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Judges of Israel
[Bible]The judges were leaders whom God raised up after the death of Joshua and before Saul became king to deliver Israel from foreign enemies and to govern the people. They appear chiefly in the Book of Judges.
Judges
[Bible]Judges is the seventh book of the Old Testament, a twenty-one-chapter historical book recounting the stories of the "judges" who led Israel from the death of Joshua until the establishment of the monarchy.
Judges 3
[Bible]Judges 3 introduces the nations the LORD left to test Israel, then recounts the stories of Othniel, the first judge; Ehud, who killed King Eglon of Moab; and Shamgar, who struck down the Philistines.
Judges 4
[Bible]Judges 4 recounts how, under the oppression of the Canaanite king Jabin and his army commander Sisera, the prophetess and judge Deborah commissions Barak to deliver Israel, and how Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, kills Sisera.
Judges 8
[Bible]Judges 8 recounts how Gideon relentlessly pursues and captures Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian. It goes on to tell how, after he declines the kingship, the golden ephod he makes becomes a snare, and how Israel returns to the worship of Baal after his death.
Judges 11
[Bible]Judges 11 tells how Jephthah the Gileadite, who had been driven from his home, is made leader of Gilead, defeats the Ammonites, and loses his only daughter because of a vow he made before the victory.
Judges 13
[Bible]Judges 13 recounts how, during forty years of Philistine oppression, the angel of the LORD appeared to the wife of Manoah of the tribe of Dan to announce the birth of a Nazirite son, and how Samson was born.
Judges 17
[Bible]Judges 17 tells how Micah, a man living in the hill country of Ephraim, had an idol made from his mother's silver, set up a shrine in his house, and installed a wandering young Levite as his household priest.
Judges 2
[Bible]Judges 2 records the Angel of the LORD rebuking Israel's disobedience at Bochim and describes the apostasy of the generation that arose after Joshua's death. It then summarizes the recurring pattern of the period of the judges: sin, oppression, crying out, and deliverance through judges.
Judges 1
[Bible]Judges 1 records, tribe by tribe, Israel's battles to take possession of the land of Canaan after the death of Joshua. The tribe of Judah gained a number of places, while several tribes failed to drive out the Canaanites completely.
Judges 6
[Bible]Judges 6 tells how, while Israel lay under Midianite oppression, the angel of the LORD appeared and called Gideon as a deliverer, and how Gideon tore down his father's altar of Baal and twice sought a sign with a fleece.
Judges 7
[Bible]Judges 7 recounts how Gideon, following God's instructions, reduces his army to three hundred men and defeats the vast Midianite host with trumpets, pitchers, and torches.
Judges 5
[Bible]Judges 5 is a poem celebrating the victory of Deborah and Barak over Sisera, commander of the Canaanite army. It contrasts the tribes that joined the battle with those that stayed away, praises Jael, and closes by noting that the land had rest for forty years.
Judges 10
[Bible]Judges 10 gives brief accounts of the judges Tola and Jair, then describes how Israel again served idols, was oppressed by the Philistines and the Ammonites, and repented. The chapter provides the background for the story of Jephthah.
Judges 9
[Bible]Judges 9 recounts how Abimelech, son of Gideon, killed his seventy brothers and became king at Shechem, then fell into conflict with Shechem after three years and died at Thebez.
Judges 12
[Bible]Judges 12 records the conflict between Jephthah and the Ephraimites, the episode in which Ephraimites were identified by their pronunciation of "Shibboleth," the death of Jephthah, and the accounts of the judges who succeeded him: Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon.
Judges 14
[Bible]Judges 14 recounts how Samson, while seeking to marry a Philistine woman, tears apart a lion with his bare hands, poses a riddle at his wedding feast, loses the wager after his wife reveals the answer, and then strikes down thirty men of Ashkelon.
Judges 15
[Bible]Judges 15 recounts how Samson, whose wife has been given to another man, takes revenge on the Philistines; is bound by the men of Judah and handed over to the enemy; kills a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey; and, when he is thirsty, cries out to the LORD and receives a spring of water.
Judges 16
[Bible]Judges 16 recounts how Samson carried off the gates of Gaza, revealed the secret of his strength to Delilah and was captured by the Philistines, and finally brought down the temple of Dagon, dying in its collapse.
Judges 18
[Bible]Judges 18 tells how the tribe of Dan, still seeking territory, seized the idols and the Levite priest from Micah's house, conquered the northern city of Laish, renamed it Dan, and set up the graven image there.