the elders who were with Joshua, and had seen God's work, die off.  So does the whole generation involved in the conquest of Canaan.  A new generation arises, who have never seen the work God did directly for Israel.  Despite the teaching they must have had, as soon as the "old timers" who tell stories about what God did for them have all died off, then Israel starts to abandon the "rules" they were taught, to rebel, and to adopt the gods of those who remain in the land.  Perhaps it is easier to serve "non-gods and idols" because they really don't do you harm or good.  Serving the Living God requires obedience, and there is chastisement and blessing, and worship.  This is not something you can "play at", nor can you interpret events to suit you.  God makes sure of that.

This verse:
11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. [Jdg 2:11 ESV]
Israel begins to serve the Baals.  And the Ashtaroth.  God does what he said he would do.  He takes sides against them.  The surrounding people - who must have hated them anyway - get the upper hand, and begin to plunder them, and they become slaves and are sold by those nations around them.  

Verse 15 ends "...and they were in terrible distress."

From 16 to the end of the chapter seems like a summary of how things went in Israel for the next few hundred years.  They get into trouble, God gives them judges/deliverers, things go well while the judge is alive, but as soon as he dies, they go back to what got them into trouble in the first place, but each time they do even worse things than were done before the last judge was raised up.  They are in a downward cycle, each time moving further away from the covenant requirements.  This is going to go on for a long time.  God ultimately decides that some of the enemies will never be driven out, but will always be there to test Israel as to whether they will look to God, or to the Baals and other false gods when they are in need.

It is just sad to see how quickly they turned away.  Surely their parents told them about the things God had done for them.  Surely they knew.  But how many Godly parents have kids or grands that have turned away.  That do not follow their parent's teaching about God. 

Chapter 3
The people left in Canaan to test Israel are listed specifically.  And it says they intermarried with them in both directions.

Israel begins worshiping other gods, and God "sold them into the hand" of the king of Mesopotamia, Cushan-rishathaim, for 8 years.  Israel has to serve this King.  

2024 - As of today, there are no known extra-biblical references to this king.  He is mentioned only in the Bible.  

The people cry out, and God raises up Othniel, Caleb's younger brother, to help them.  So this is within a generation of Joshua, almost immediately after they have taken Canaan, and they are already in captivity due to their sin.  Othniel defeats Mesopotamia, and the land has peace for 40 years, until Othniel dies.

After Othniel dies, Israel again turns to other gods.  Eglon, King of Moab, gathers some allies and defeats Israel, and they are in his service 18 years.  Israel cries out and God raises up Ehud, a left handed guy, to help them.  Ehud takes the tribute to Eglon, who is a tremendously fat king.  Ehud contrives to get Eglon alone, as Eglon is moving his bowels, and Ehud stabs him with a secreted double-edged sword, a cubit long.  The whole sword goes into Eglon, and the fat closes around it.  Ehud leaves the sword in him, closes the potty room doors for privacy, and then makes his escape.  Ehud gathers some men, and they attack Moab, killing 10,000 strong men.  Israel is at peace then for 80 years.

Shamgar was next, the third judge of Israel, who personally killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad.  We aren't told any more about Shamgar at this time.  So Othniel, Ehud, and then Shamgar, all in this first chapter.

Chapter 4
After Ehud died, the people go wrong again.  No surprise there really.  This time, Jabin, king of Canaan conquers them.  He oppresses them for 20 years.  

2024 - This verse:
2 And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. [Jdg 4:2 ESV]
And this one...
1 When Jabin, king of Hazor, heard of this, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, [Jos 11:1 ESV]
1 When Jabin, king of Hazor, heard of this, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, ... 10 And Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. 11 And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction; there was none left that breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire. [Jos 11:1, 10-11 ESV]
So Joshua had already wiped this place out once before.  And  yet here we are, with a new king and an old name, and the Canaanites who had not been wiped out resettling a city that had previously been razed.  By leaving Canaanites in the land, Israel had in fact allowed this to happen to them.  They still receive the consequences of their failure to do as God had told them.
2024 - But what would that have entailed?  Israel broke the military might of Canaan.  They could not resist.  So what should Israel have done?  Should they have gone door to door in the little outlying villages and killed man, woman and child and burned houses and farms and livestock?  Should they have summarily dispatched anyone they found who was not Israeli?  Or...just exiled them?  Just pushed them out of the land God gave to Israel and set up border control to keep foreigners out?  We might find this second idea more palatable.  But we'd need a verse or two to place the idea within God's instructions.  
We must believe that all the horror and atrocity and war and inhumanity in this part of the world since the days of Joshua would have been avoided had the short term horror ordered by God been carried out faithfully and completely.  We have to remember that God didn't just decide that Israel was such a wonderful nation that they ought to have their own country.  God made promises to Abraham, and then God used Israel to punish the inhabitants of the promised land, who greatly deserved to be punished for the things they were doing and attributing to the idols they worshiped.  They were killing their own children, they had temple prostitution - male and female, they had orgies under the stars in every high place, a total lack of morality and not one single follower of God.  They were so evil that God decided to cleanse the earth by wiping them out...just as he later uses Assyria, Babylon, and I have to believe Rome, and at a stretch Hitler to chastise the Jews for their continuing stubbornness in turning back to God.  The good would have outweighed the bad in the scales of history had Israel done as they were commanded, and we must believe, we must trust that God had the wisdom and the foresight to determine the "better" way, horrible as the short term results appear to us with our short term way of looking at things.  

At this time, Deborah is judging Israel.  
2021 - So a female judge, and that is not even mentioned as an anomaly.  Can we say from this that God sometimes makes exceptions to the roles created for men and women, or do we say that when men shirk their responsibilities, God will appoint a qualified woman, or do we say that the fact that a woman was in charge is an indication of just how far Israel had drifted from God's commands?

She sends for Barak.  She knows, and reminds him, that God has already told him to raise an army, and that He will deliver the king of Canaan to him.  But Barak won't go unless Deborah does.  So she agrees to go, but says that because of his requirement, a woman will get the glory from the defeat of Jabin, rather than Barak.  The man didn't do what a man should do, so a woman got all the credit.  This is another place in the Bible where women were honored far above what the culture of the time was doing.
2024 - This verse:
6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, 'Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. [Jdg 4:6 ESV].
This certainly appears to be a prophecy.  She is repeating the commandment of the Lord, and as the passage goes on, she tells Barak how things are going to go.  This is the only recorded prophecy of Deborah that we have, but the fact that she was already called "Prophetess" implies that there were others - enough to earn her this title.

Sure enough, Sisera - the commander of Jabin's armies - and his 900 iron chariots come out to battle.  God gives Barak the victory, all of Sisera's men are killed, but Sisera flees the field and goes back to his home town.  
Sisera hides in the tent of Moses father-in-laws descendants.  A woman named Jael makes Sisera comfortable and agrees to keep watch while he sleeps.  Once he's nice and resting, she drives a tent peg though his temple and all the way into the ground below.  Just to be sure.  Like you do. 

Chapter 5
This chapter is a victory song, and a song of tribute to Deborah, Barak, and Jael.  Also, I note that it praises Naphtali and Zebulon for taking up arms with Barak against Sisera.  Several other tribes are derided for staying home and doing nothing.  

This verse:
6 "In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. [Jdg 5:6 ESV]
This is the same Shamgar mentioned as a judge in 3:31.  Apparently he is still alive at the time of Deborah, and Jael, and Barak.  Maybe that is why there is little detail about Shamgar.  Perhaps his was a smaller restoration of a small portion of the Land, and there was not a huge turning away after his death.  In fact, we haven't been told that he died, unlike we were about Othniel and and Ehud.  Also, Shamgar may have lived in an entirely different part of Israel, and the two stories overlap in time but not in geography.  (2021-Shamgar was still alive.  At the beginning of 4 we saw that Ehud, not Shamgar, had died and the people were turning away.  Clearly implied that Shamgar was still around and that he and Deborah overlapped.)
2021 - The oppression by Jabin was so bad that the people stayed off the main roads lest they meet Jabin's men.  We have never known such oppression in this country, at least not since the Revolutionary War.  One can envision such a thing though, avoiding a tyrannical government of our own, running around to make sure you don't have any more than anyone else.

This verse also:
17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. [Jdg 5:17 ESV]
Didn't Jacob say in his blessings on his sons that Asher would be in the seacoasts?  (No, that was Zebulon.  Asher was going to have rich food, and Issachar would be a strong donkey.)  It is true that when the land was divided, Asher was given the NW coast of Israel, all the way up to the port of Sidon.  So they were on the coast at this time.  

2021 - 20 From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. [Jdg 5:20 ESV]
An interesting verse, alluding perhaps to how God fights for Israel, how he delivers their enemies.  The whole universe was turned against Sisera.  Perhaps a way of saying that this victory, ordained by God, was a supernatural victory.  Things happened that could not be explained.  

2021 - This verse looks to me like poetry, and I thought maybe it was a rhyme in Hebrew:  
27     Between her feet he sank,
   he fell,
   he lay still;
   between her feet he sank,
   he fell;
   where he sank,
   there he fell--dead. [Jdg 5:27 ESV]
So I went and looked at the interlinear.  It's transliterated like this:
bayin regel kara napal sakab
bayin regel kara napal aser
kara sam napal sadad.

So a "hook" in the middle of the song of Deborah, the repetition of which would bring this whole story to mind.  We don't do this sort of thing.  Maybe we should!  It would be interesting to come back and try to compose a rhyme of these words.

After this, Israel has peace for 40 years.

So again, all these things happen after we've been told that God kept all his promises to Israel about the land.  Yet these "aborigines of Canaan" continue to cause problems.  There are still foreign kings living in the land, kings that were never defeated.  I come back to them being secondary kings, incapable of opposing the whole army of Israel, and so forced to accept the rule and the people of Israel in a more or less quiet way, not making any trouble, lest the wrath of all Israel come against them and wipe them out.  Further, it is not these kings alone who decide to oppress Israel.  In each case so far in Judges, it is God who raises up one of these remaining peoples - these whom God intentionally leaves in place to test Israel.

It would be good to put together a coherent explanation of how this all works.  Went back today (5/26/20) and found this "coherent statement in MSB in the note on Joshua 21:43-45, 45 is quoted below:
45 Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. [Jos 21:45 ESV]

And here is the the MSB note, quoted:
"This sums up God's fulfillment of His covenant promise to give Abraham's people the Land (Ge 12:7, Jos 1:2, 5-9).  God also kept His Word in giving the people rest (Dt. 12:9, 10).  In a valid sense, the Canaanites were in check, under military conquest as God had pledged (Jos 1:5), not posing an immediate threat.  Not every enemy had been driven out, however, leaving some to stir up trouble later.  But God's people failed to exercise their responsibility and possess their land to the full degree in various areas.".  

So I had it right.  The remaining "natives" of Canaan were having to mark time and shuffle their feet and behave themselves, lest they incur the wrath of the full army of Israel.  Things were now about political maneuvering instead of military strategy.  They were still there...but they were not really in control.  Until God decides in Judges to raise them up in response to the idolatry of Israel.

2022 - God also told Israel that he wouldn't give them everything all at once, lest they not be able to oversee it all, lest the wild animals get out of control.  And he tells them at another point that he is leaving some to test whether Israel will remain true to his commandments for them and follow his ways and his orders.  Testing is needed - regular testing - to keep faith strong.  He had given them the land and rest.  They were "unopposed" in the land.  And yet, as they disobey, God empowers those left in the land to oppress Israel.  Discipline to bring them back to him. Each time they rebel, each time they are disciplined, and so far at least, each time they criy out and seek God again.

Chapter 6
Israel rebels again and this time God lets Midian overcome them for seven years.  Midian is so oppressive that during their time in power, many in Israel begin to live in dens and caves.  Midian is "overpowering".  The Midianite strategy was to descend on Israel when the crops were edible, and they would come like locust in number.  They would eat everything in sight, leaving no seed.  They also would eat all the livestock.  This goes on for seven years.  No telling how many died of starvation, how many children died hungry.

6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. [Jdg 6:6 ESV]

Israel was doing all the work, and reaping no reward.  They cried out to God for help.  In answer, God sends a prophet.  He is not named.  The prophet's message is that God brought them out of Egypt, gave them the land, and commanded that they not worship other gods.  But they have not obeyed him.  So they cry out, and God sends a prophet to declare their sin, to explain that these are covenant consequences.  But He does not send help...because they do not repent of their ways.  Despite their sincere wish for God's deliverance, they are unwilling to do anything for Him.
Good FB post.  Can't live like the devil and be blessed.

2021 - 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. [Jdg 6:7-8 ESV]  I doubt this is the very first mention of a prophet in Israel, but it is certainly one of the earliest.

Gideon is called up as judge.  An angel appears to him and tells him he is to set Israel free of the Midianites.  This angel is a theophany - the Lord Himself, as the language in the rest of their conversation indicates.  To me, Gideon seems a little whiny and doubty about the whole thing, even after seeing fire consume the food he had prepared.  Guess the angel wasn't hungry.  

God orders Gideon to take his father's bull and pull down his father's altar to Baal.  Then cut down the Asherah next to it.  Then he's to build a new altar using new stones.  Last, he's to sacrifice his father's second bull, burning it with the wood of the Asherah that he cut down.  Pretty "in your face" stuff here.  Gideon was afraid to do so in the light of day though, so he did it at night.

The local men want Gideon brought out so they can kill him.  But his Dad says to let Baal fight for himself if he is really a god.  So apparently, nothing else really happens.

Beginning in vs 33, the Midianites and Amalekites come out to make war in the Valley of Jezreel (this place is also called Megiddo.  The one where Armageddon will be fought.)  This is their habit.  It must have been near harvest time, confirmed by Gideon winnowing wheat in the wine press.  Gideon sends out the call for men to follow him, and many do.  Note that the tribes he calls were northern tribes - Asher, Naphtali, and so on.  In Deborah's song, it was these northern tribes also that pushed off the oppressor.  Many men of Israel come out to join the fight against them, under Gideon.


Gideon is still not convinced about all this, so he does the fleece test.  Twice.  

Chapter 7
God says Gideon has too many men.  With so many, Israel will think they did this without God.  So the scared ones are told to go home.  That gets rid of 22,000, leaving only 10,000.  Really?  Over 2/3rds were too scared to fight?  God says 10k is still too many, so he has Gideon send them to the water and they do the water drinking test.  That leaves only 300 men.

Smashing jars, blowing trumpets and 300 torches.  Turns out the enemy was even more afraid than Israel, because God had put fear into them with a dream that one of them had, and another interpreted.  When the pots are broken and the trumpets blown, the Midianites and Amalekites are afraid, but they start killing each other.  The camp had a LOT of people in it.  More than 300 men could have killed in a night.  So God has the invaders kill each other off instead.  Israel routes them, catches up with two of the leaders, and they kill them.  Their heads are brought to Gideon.

Chapter 8
Israel, under Gideon, defeated the Midianites in the last chapter.  Now the campaign continues.

The men of Ephraim are upset because they were not called to help Gideon in the battle against the Midianites.  Gideon placates them by saying their (Ephraim's) execution of the two princes of Midian was far more important than the battle itself, since basically, God had the Midianites kill each other, Gideon and his men didn't really do it.  This satisfies them.  Hard for me to like anyone in this story.  Maybe the lesson is that you have to follow whom God chooses as leader, even if you don't really like the way that person does things.  (Can you say Donald Trump!)

Gideon and the 300 are still chasing the fleeing Midianites, especially their kings Zebah and Zalmunnah.  They come into two different towns as they go, and Gideon requests food for his troops.  Both towns refuse because they are doubtful that Gideon will catch the kings, and they don't want to incur Midianite wrath by helping their enemies.  The towns are Succoth and Penuel.  Gideon basically says "When I come back, you'll pay for your attitude."

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunnah were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. [Jdg 8:10 ESV]
This is an amazing statistic.  With only 300 men against them, 120,000 men from Midian had died.  That can only be God doing something like that.  And surely Midian as a nation is completely crippled by all this.  How can they defend themselves further against anyone, even if Gideon leaves them alone?
Even so, Gideon still has only 300 men, and he's chasing 15,000.  He will still need God to prevail.

Gideon attacks them when they aren't expecting attack, the two kings flee, and Gideon captures them.  Capture of their kings throws the Midianite army into complete panic.  Gideon returns to Succoth and Penuel and does as he said he would.  Later, he kills both Midianite kings also.

Israel asks Gideon to be king, and his sons after him.  Gideon refuses, and asks for the earrings of the Midianites that were taken as spoil.  These are gladly given.  Gideon has a golden ephod made and displays it in his home city.  People begin to worship the ephod, bringing shame instead of glory.  

Gideon goes and lives in his own house.  He has 70 sons - and many wives.  Gideon dies.  As soon as he is gone, the people begin worshiping Baal again.  (Just incredible.  Like they were waiting for him to die so they could go back to doing things wrong.  Like following God's laws felt like oppression to them.  They had had peace for 40 years, and as soon as the instrument of that peace was dead they went back to what had caused their problems in the first place!)

Chapter 9
Abimelech, the son of Gideon's concubine who lives in Shechem gets his relatives to suggest to the leaders of Shechem that it would be better to be ruled over by Abimelech alone than by all 70 of Gideon's legitimate sons.  (Remember that Gideon had refused to rule or to have his sons rule Israel in the first place.)  So they give Abimelech some cash, which he uses to hire the worst sorts of men, then they go to Gideon's house, and kill all 70 of Gideon's legitimate sons "on one stone".  This was brutal murder.  Likely the brothers were made to watch as those ahead of them were placed/held down on that stone and killed with swords, knives...who knows how depraved these "worst sort of men" got with their killing.  The leaders of Shechem are at least consenting in this massacre.  What horrible people, what horrible times when they turned from God.  No justice.  Good men, or helpless men, became prey for the evil.    Only one of Gideon's sons escaped, named Jotham.  

2023 - Which sort of begs the question.  The previous chapter tells us that Gideon had 70 legitimate sons and then Abimelech was born to his concubine.  Technically, the text says they went to Ophrah and "...killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, 70 men, on one stone."  We would normally read that as 70 brothers being killed.  Looking at the Hebrew in BLB, though, it says he killed his brothers, 70 men.  Then the next word is "notwithstanding", one brother got away.  So the text is not first implying that all 70 brothers were killed and then changing its mind, it is say that brothers were killed, and that 70 men were killed in all, but that only 69 were Gideon's sons.  This is why the word choices are a bit strange.  Or...it may just be that after we are told in Chapter 8 that Gideon had 70 sons, he married another wife and had one more son before he died.  Because in vs 18, it repeats that they killed Gideon's sons, 70 MEN, on one stone.  

Then the men of Shechem make Abimelech king.

Jotham makes a speech to the men of Shechem and Beth-millo, and tells them if they've done right by Gideon and his family, then great.  But if not, he pronounces fire and death on them all.  He asks them if it is right to kill the 69 of Gideon's legitimate sons, and then make the one illegitimate son king over them all?  Is this fair, given that Gideon risked his life to free them from the oppression of Midian.  Then he runs away and hides in Beer.

God turns the men of Shechem against Abimelech.  They turn to a guy named Gaal to do something about him.  The head of the city warns Abimelech, who sets an ambush, and defeats Gaal in battle.  The next day, Abimilech kills still more of the inhabitants of the city, goes inside and kills every one he finds. razes the city, and then sows the city with salt.  He not only kills everyone, he makes the place uninhabitable!  He does this to the city that made him their king!

Then he goes and attacks the next place, but ends up getting hit in the head when a woman throws an upper millstone off a tower.  Abimilech has his armor bearer kill him with a sword, so that no one can say he was killed by a woman.  Really?  Cuz it is very clear that a woman killed him, no matter who dealt that final blow.

After Abimilech dies, everyone sort of wanders off back home.  The conclusion in 9 is that all has been put right for the evil that Abimilech did, and that the men of Shechem did in setting him up.  Jotham's curse is complete.

If the story of Abimilech is an indication of what a place where "everyone does as he sees fit" is like, of a sort of a Libertarian Utopia, then I am not for it.  Horrible cruel things get done, and if you notice, the only justice in this whole story was from God.  He is the one that turns them all against each other.  There are no "heroes" in this story wearing capes and dispensing justice and right for the oppressed.  Everyone in this story pretty much deserved what they got - except the sons of Gideon.  Think of that horror, all those boys and their mothers.  Abimilech burns down a tower with about a thousand men, women and children in it.  He is not "good guy".  And then he dies a cowards death, killed not by a woman at least - in his opinion - but by a servant.  How is that better?  This is what happens when everyone makes their own rules.

The point seems to be that when left to themselves, men will not cooperate with each other, will not respect each other, and will not come to the aid of each other.  This "Libertarian" confederacy of the tribes of Israel becomes quite splintered and weak and subject to decades long oppression and abuse by the surrounding countries.  Because they are so selfish and so refuse to be "governed", they end up being easy prey to the surrounding countries, UNTIL, and UNLESS God supernaturally protects them.  God only protects them if they are keeping the covenant they made with Him, worshiping only Him, and so on.  This says that a "country" ungoverned cannot defend itself.  It seems to me that a lot more might be said about this, that a lot more study would show other weaknesses in such a confederacy.  Their economy would be disjointed, there would be no central military, the rules would be different in one city as opposed to another city, and so on.  This would be an interesting study.

The lesson is that men don't "trend" toward justice and righteousness.  If left to themselves, without any sort of authority over them, whether it be government or God, men just turn into greedy, selfish, ambitious tyrants, who want nothing but their own advancement.  Israel at this time is a country without any sort of centralized government, and barely any local government.  I don't know what's happened to the Tent of Meeting and the High Priest and the Levites, because we haven't heard a word about them. Apparently, people are left to keep the Sabbath and the Feasts on their own, and it seems to have been largely forgotten.  They are instead worshiping local idols as the native peoples do.  

So why didn't God want them to have a king?  Why would God allow things to go on this way?  Because a King would have to be superimposed on the covenant already in place with the people?  They were to serve God, or He would punish them, and ultimately scatter them to the winds leaving nothing.  Perhaps having kings only prolonged the inevitable.  

Perhaps the whole purpose of the book of Judges is to show that people left to themselves are bad people.  As if we didn't already know this from the story of Noah.

Chapter 10
After Abimilech God raised up Tola, son of Puah, son of Dodo.  What a pedigree...
He judged for 23 years, and then died.  Vs 1 says he came from Issachar, and he "arose to save Israel", but we are given no info as to what or who he saved them from.

Next was Jair, who judged for 22 years.  Jair was from Gilead, which I believe is on the east side of the Jordan, where Manassah and others had decided to stay.  So that would seem to indicate that God was still looking after these people also, though they were not in Israel proper.Jair had 30 sons who rode around on 30 donkeys.  We are not told why they did this.

After Jair, the people turned against God again by serving the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines.  Seems like they wanted to serve any god but God.  Why?  Because inanimate gods have slack rules and low standards.
So God lets the Ammonites and the Philistines overcome them, and oppress them.  This verse:
8 and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan (So I was right about where Gilead was) in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. [Jdg 10:8 ESV]
That's a long way for the Philistines to go to oppress them.  And there was a big portion of Israel that they would have had to cross to get to Gilead.
Note that this oppression was only against the people who had settled east of the Jordan.  Perhaps Jair had kept them in check during his time as judge because he was from Gilead, and lived there.  The rebellion against God occurs after Jair dies.
Then this:
9 And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. [Jdg 10:9 ESV]
So the Philistines and the Ammonites were oppressing Gilead, and now the Ammonites - who already live East of the Jordan, cross the river and attack central Israel.  They are trying to expand their oppression.

13 Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14 Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress." [Jdg 10:13-14 ESV]
Couple of things...These are words from God that you never want to hear.  He rarely gets to this point, but when he does, he stays here for a long time.  Second, note that God doesn't say he is going to personally punish them for what they've done.  He's just not going to intervene in the due course of things.  God protects, or He withdraws protection.  Is this how it works with individuals, nations, or both?  There is the big question of whether God sends bad things as punishments.  Surely in the covenant of Sinai God made it clear that there would be curses on Israel if they didn't keep their part of the covenant.  But it never says that God will do the cursing.  In this case, God isn't proactively punishing Israel, He is just withdrawing his supernatural protection over them.  They are a weak, divided, selfish, stiff-necked people, and if God isn't protecting them, they are not a strong people at all.  Look at Ephraim, always whining about not being invited to fight!

In this case, the people truly repent of what they've done, and ask God to do with them whatever he wants, but to please deliver them from their oppressors.  They ask to receive God's justice, no matter what that might be, instead of man's oppression.  David did this same thing later when God says as his punishment either David's enemies will triumph, or God will send pestilence.  David says he would always prefer God's justice to man's.  They don't just ask, they act.  This verse:
16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. [Jdg 10:16 ESV]

The Ammonite army gathers for war against Israel at Gilead.  Israel also gathers, but they  have no leader - no general to lead them into battle.  They need to pick a leader.

Chapter 11
Jephthah is the bastard son of Gilead and a prostitute.  His legitimate brothers had run him off so he wouldn't get any of the inheritance.  Jephthah is a mighty warrior, and bad men fall in with him in his isolation.  Jephthah and his "raiders "go out" and raid against the oppressors, successfully.  This brings no small amount of fame to Jephthah as a leader and a warrior.  Guess he is sort of like Robin Hood.  Because of this fame - which he would not have had unless his brothers had shunned him - the men of Gilead come and ask Jephthah to lead them in battle against the Ammonites.  It doesn't go smoothly, but Jephthah agrees to be their leader.  So this raider in charge of a band of "worthless fellows" becomes leader over all Gilead.  

Jephthah first tries diplomacy and asks what the Ammonites have against him.  They say that Israel stole their land and they want it back.  Jephthah gives them a history lesson, saying that Israel actually took their land from Sihon, King of the Amorites, and that it was not the land of the Ammonites in the first place.  Ammon has no claim to the land Israel is occupying.  They got that land by conquest from others, and it is not the business of the King of Ammon.  And he also points out that Israel has been living in this land now for 300 years, and this is the first time Ammon has tried to get their land back.  If they waited this long, it now belongs to Israel.  Ammon does not agree.

Jephthah gathers an army, and vows that if God helps him defeat the Ammonites, he will offer as burnt offering the first thing that comes out the door of his house when he gets back home.  A stupid vow.  He defeats Ammon.  He would have defeated them even if he'd made no vow at all.  His vow was an indicator of his own doubt that God would just help him.  He thought God would need a gift like the false gods always needed.  This was because he'd been run off from any chance of being taught by his father or his brothers about how God operated.  He was hanging with "worthless fellows", likely not of Israel, who all worshiped false gods and their pagan practices in this made human sacrifice something likely to gain great favor from their gods.  I think Jephthah meant to give God a human sacrifice when he made the vow.  He just didn't expect that person to be his only daughter.  Because of his "distance" from the teachings of God, he made a horrible vow - a vow God never required, and I don't believe God would ever accept such a vow.  God was there to help Gilead, NOT to help Jephthah.  Jephthah was just the man God used.  Jephthah's faith was bad and his theology was bad - yet God used him to throw the oppression off of Gilead when that area truly repented.  (Again, can you say Donald Trump!?)

When he gets home, it is his daughter that first comes out of the tent.  She was his only child.  She takes two months to morn, then offers herself to her father so that he can honor his vow.  This was his own fault, and he had to live with it the rest of his life.

Chapter 12
Ephraim hears that Jephthah has fought the Ammonites without them, and they offer to burn his house down over him for his trouble.  I do not get this.  Where were they if they wanted to fight?  Jephthah says he did call them, and they didn't come.  This is now the second time Ephraim has complained about not being invited to the fighting.  First time was when Gideon and his 300 defeated Midian back in Judges 8.  Ephraim just wants the spoils it seems.

Hmm...as I read it this second time, it looks like Jephthah actually invaded Ephraim from Gilead to attack the Ammonites who had crossed the Jordan to oppress Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim.  He had come into their tribal allotment and made war there.  So Ephraim is now saying they can handle their own problems, and that if Jephthah was coming onto their property, he should have included them.  This seems like cutting off their noses to spite their own faces.  The war was over, their oppression was lifted as was the oppression of Gilead, and instead of celebrating, they get all bent out of shape over not being the ones in charge of the evictions.

So now Gilead and Ephraim go to war.  Gilead wins.  Ephraimites cannot say Shibboleth.  It comes out Siboleth.  This was used to identify fleeing Ephraimites at the fords of the Jordan.  42,000 of Ephraim are killed.  Again, this just seems very wrong.  On second reading...Ephraim was just too pig-headed for this to turn out any other way.  All they had to do was say thank you and go home, but instead, they cross the Jordan into Gilead and attack Jephthah's army.  That's why taking the fords of the Jordan is important.  To get back home after losing the war, the Ephraimites had to cross the river.  But Jephthah controls the crossings.  And since the "speech impediment" of Ephraimites makes it impossible for them to correctly pronounce Shibboleth, Jephthah has any fleeing Ephraimites summarily executed.  If that seems a bad way to do things, remember that this same Jephthah has already burned up his daughter to pay a vow that should never have been made.  He is not the best decision maker we've seen.

Jephthah judges for 6 years, then dies.  I wonder if he died drunk and morose, because he couldn't bear the loss of his only child?  Maybe that's why he had no mercy on the Ephraimites also.

Ibzan of Bethlehem judged next for 7 years.  Does not say there was a turning away.  Says he had 30 sons and 30 daughters.  He sent the daughters to other clans to marry, and brought 30 daughters in from outside clans to marry his sons.  It seems that those who were made judges were very "productive".  

Elon of the tribe of Zebulon was next, for 10 years.

Abdon was next.  8 years.  Seems to be from Ephraim.  Abdon had 40 sons and 30 grandsons.  They all rode around on 70 donkeys.  This is about the third time we've heard about a bunch of sons riding around on donkeys.  I don't know the significance of this, but it is mentioned repeatedly. 

Chapter 13
The end of Chapter 12 saw three judges after Jephthah, with little information about events during their time.  It would seem that Israel may have stayed true to God during this time.  Chapter 13, though, opens this way:
1 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. [Jdg 13:1 ESV]
Israel turns away yet again, and God lets the Philistines overcome them and oppress them for 40 years.

An angel appears to Manoah's wife and tells her she won't be barren any longer but will have a son.  While pregnant, she is to drink no alcohol, nor eat anything unclean.  From conception Samson is to be a Nazirite.  He will begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines.  
2021 - This is such a common theme in the Bible, this long time barren woman giving birth to a son with a calling from God, or a mission from God.  Isaac was perhaps the first example of this, born to a barren Sarai.  One of Isaac's wives.  Jacob loved Leah better, but Leah was barren for a long time.  And now Samson's mother, who is not named.  Next we will see Samuel's mother, also barren into her old age.  Interesting that we see this so many times in the Bible.

Manoah prays that the angel that appeared to his wife will appear to him also, as he has more questions...or perhaps thought his wife had left something out.  In any case, the angel reappears, first to Manoah's wife alone, and then she goes and brings Manoah back to where the angel has appeared.  The angel just repeats what he told Manoah's wife to start with.  Ahh...Manoah apparently thought this was just a man, and didn't realize that he was an angel from God.  This becomes apparent in this second conversation.  So they recognize now that God is raising up their son.  It is also interesting that when they offer this angel food, he won't eat.  Says he'll stay, but won't eat the food.  Encourages them instead to offer a burnt offering.  When the child is born, they name him Samson.  This is the tribe of Dan.

2024 - This is the first judge who's coming was prophesied.  The first one selected as judge even before his conception.  He was to be a deliverer from the very first - he was born for it.  Isaac was predicted...but not like Samson.  Jesus is a prophesied deliverer also.  But was Samuel?  Samson is in a very small group here.  It would be a good study, looking  up the ones who's calling was set before they were born.  A good compare and contrast study.

Chapter 14
Samson goes to Timnah.  There he sees a Philistine woman and he tells his parents to get her for him as his wife.  They try to talk him out of it, but he wants this woman, this Philistine woman.
Samson prepares a wedding feast.  He tells the riddle of the lion carcass with honey in it, and gives them seven days to solve it.  They coerce his wife by threatening to burn her and her father's house, and she coerces Samson.  He tells her the answer, she tells them.  Samson knows what has happened so he kills thirty other Philistines and gives their clothing to those men at the feast.  He is very angry and goes home.  His new (ex-?) wife is given to the best man.  So even here, at the very beginning of his adult life, Samson has problems with women  

Chapter 15
Samson goes back to see his wife.  (not ex- as far as he was concerned).  He intends to sleep with her it seems.  Her father refuses, tells Samson his wife has been given to the best man, but that he can have her younger sister.  But Samson wants the older sister, after all, it was his attraction to her that started this whole sequence.  He is so angry at being denied the older sister, and learning that in fact she's now another man's wife, that in his anger, he ties the tails of 300 foxes together in pairs, puts a torch with each pair and sets them free in the ripe wheat.  All the standing wheat, stacked wheat and the olive grove burn down. This isn't really vengeance, this is just out and out anger.  MSB note says it must have taken Samson a long time to catch so many foxes.  He'd have had to feed and water them until he caught so many, and all just so he could turn them loose with torches in their tails.  His anger - his brooding anger, smoldered all that time.  Samson was a hater.  Yet we know that God was using him to throw off the Philistine oppression.  Just as Jephthah had a lot of faults but was used by God, so Samson has many flaws.  The name Donald Trump just popped into my head.  Wouldn't that be interesting if Trump is like a Samson, raised up with all his personal flaws and problems to throw off the corruption that has become our government.

The Philistines find out who did it, and instead of going after Samson, they burn up Samson's new father-in-law and his wife that's been given to another.  They just burn them with fire.  So now Samson is mad again.  They have killed his "wife" - he is apparently quite obsessed - and he swears that he's going to avenge them, and then he will stop this spiral of violence.  It says he "struck them hip and thigh with a great blow".  NASB translates it "ruthlessly with a great slaughter".   Samson seems to go into hiding.  Here is the wording:
8 And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. [Jdg 15:8 ESV]

So the Philistines send an army to Judah to retrieve Samson.  They do some raiding and looting while there, and this becomes a concern to the men of Judah.  They don't try to defend themselves at all, but ask their "rulers" why they are being treated this way.  The Philistines say they are there to get Samson.  Judah sends 3000 men to Etam, where Samson went after the slaughter, to accuse him of causing them lots of problems.  Three thousand men and they go to get Samson and turn him over, rather than to fight for themselves.  That seems like a lot of guys.  Brave men, as is usual in such circumstances.  Samson makes them promise they won't attack him themselves, and when they agree, he lets them tie him up and take him to the Philistines.

The Spirit of the Lord rushes on him, and he breaks his bonds, picks up the jawbone of an ass, and kills 1000 Philistines all by his lonesome.  Only God's power could do such a thing.

Samson judges Israel in the days of the Philistines for 20 years. 

Chapter 16
Samson visits a prostitute in Gaza.  Gaza is a Philistine city.  The men of the city find out he's there and lay in wait to kill him at dawn.  Samson leaves at midnight, taking the city gates with him.  Not sure what the point of this short, three verse incident really is.  Samson was in a place he shouldn't have been, doing something he should not have been doing.  The enemies of Israel find out about it and plan to kill him, which they should not do.  We aren't clear as to whether Samson even knows they are there.  It does say the ambush was at the gate of the city, yet Samson takes the gates with him when he leaves.  Are we to understand that he ambushed the ambushers, and then by taking the gates left that whole city vulnerable?  MSB says it is about God being merciful to Samson despite his sins here, but that his chastening was only postponed.  It says nothing about whether there was a confrontation with those who wanted to kill him.  He took those gates to Hebron, 38 miles away.  Wooden, solid, strong gates, and he carried them that far on his shoulders.  The strength that would take is amazing.

Another time, later, he meets Delilah.  Delilah seems to be a Philistine also, but at this point it hasn't said so.  There is an implication that for the money she is offered, she seduces Samson with no worries about marriage or virtue.  She is not a nice lady, and Samson again shows us how blind or ignorant he is about women.  He truly has a weakness here.  The Philistines offer her a lot of money to seduce Samson, find out how to subdue him, so they can capture him.  She readily does this.  Three times she asks how to weaken him, three times he lies, three times the Philistines show up and try what he told her.  How can you have any sympathy at all for a man this stupid.  The fourth time, after she nags him to death, he tells her the truth, with obvious consequences.
This verse:
15 And she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies." [Jdg 16:15 ESV]
Beware, when someone tries to coerce you with love.  Love doesn't act that way.  Love doesn't try to get you to do something harmful to you.  It NEVER does.  Beware.

2022 - This verse:
20 And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. [Jdg 16:20 ESV]
Is this arrogant pride?  He knew she was trying to trick him into revealing the source of his strength.  Three times she'd proved she was his enemy.  Yet he tells her the truth to get her to stop nagging him.  And when he wakes up, he thinks that even though she knows the truth, she hasn't used it against him...either that, or he thinks he'd lied to her a third time.  Perhaps even Samson didn't realize this was the source of his strength.  How could he have known, if it had never been cut.  Maybe this was his best guess, and he had told her what he truly believed - but did not know.  He had to know, as he awoke, that his hair had been cut.  Why would he have thought he could go out as before if he really believed, really knew, that his strength was there?  And then look at the last part of the verse...he didn't know the Lord had left him.  He knew his hair was gone, but didn't recognize that God was gone.  Did God leave because he broke his Nazirite vow without completing the procedure?  Was it the haircut or the vow breaking that caused God to leave him.  Was his strength in his hair, or was it in his commitment to his vow to God as a Nazirite?  If he'd had a glass of wine, wouldn't his strength also have left him?  Then this verse follows:
28 Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes." [Jdg 16:28 ESV].  Samson understands now that his strength was never in his hair, but came from God.  He does not point out to God here that his hair has grown back.  He asks for strength directly from the source.
Samson's downfall was not cutting his hair the source of his strength, but breaking his Nazirite vows.  God had continually suspended his justice as to Samson's repeated sins and ungodly decisions so long as Samson stayed committed to his Nazirite vows.  So long as he at least held on to that commitment, God allowed him to continue as judge of Israel.  But when that core commitment ended, so did God's forbearance.  The Nazirite vows of Samson were like the sacrificial laws of Israel.  So long as they maintained the sacrifices, God overlooked - and still overlooks - great sin.  But when you won't even go to the trouble of sacrificing, or you begin to sacrifice to other gods instead, forbearance comes to an end, and the promised corrections come on.
This seems to be on the right track, but I don't think I have all the connections quite right.  There is a lesson here about commitment that continues despite great personal flaws and about God's patience with those who truly believe, despite their personal actions.  But when the commitment wavers, there is no more patience.  There is a lesson to stay committed, even when we fail miserably.  As David also did with Bathsheba and Uriah.  David's commitment did not waver, though his actions were horrible.  David lived the rest of his life.  Samson died young.  Hmm...doesn't quite work out.  Something to continue studying.

He is captured and his eyes gouged out and he is put to work in the prison.  They have a party, he is the entertainment.  His hair has grown back and be brings the house down on 3000 Philistine lords and ladies.  His prayer is for strength to avenge his two eyes.  He dies as the house comes down.
He had judged 20 years.
I have a hard time seeing this man as a good example.

Chapter 17
(There is a note in the MSB that says "...chapters 17-21 give miscellaneous appendixes to illustrate the pervasively depraved conditions in the era of the judges."  So that's why these terrible stories are here.  They aren't making the point that whatever they did was fine with God, but that left to themselves, with no leadership at all, things get really bad.  In several places, there is a phrase like "there was no king in Israel, so everyone did as they thought best.  Again, I think this is the Biblical example of where a Libertarian approach to government would always lead.  You cannot just leave people to themselves, because people always drift towards evil.)

There is a  young man named Micah.  He overhears his mother cursing whoever stole the 1100 pieces of silver from her.  Like you would.  Micah confesses that he stole it and gives it back to her.  She is so pleased that she gives 200 pieces of it to the silversmith to make a carved image and a metal image.  
This verse:
3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, "I dedicate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you." [Jdg 17:3 ESV]
This is how twisted things have become.  She says she is dedicating the restored money to the Lord - but she doesn't take it to Shiloh and give it to the high priest - which would be the correct way to do that.  Instead, she gives it to someone to make an idol, against the 10 Commandments, obviously, unarguably, wrong.  How could their thinking have moved this far away from Moses' teaching in less than 400 years?

Here is that verse I'm always thinking about, though it shows up in other places also.  This describes Israel under the judges:
6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. [Jdg 17:6 ESV]
Perhaps God wanted them to see this.  That with no leadership at all, they would drift away from Him.  But God also told them they didn't really want a king.  Was God after a theocracy, or about a people who would make the right decision all on their own when given the opportunity to do so, in the absence of any human coercion?  

The image is in Micah's house, and he appoints one of his sons - an Ephraimite, not a Levite - to be his personal priest.  
A Levite living in Bethlehem of Judah decides to seek his fortune.  He shows up at Micah's door.  Micah finds out this man is a "real Levite" and hires him as his priest, believing God will now prosper he and his family because of the Levite priest.  These verses:
12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest." [Jdg 17:12-13 ESV]
This "Levite" agrees to be a personal priest for Micah's family, with this idol as the central object of worship for the family.  This is a poorly trained, ungodly Levite, and to believe God will bless such a twisted version of His teachings just shows how far things have fallen

Chapter 18
This chapter also starts with that verse:
1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. [Jdg 18:1 ESV]

The tribe of Dan still hadn't conquered any land in Canaan for themselves.  This MSB note on 18:2:
"On the migration of the tribe of Dan to a new territory, see note on 1:34.  Dan was an example of tribal idolatry."  The note at 1:34 says Dan failed to secure the land allotted to them and eventually just migrated out of it to another place.  There was a story about them capturing a city here in Judges someplace.  That city was up in the north, which is where Dan ends up.  And now, they will turn to idolatry.

So the tribe sends out five men to find a place they can capture and call their own.  They are looking to migrate, rather than to secure the land they were originally allotted.  The five stay with Micah.  Recognizing that the Levite's accent is all wrong for Ephraim (he was after all from Judah), they inquire who he is.  He tells them his story, how this is a personal priest to an individual, leading in idolatrous worship of household gods, and a complete sham and shame and violation of God's word.  And upon learning what a travesty this whole situation is, they ask him to inquire of the Lord whether their journey will be successful.  As if he could!  The priest tells them it will, and they are much encouraged!

From Micah's they go to Laish.  They see that it is a rich place, unsuspecting and far from any aid.  They go home and get 600  buddies to come with weapons of war to take Laish.  The arrive at a location near Micah's house, and the original five relate how there is an ephod, household gods, and a priest at a nearby house, and imply that they might want to think about stealing it as long as they are so close.  So they decide now to capture the priest who told them on God's behalf that their mission would be a success.  Just twisted beyond believe.  

So the 600 steal the carved and metal images, the Ephod, and essentially, the priest.  They convince him to be a priest for the whole tribe of Dan rather than for just one man.  He goes with them.  So in this way, the tribe of Dan turns completely to idolatry, looking to an apostate Levite to lead them in worshiping idols built to celebrate the return of money stolen by a son from his own mother.  How could this possibly turn out badly for Dan?

When the owner finds out, he and the neighbors go after the thieves.  But they taunt him, and realizing he really can't do anything, Micah goes back home.  The story reads like they stole his livestock and slaves and so on in addition to the religious stuff.

The Danites continue to Laish, burn it down, rebuild it and move in.  This verse about Laish and its people:
27 But the people of Dan took what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, and they came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. [Jdg 18:27 ESV]
These people were sitting around, comfortable with what they had, living peaceful lives.  You just cannot do that.  There will always be some who want to take what you have.  We are to always be prepared.

So now Dan has a place to live.  They set up the gods of Micah, and establish Jonathan son of Gershom son of Moses as their priest.  Things remain this way until Israel is captured.  They worship these idols while the Tabernacle is still in Shiloh.  So they are 100% in violation of Mosaic law.

Chapter 19
A Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim takes a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.  (Very similar start to the last story.)  But she "plays the harlot" and goes back to Daddy.  After four months the Levite goes to try and talk her into coming back.  He stays three days at her father's house.  Her father likes the Levite.  He is called the Levite's Father-in-law.
The father-in-law urges him to stay a fourth day.  The Levite does.  The fifth day, the father-in-law detains the man until afternoon, and urges him to stay overnight.  But the man won't stay this time.  He leaves, though it is late, and gets to the area near Jerusalem.  The servant wants to spend the night in Jebus (Jerusalem), but the Levite won't because foreigners live there.
2021 - Are we to assume that this father is trying to keep his concubine daughter home as long as possible?  Are these delays about the daughter or about the budding relationship with the Levite?  Or perhaps some of both?  There does not seem to be any ulterior motive to the father's repeated attempts to get them to stay.  It seems he genuinely wants them there in his house.  Further, there doesn't seem to be any kind blame assigned to either the Levite or the father in what is to come.  The delay does not seem in any way to contribute to the horrible events to come...except maybe insofar as they arrive late and are forced to stay in a town where they ought not to have stayed.  And to that we can add the prejudice of the Levite about staying in Jebus/Jerusalem, which is occupied by foreigners rather than Israelites.  Gibeah is inhabited by Israelites, and so in the opinion of the Levite, a better place to stay, even though they arrive so very late.  So perhaps another lesson is that strangers are strangers, whether of your own people or of some other people.  The lesson might be that if you are going on a journey, get up and go, and don't put yourself into a "forced" situation.  I have never seen any good lessons here before, but maybe I am seeing a few now.   I had focused on the "three day delay" in departing, but maybe the key is starting a journey when the day is far gone.

They go on to Gibeah, arriving late.  They settle in the town square because they've gotten no dinner invitation.  
2021 - Because he arrived so late, no one in the town was around, the streets were deserted, the houses closed.  So instead of hospitality, they would have to sleep in the street.  Would have been better off to sleep out in the countryside somewhere as it turned out.  

An old man comes into town, turns out that they are both from Ephraim.  Gibeah is inhabited by Benjamites.  The old man invites the Levite and his party to stay at his house.  
2021 - This old man had some business he was attending to in Gibeah.  Perhaps a craftsman of some kind, or maybe to work the land of another.  In any case, though he didn't live in Gibeah, he had "rented" a house there for a while.  Note that he obviously knew the danger of staying out in the open in the town square.  He knew what kind of people lived around him.  As did Lot.  Many lessons here about that.  If you are not called as a missionary to such a place, it is unreasonable to assume you are safe in such a place.  I had not really thought before about the old man not really being an inhabitant of that town.  Unlike Lot, who was a prominent citizen of Sodom - though he knew what kind of people they were.

Homosexuals begin to pound on the door and want the man sent out to them.  The old man goes out and offers both the concubine and his virgin daughter to the mob.  But they won't be swayed.  So "the man", which I believe refers to the Levite, sends out his concubine, and sort of locks the door behind her.  She is raped all night, and let go in the morning.
2021 - Let's remember that this concubine had previously been unfaithful to the Levite.  There is no implication in these verses that the Levite considered this, or that her previous actions influenced his actions on this night at all.  As horrible and repulsive to us as this whole sequence might be, we have to remember that this was another culture and another time.  This is how things were done, these were the priorities of behavior.  The top priority was to protect your guest and save him - and it was about "him" - from any harm, no matter the loss to yourself.   Once you took someone in for the night, they were to be treated well, even to your own harm.  We ought not to judge in 2021 what was done in 1000 BC or so.  We have no context to do so.
Further, since I know the rest of this story, it occurs to me that the outrage throughout all Israel is going to be against the men of Gibeah rather than the Levite for waiting too late to start his journey, or against the old man, who in fact showed kindness and hospitality to strangers.  We see where a sequence of questionable decisions in this case led to catastrophe.  They shouldn't have.  They were small errors of judgement.  The villains in this story are the men of Gibeah, and the truly heinous steps taken to keep the Levite safe from these men were prompted by Gibeah's actions.  No blame is placed on the old man or the Levite, because that would be to focus on the lesser wrong.  The true horror here is that a whole town is infested with men who would behave in this way at all, and that such a town is allowed to persist.  All Israel is to blame for this.  Something is horribly wrong in Israel, and that is in fact what the whole book of Judges is about.  When left to themselves, Israel turns away from God and His commandments.  And with nothing to correct them, you get Judges 19-21.  Men will sink lower than low unless some kind of restraint is in place.  I can think of no better proof text for the depravity of man than this story right here.

The next morning, when the man arises to leave, there's his concubine, with her hands on the doorstep.  He tells her to get up, but she can't, so he puts her on a donkey and they leave.  (Very kind-hearted guy, this Levite).  
When they get home, he takes a knife, and cuts the concubine up into twelve pieces and sends the pieces throughout Israel, creating quite a stir.  (Surely with no king, with no rule of law, it becomes difficult to distinguish the good from the bad.  Men sink to their lowest in the absence of authority over them, and the absence of any laws, or even any common cultural standards.)

2021 - I believe the concubine was dead on the doorstep.  Her lack of response means that she was dead.  He cuts her into pieces when he gets home.  He didn't do that while she was alive.  Verse 20:4 also bears this out.  I had this part wrong also.  I had assumed she died on the way.  This chapter was certainly a low point for Israel, as shown by this verse:
30 And all who saw it said, "Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak." [Jdg 19:30 ESV]
Without restraint, evil will prevail.
2021 - Oh my!  All this stuff about restraint, and since today is the 29th, I read Proverbs 29 after these chapters in Judges.  And here is what I found:
18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. [Pro 29:18 ESV]
I was thinking of this verse, but to have it show up in my Proverbs reading really enforces the thought.

2023 - It is hard to get any lessons from this.  Indeed, I am not sure we're supposed to get any.  It is very similar to the story about the angels' arrival in Sodom being taken in by Lot.  The men who surround this house in Gibeah would have known all about that story, and yet they repeat it?  It is almost like we get the same story, but with a different ending.  This time, the concubine does go out, and they abuse her to death.  Is the lesson that she should never have left this Levite in the first place?  I have a footnote that says she was angry at him rather than than she was unfaithful to him.  And he goes to retrieve here and hits it off with her Dad.  Would these horrible things have happened if the Levite had left the day he said he would?  Or is it that, if you are planning to depart, don't sit around eating and drinking all day then leave in the late afternoon?  All journeys ought to start early in the day?  No...don't think that was the reason for the way they acted in Gibeah.  And he could have stopped at Jebus, if he hadn't been so arrogant about staying with foreigners.  Maybe that's the lesson?  Don't be so arrogant, but do what is best for those in your charge?  I don't like that one either.  It could be that nothing about this makes any sense because that's what happens when there is no central authority - indeed, not even local authority - to impose at least some kind of legal restraint on people.  This Levite is not a very good man.  I don't believe the customs of Sodom were the rule in Israel in those days.  The Levite and the girls father are both cowards.  Where was the law to keep the homosexuals at bay?  They had no fear at all.  Things in Israel were just rock bottom.  And in such times, people plumb the absolute depths of human behavior because they have nothing at all to "normalize" their thinking.  When each man makes his own rules, you can get some ridiculous rules!

Chapter 20
In response to all the body parts, there is a great gathering of all Israel at Mizpah.  The gathering includes 400,000 soldiers.  The people of Benjamin, in Gibeah, hear of the gathering.  The Levite tells his story - somewhat embellished to make himself look better.  And he asks the assembly what should be done.
10% of the assembled are to go to Gibeah and take care of the problem.  They go to all the cities of Benjamin and ask that the men who committed the crime be turned over to them so they "rid Israel" of this evil.  Benjamin protects the homosexuals.  They won't turn them over.  Instead, they send soldiers to Gibeah to protect it.  So the 400,000 inquire of God what they should do.
2021 - 13 Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel." But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. [Jdg 20:13 ESV]
So there is an attempt at justice here.  All Israel doesn't start off threatening the whole tribe of Benjamin.  They ask only that the perpetrators of this horror be turned over so that justice can be done.  But a whole "state" decides instead to back the criminals.  They had to know these were criminals.  They knew a great wrong had been committed, yet they support them because they are "like them".  Oh my.  Here is an unexpected lesson.  Tribe doesn't matter.  Country doesn't matter.  Color doesn't matter.  Justice, as spelled out by God's word, is what matters.  Purging evil from among us is what matters.  We should not prejudice judgement according to any of these criteria.

God says Judah should attack first.  They do, and the Benjamites win the battle.  22,000 of Judah are killed.  The next day, 18,000 more are killed, though they had sought God's counsel and God told them to attack Gibeah again.  Why are so many of the avengers dying?  2021 - Because truly all Israel was in a sorry state.  They had to know Gibeah existed, and know what kind of place it was.  Was that why the old man was there in the first place?  Was he seeking homosexual asylum in the city of Gibeah?  Did all Benjamin come out to fight because so many had relatives living in Gibeah, the homosexual haven?  Oh my...It fits.  It really fits.  If the rest of Israel was in the right, why would God let 40,000 die?  That's 10% of those assembled.
They go back to the Tabernacle, where the ark is kept, and where Phinehas, grandson of Aaron himself, is still high priest, and inquire yet again.  (Things have gotten this confused in only two generations from Aaron and Moses.  God says to go up one more time, for they will win this time.
This time, Israel employs some strategy and puts men in ambush positions, and as the battle starts, they run away and the Benjamites chase them.  Israel wins, and kills 25,100 Benjamites.  Still...a lot less than the 40,000 Israel lost.  All dead fighting against themselves.  
Israel continues to kill Benjamites wherever they find them, and to burn their cities for quite some time after this.
So the murder of the concubine ultimately results in the deaths of 65,000 soldiers.  More of the avengers die than those of the tribe that committed the crime, and we have no clear indication that the actual perpetrators are brought to justice at all.  We have a tribe protecting it's members against a whole nation, despite the heinous act that has been committed.  They don't try to prosecute the crime themselves, they just protect.  
Everything has gotten very depraved and confused and we see that when man's ways prevail - when men do as seems best to themselves - justice is a casualty.

Chapter 21
The tribe of Benjamin has been essentially wiped out.  They've killed man, woman and child throughout Israel - except for the 600 men hiding at the rock of Rimmon.
At the assembly, all the people - all non-Benjamites - had promised that their daughters would never be wives to Benjamites.  So now, there were a few Benjamite males left, but no wives for them to marry, so the tribe of Benjamin would die out.  
But they had also sworn that anyone who didn't show up for the assembly at all would be killed.  Israel has suddenly grown very zealous about promises and about keeping them, and about taking action if anyone pooh poohs them.  A town called Jabesh-Gilead had sent no one.  So they send 12,000 soldiers there and kill all the men, married women, and children.  But they keep alive 400 virgins.  Presumably after killing their families in front of them.  

Israel tells the 600 Benjamite men still hiding at Rimmon that they won't kill them, and they send them the 400 virgins.  Still not enough wives.  So they decide to have the remaining single Benjamite males lie in wait for the daughters of Shiloh to come out and dance in their annual celebration, and kidnap them, and take them home as wives.  Then when their relatives come to complain, the rest of Israel will tell them hey, at least you didn't break your oath not to give your daughters to Benjamin, they just stole them.  Your oath is secure.  Crazy stuff!
And with this, the book of Judges ends.

2021 - It occurs to me that this "plan" by the rest of Israel sets the stage for what will come by the time of Christ, when the Pharisees and Scribes have found ways to circumvent lots of other promises without actually directly breaking the law.  Skirting the truth is a big issue with Israel.  Reminds me of Peterson's rule - Tell the truth, or at least don't lie.  So many things Peterson says come right back to the Bible.

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2024 - Not my favorite Bible story, these last three chapters.  But a good example of what happens when there is no standard of moral law being observed.  Instead, "each man" makes his own law - which is bad enough and in this case led to the man's concubine being thrown out to be raped so he could save himself - but when they all get together and decide as a group - so that no one person is accountable for what they all do - it is far far worse.  Why didn't they get mad at that man for treating his concubine this way?  Why was no one angry at him?  And did he do it because she'd been unfaithful to him in the first place?  Was this his revenge for her running around on him?  Is that why he was so callous about things when he went out there the next morning and she lay there dead - because he thought she'd gotten what she deserved?  But none of it would have happened if this guy had gotten up early and gone on his way, but he was so wishy washy that he could be talked into a meal over and over again.  And Jebus...that was still inhabited by "foreigners" because Israel had not wiped the place out under Joshua and right after, as they should have.  This is one of those stories where there is no hero.  And perhaps that is the point.  When left to himself, man ends up with a culture and a society that is perverse in its every decision.  Without that overarching moral standard of the Bible, man can justify any action, regret it, and then make it worse by trying to fix it. 

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2025 - Yes.  Those last few sentences in 2024 are correct.  Just look at the stupidity in this country as we try to "undo" our confusion about gender.  Just look at what caused the confusion in the first place - trying to apply a man-made morality to situations the Bible has already clearly defined.  And the more we try to fix our mistake, the more mistakes we make.