Search the encyclopedia
955 articles found for “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 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.
Period of the Judges
[Bible]The period of the Judges is the era from the death of Joshua until Saul became king, when Israel lived as a confederation of tribes without a king. God repeatedly delivered the people through judges whom He raised up. The period is recorded chiefly in the Book of Judges.
Judges 21:25
[Bible Verses]The final verse of the Book of Judges, which sums up the disorder of the period of the judges by stating that there was no king and that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. It is frequently cited in discussions of the monarchy, the rule of God, and moral relativism.
Minor Judges
[Bible]The Minor Judges are the judges in the book of Judges whose records consist of little more than a name and a brief notice. The term usually refers to six figures: Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. It does not itself appear in the biblical text.
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 21
[Bible]Judges 21, the final chapter of the Book of Judges, records how Israel kept the tribe of Benjamin from being cut off by striking Jabesh-gilead and bringing back four hundred virgins, and then by allowing the Benjamites to seize women during the feast at Shiloh.
Joash (Father of Gideon)
[People]Joash was a member of the Abiezrite clan of the tribe of Manasseh who appears in the Book of Judges as the father of the judge Gideon. He kept an altar of Baal at Ophrah, yet when Gideon tore that altar down, he protected his son from the men of the town.
Ibzan
[People]Ibzan was a judge of Israel in the book of Judges who succeeded Jephthah, judged Israel for seven years, and was buried in Bethlehem. He is recorded as having had thirty sons and thirty daughters.
Shamgar
[People]Shamgar is a figure from the period of the judges recorded in the Book of Judges. Coming after Ehud, he is said to have delivered Israel by killing six hundred Philistines with an ox goad.
Manoah
[People]Manoah is a man of the tribe of Dan in the Old Testament Book of Judges and the father of the judge Samson. He and his wife received from the angel of the Lord the announcement of their son's birth.
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 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.
Othniel
[People]Othniel is the first judge in the Old Testament Book of Judges. The son of Kenaz and a member of Caleb's family, he delivered Israel from Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia.
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 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.
Abinoam
[People]Abinoam is a figure in the Book of Judges, the father of Barak, the Israelite military leader who, together with Deborah, defeated the Canaanite army.
Deborah
[People]Deborah was a prophetess and judge in the Old Testament Book of Judges, known for defeating the army of Jabin, king of Canaan, together with Barak, and for the Song of Deborah, which commemorates the victory.
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 God 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.