Bible

Here in the Bible room today we pick up where we left off reading about the era of the Judges. In this session we finish the book with Part 2, chapters 10 through 21.

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Judges – Part 2

Chapter 10. Distress

The trouble-filled three years of Abimelech were followed by six decades of alternating peace, war, and distress:

• Tola leads Israel for twenty-three uneventful years, dies;
• Jair, of Gilead, a wealthy man, judges for twenty-two years;
• His death is followed by eighteen years of pagan worship,
• Distress, crushing oppression under the Philistines;
• The Lord punishes Israel for their sins, and then
• The Lord hears their prayers of repentance.

Chapter 11. Outcast

The Lord’s answer to Israel’s prayers: an outcast brother:

• Jephthah is an illegitimate son; his brothers drive him out; 
• Later, Israel comes under attack at Gilead by Ammonites;
• A good fighter, Jephthah is begged to come back and help;
• He accepts, the elders agree to make him leader of Israel;
• He destroys twenty towns, clearing the area of Ammonites.

Chapter 12. Trouble

Jephthah is challenged by Ephraimites:

• He had asked Ephraim to help against the Ammonites;
• They declined to help, now they try to depose Jephthah;
• The feud results in 42,000 dead Ephraimites;
• Jephthah is in charge for six years, then buried in Gilead;
• Ibzan, of Bethlehem, judges for the next seven years;
• Elon, a Zebulunite, judges for ten years;
• Abdon, Pirathon, judges for eight years.

Chapter 13. Visitations

An angelic visitor announces the birth of Israel’s next leader:

• Disobedience in Israel brings forty years of Philistine pain;
• A barren woman has a visitation by an angel of the Lord;
• She is told she will have a son, he must be raised a Nazirite;
• He is to be set apart to God as Israel’s deliverer;
• Manoah, the woman’s husband, asks for another visitation;
• The angel of the Lord gives them specific instructions:
• Samson is born, blessed by the Lord as he grows.

Chapter 14. Confrontation

Samson spends his life in confrontation with Philistines:

• The Lord has a plan for Samson to deliver Israel;
• He rebels from his family, wants to marry a Philistine;
• On his way to see a woman, he kills a lion with bare hands;
• Later, he takes honey from the lion’s carcass;
• A seven-day celebration marks their wedding day;
• He poses a riddle to thirty Philistine friends of his wife:
• If they don’t solve the riddle, they give him their clothes;
• If they figure it out, he gives them each a set of clothes;
• She begs, he tells her the answer, she tells her friends;
• They answer the riddle, Samson pays his debt: here’s how-
• He kills thirty Philistines, gives their clothes to her friends;
• Angry at his wife, Samson takes her back to her father.

Chapter 15. Revenge

Samson gets revenge for the murder of his wife and her father:

• He tries to visit his wife, her father denies him access, says he gave her to his friend, offers him her younger sister;
• Angry, Samson catches 300 foxes, ties them up in pairs;
• Sets them on fire in the fields and vineyards;
• Burns up shocks, standing grain, grapevines, olive trees;
• The Philistines burn Samson’s wife and his father-in-law;
• Samson takes revenge: kills many Philistines;
• On the run, he goes into Judah to hide in a cave;
• The Philistines come to take Samson prisoner;
• 3000 men of Judah ask Samson to surrender;
• They promise not to kill Samson, bind him, turn him over;
• As the Philistines approach, Samson’s bindings fall off;
• Using the jawbone of a donkey, he kills 1000 Philistines;
• Samson leads Israel for twenty years in those days.

Chapter 16. Final

Samson falls for a Philistine woman:

• Samson visits Delilah often;
• Philistine leaders offer her a large sum of money to find out from Samson the secret to his great strength;
• Three times he tells her what will hold him, nothing works;
• Finally, her nagging gets to him, he tells her about being a Nazirite, his strength is in his long hair;
• During a nap, they shave his head, his strength wanes;
• They bind him, punch out his eyes, tie him to a grist mill;
• While in prison his hair grows back, his strength renews;
• At a pagan temple celebration, the large crowd mocks him;
• He gropes for the main support pillars, pushes them down;
• Thousands of Philistines perish in Samson’s final act;
• He kills more in his death than when he lived.

Chapter 17. Lawless

There was a time when Israel had no leader: (Author’s note: Probably the years between Joshua and Othniel, the first Judge.)

• “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” v. 6 (NKJV)
• A man, Micah, sets up idols and a priest in his own house;
• He hopes the Lord will be good to him.

Chapter 18. Unsettled

Joshua had left orders that all unsettled clans would have to fight for possession of their inheritance:

• The Danites have yet to settle their appointed land, send five spies to explore for a possible settlement location;
• They come near to the house of Micah, discover the idols, the Levite priest they recognize;
• The priest gives them approval to find their place;
• The land and people ahead at Laish appear easy to take;
• Six hundred armed Danite men move to take the area;
• On their way they take the idols, and the priest from Micah;
• They destroy the houses of Laish, rebuild the area, set up idols.

Chapter 19. Corruption

In those days there was no leader in Israel. One man’s experience is an example of rampant corruption:

• A Levite takes a concubine who goes back home to Judah;
• After four months he gets her and heads back to his home;
• At dusk they stop for the night at Gibeah in Benjamin;
• A local man invites them into his house for the night;
• Certain men of Gibeah demand the owner to send the new male visitor out for sex with them;
• Instead he sends out the concubine: they rape, kill her;
• Next morning the Levite takes her body to his home;
• At home, he cuts her body into twelve pieces, sends them out to all the tribes of Israel;
• The people wonder what they should do.

Chapter 20. Retribution

God’s people assemble as one to determine what they should do:

• 400,000 armed Israelites from Dan to Beersheba, except the Benjamites, come together at Mizpah to decide what to do;
• The vote is to exact retribution upon the men of Gibeah;
• The Israelites send troops to find the wicked men of Gibeah;
• The Benjamites defy the Israelites, protect the guilty men;
• 25,700 soldiers from Benjamin go against 400,000 Israelite brothers in open civil war;
• Several days of fighting, 25,100 Benjamites perish, 600 soldiers escape, find a hiding place in the desert;
• All the towns and people of Benjamin are burned.

Chapter 21. Problem

The Benjamite destruction brings a problem in Israel: 

• Angry, the Israelites assemble at Mizpah, and pledge to never let their daughters marry a Benjamite, except Gilead abstains;
• Problem: the 600 Benjamite soldiers who fled the conflict into hiding, must have wives to keep the tribe in existence;
• Earlier, at the Mizpah assembly, only Gilead did not show up;
• For that, they are punished: Gilead is totally destroyed, only 400 virgin women are spared;
• These women will be wives for 400 of the remaining Benjamites, leaving 200 men without wives;
• That problem is solved by allowing those men to go kidnap 200 virgin women from Shiloh, then rebuild the cities of Benjamin.
• “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” v.25(NKJV)

END OF PART 2 OF THE BOOK OF JUDGES