History:
Judges

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.  For many people, this is the quintessential verse in the book of Judges.  The story of Judges is an episodic one.  God's people stray from him.  They get themselves into trouble.  God raises up a judge or leader, who delivers the people from their immediate danger.  The people turn temporarily back to God.  Repeat the process.

Taken symbolically, we can see this book as an allegory for our lives.  To one degree or another, we all stray from God, getting ourselves into difficulty.  Time and again, God bails us out of that trouble.  In our gratitude, we turn back to God, but, in the end, we always stray.  Is there hope?  There really isn't much hope in this book.  But the hope that lies in Christ changes the way that the Christian reads Judges.

In this day, we have a king.  Those who submit to him will have life and have it more abundantly.

Left: "From Death of Samson," by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1605.

 

The Bare Facts

Who:  Unlike the books going before it, there is no author suggested, explicitly or implicitly for Judges by the book itself or by any other passage of scripture.  So who wrote the book?  Ultimately we cannot say.  The Talmud ascribes the book to the Prophet Samuel.  While this may or may not be correct, we can be reasonably certain that it was written by a contemporary of Samuel.Where:  All that can be said with any confidence is that Judges was almost certainly written somewhere in the lands occupied by the Twelve Tribes.When:  Since the Jebusites are mentioned as still occupying Jerusalem, we can place the book before David's 1004 B.C. conquest of Jerusalem.  The references to a day in which Israel had no king suggest that in the day of the writer Israel did have a king.  Therefore, we can reasonably place the date of Judges' writing during the reign of Saul, roughly 1020-1000 B.C.

What:  Judges contrasts powerfully with Joshua.  Where Joshua recounted a series of triumphs interrupted by comparatively minor setbacks.  Judges contains a series of debacles punctuated by a series of limited victories.  Even those victories seem unsettled and unsatisfactory.  Judges contains the negative argument to prove the same thesis as Joshua:  Faithfulness to God is the only tenable course for the people of Israel.

Memorable Passages
5:1-31	The Song of Deborah
17:26-30	Samson brings down the house.
21:25	"In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit."

Overviews and Outlines

An Introduction to the Book of Judges

An outlined overview by David Malick.

An Argument of the Book of Judges

One of David Malick's rhetorical outlines.

Bible Basics

A very brief list of facts, but it includes a wav file pronouncing the book's title.

Judges

An overview by Arend Remmers.

Easton Bible Dictionary: Judges

The article from M.G. Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.

Catholic Encyclopedia: Judges

The appropriate entry from the public domain edition of this venerable reference work.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Judges

A brief article from the 2001 edition of this reference work.

Bible Explained

This is a commentary by an energetic fellow named Ted Wade.  He provides brief notes on each chapter and most verses for the entire Bible.

Luther Productions

A very brief overview including key verses.

The Blue Letter Bible

An excellent source for text, cross-references, concordance, language helps, commentaries, and more.

JPS Bible

The JPS 1917 Bible text and another Jewish version.  There are links that supposedly go to two Hebrew and one Aramaic text but they don't seem to work.

Bible Studies: Whole Book

Judges: Book of Faithlessness and Deliverance

A lengthy, verse-level commentary and set of notes by David Griffiths, a native of Wales who has ministered for many years in the United States through the Assemblies of God.

The Role of Women in the Book of Judges

A considerable study by Hampton Keathley, IV.

Israel's Dark Age

A lesson from Bob Deffinbaugh's series, From Creation to the Cross.

Love the Lord Bible Studies: Judges

A 23-lesson study with questions from an Arkansas-based ministry.  They seem orthodox enough, although the statement of faith makes me wonder if they're not into prosperity gospel teachings.

Talks for Growing Christians

A nifty study, which includes a brief sermon, question, and answers.  A project from Talks for Growing Christians.

Geneva Notes

In 1599, English Puritans, working in Geneva, published the first study Bible.  These are the notes from that edition.

Coffman's Commentary

A verse-by-verse commentary by Dr. James Burton Coffman, a leading Church of Christ scholar.

Matthew Henry's Commentary

The chapter-by-chapter 1712 commentary by the great English Puritan writer..

John Wesley Notes

Over his career, the founder of Methodism maintained notes on the entire Bible.

JFB Commentary

The comments of Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown from Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871).

Clarke's Commentary

The first chapter for this book from Adam Clarke's nineteenth-century commentary.

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The commentary of the 17th century Baptist theologian and preacher.

Class Notes on Sacred History

An 1893 commentary by J.W. McGarvey.

Scofield Reference Notes

The notes from the 1917 edition of the great study Bible.  From a dispensationalist viewpoint.

Old Testament Life and Literature

Gerald Larue's 1968 overview of the Old Testament is, oddly enough, hosted at an atheist website.  Larue's outlook is decidedly modernist and skeptical.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

A combination brief commentary and thorough cross-reference.  Developed by R.A. Torrey.

Comments on Judges

A lengthy overview by L.M. Grant.

Meditations on the Book of Judges

A long, somewhat rambling commentary by Dr. H.L. Rossier.  Translated from French.

The Days of the Judges: Othniel

The Days of the Judges: Ehud and Shamgar

The Days of the Judges: Deborah

The Days of the Judges: Gideon

A four-part commentary by Frank Wallace.

David Guzik's Commentaries on the Bible

David Guzik, a former senior pastor at Clavary Chapel Simi Valley in California, provides a verse-by-verse commentary. Currently Guzik directs the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Siegen, Germany.

The Jerome Bible Commentary

A commentary by a Catholic doctor, Jerome Dominguez, M.D.  Is English isn't perfect, but you have to admire his energy.  Although Catholic in orientation, this source has some good material for study.

Exploring the Word of God:

A 12-part study from the Worldwide Church of God, a denomination with a checkered past but an exciting present.

Bible Studies: Part of Book

Will the Next Generation Know (2:6-14)

A sermon by John Piper.

By the Hand of a Woman: The Metaphor of the Woman Warrior (ch. 4)

An article from Semeia by Gale A. Yee.  When asked for an ID and password, type "any" in each space.

The Gideon Venture (7:1-22)

A 2000 sermon, subtitled "Education for Exultation: Debt-Free" by John Piper.

Morning and Evening (7:20)

One of C.H. Spurgeon's devotions.

Jephthah's Daughter: An Invitation to Non-lectionary Preaching (Judges 11:30-40)

A 1993 article by Walter Sundberg, appearing in Word and World.

Samson and Delilah (ch. 13-16)

A brief study by J.S. Blackburn.

Morning and Evening (15:18)

One of C.H. Spurgeon's devotions.

Morning and Evening (16:6)

One of C.H. Spurgeon's devotions.

Micah's Homemade Religion (17:1-6)

A sermon by Roger Griffith of Joywell Assembly of God.

Confused Language as a Deliberate Literary Device (18:14-20)

An article from Journal of Hebrew Scriptures by Gary A. Rendsburg.

Hero and Heroine Narratives in the Old Testament

A character study by Larry R. Helyer from the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.  Part of the article covers Deborah and Barak.

 

Sermons

Judges: The Pattern of Defeat

The appropriate sermon from Ray C. Stedman's Adventuring through the Bible series.

C.H. Spurgeon

A listing of sermons, some of which are available online, by the great British Baptist.

Sermon Outlines

Links to sermon outlines from SermonLinks.

Duncan Ross

A 29-sermon series by the pastor of Mount of Olives Baptist Church.

Mt. View PCA

A 10-sermon series.

Studies in Bible Doctrine

Seventeen sermons from a Reformed perspective.

David Hatcher

A 25-sermon series from Eastside Evangelical Fellowship.  Reformed.

Ray Pritchard: Samson, A Man for Our Times

A 5-sermon series by the pastor of Calvary Memorial Church, an Independent church with Baptist doctrines and Congregationalist church structure.

Tim Jenkins

A 12-sermon series by the Dean of the Chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge.  Anglican.  You may need to scroll down a bit to find these.

 

Books and Bibliographies

The First Deborah

An article from Women in Judaism by Zahava Lambert.

Unspeakable Crimes: The Abuse of Women in the Book of Judges

An article from the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.  Written by Daniel I. Block.

A Banned Book: Judges

An article by Chuck Missler.

A Selected Bibliography for the Book of Judges

A listing of sources by David Malick.  No annotations on this one.

Two-Age Bibliography

A list of recommended sources, mostly scholarly in nature, provided by a website devoted to the "Redemptive Historical" school of theology.

Oxford Bibliography

A brief list of sources from the Theology School at Oxford University.