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Surprise!!! Judges starts out with the Israelites at war with the Canaanites!
We get a new leading man (pun intended) in Judah.
Fair warning. My comments are going to be fairly snarky.
Adonibezek tries to run but is caught and has his thumbs and big toes cut off. More twisted violence from God's chosen people.
1:12 is a retelling of Caleb giving his daughter away as a prize for killing . The original telling is in Joshua 15.
More instances of God not being able to fulfill his covenant with the Israelites. Apparently, some people are more powerful then God. Or maybe he was on vacation when the Israelites went to war.
I'm going to argue semantics here but are they saying COULDN'T drive out or DIDN'T drive out.
Why did they allow these people to stay and live?
Chapter 2 acknowledges that God doesn't like the peaceful cohabitation.
Then things take a turn for the worse.
The next generation (I'm unclear on passage of time) turns away from God, which, of course, pisses him off greatly. He somehow sells them to the enemy (would love to know how that process went down) but then, "raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them."
Who is this Judge? The Holy Spirit? It says that the judge dies. So confused
Chapter 3 is a repeat of chapter 2. Can the editing of this book be any worse?
My favorite part about these chapters is that there is so much vagary (40 years pass, Israelites screw up again, 18 years pass) and then we get an ULTRA detailed account of an assassination by a zealot!!!
Ehud, the assassin then leads a raid into Moab that kills thousands of hikers.
Sometimes reading the OT gives me a headache.
I notice that the Lord isn't very good at keeping promises, either. When he can't chase out the indigenous, he blames it on the Israelites for being naughty in his sight.
ReplyDeleteAll the killing is depressing. For how many years have people been killing because they have a god-given right to some one else's land?
Who is this Judge? The Holy Spirit? It says that the judge dies. So confused
ReplyDeleteI'm of the opinion (no clue if anyone else arrived at this conclusion) that the "judges" are a complete literary construct. They did not exist outside of this text. It's simply a label applied to the heroes of various stories. The only similarity is that most "deliver" Israelite from the hands of evil folk, but the meat of each story and role of the "Judge" varies wildly.
The editorializing regarding the Judges is pure Deuteronomistic propaganda. The whole cycle of forgetting the covenant, whoring after other gods, worshipping the Baalim and Ashtaroth... it's also a literary construct. The things the Israelites are accused of: that was actually the status quo. Most Israelites worshipped Baal and Asherah and kept household gods, worshipped at high places, etc. That was standard Israelite religion- NOT a "Caanite" perversion.
If you ignore the stereotyped editorializing, the inner meat of Judges is a wonderful look at pre-monarchal Canaan. The stories are dark and gruesome, not the didactic slaughter of Joshua.
Not that it's really that accurate. In ch. 3, Othniel defeats the king of Mesopotamia! Hahahaha! (This is so ridiculous my bible says "Well, maybe this doesn't really mean Mesopotamia...")
Actually Aram Naharaim whose location is debated but seems to be in the region of modern Syria. Again unlikely but one could imagine a raid/tentative invasion from that area being turned back. The name of the king is Cush-rishathaim and the Bible I have (Jewish Study Bible) suggests it could be translated Dark-double-wickedness.
ReplyDeleteAs we start Judges I recommend reading it with a good commentary. Judges-Ruth by Daniel Block is a very good resource for this. The Judge is actually 12 different judges that God raised up and they had the same role each time. From the Reformation Study Bible:
ReplyDeleteThe Israelites do evil in the eyes of the Lord, turning to serve other gods. God becomes angry and delivers them up to oppressors. They cry out for help, and God raises up a judge to deliver them. The judge brings peace, but the nation returns to sin as soon as the judge dies...The cycles of the 12 judges show that they could not lead people into faithfulness to the covenant.
Israel was falling away from the covenant and worshiping false gods as they forgot the Lord's acts of salvation in the past (2:10; 6:13). As in Deuteronomy, the sin of seeking other gods is the continuing pattern of covenant disobedience (Judg. 2:11, 12; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1) and "everyone did what was right in his own eyes."
I think the story about the iron chariots is quite interesting. Most versions of the bible say "could not" drive them out. If Yahweh is intimidated by iron chariots I've gotta wonder how he feels about thermonuclear weapons! Maybe that's why he doesn't make personal appearances like he used too?
ReplyDelete@Erp: Dark Double Wickedness would be a great name for an ice cream flavor!!
@Abbie: Your blog (Better than Esdras for anyone new) is a great help in sifting through this! Thanks! I agree with Bruce, these first few chapters are very
confusing.
Actually Aram Naharaim whose location is debated but seems to be in the region of modern Syria.
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to look into this, because certain texts (Gen. 11) say Abraham is from Ur (in Mesopotamia). According to Friedman, the J tradition states Abraham is from "Haran", but I honestly don't know where he gets that from. In Genesis 24, Abraham sends his servant to his "birthplace", and the servant goes to the city of Nahor, in Aram Naharaim.
(Haran and Nahor are both brothers of Abra(ha)m, and also places, apparently.)
If Aram Naharaim is a place in Syria, then there is a major conflict between Gen. 11 and 24.
I'm assuming Aram Naharaim was identified as Mesopotamia to resolve the conflict. Naharaim does mean "rivers".
I think the story about the iron chariots is quite interesting. Most versions of the bible say "could not" drive them out
IIRC this is a reference to the Philistines, who were more technically advanced than the Israelites, and they controlled the eastern sea-plain. This has nothing to do with God's will, and everything about chariots working better on flat ground than in the hill-country.
@Abbie: Your blog (Better than Esdras for anyone new) is a great help in sifting through this!
Thanks! Tread carefully though. A few days ago I removed some rather egregiously wrong material from the final post on Joshua. I've learned a lot in the past six months.
The Deuteronomic references to the Israelite's "false worship" is rather uneven. First there is this:
ReplyDeleteJdg 2:11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim
That's plural of Baal, the Canaanite god. To this, add:
Jdg 2:13 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth (עַשְׁתָּרֹות).
Baal is now singular. Ashtaroth is plural(?) and appears from context to be a god, but it's only other use in the Bible is as a transjordan city.
In Ugarit Canaanite mythology, El's consort is Athirat (AKA Asherah). Other similarly named gods include Athtart and Athtar. I don't know enough about Ugaritic/Hebrew grammar to guess if there is any connection to "Ashtaroth", but it seems worth noting.
The next example:
Jdg 3:7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves (Asherat)
Baalim is plural again, and Asherat אֲשֵׁרֹות (KJV's translation as "groves" is unhelpful) is the plural of Asherah.
It seems a bit weird to refer to Baal and Asherah in the plural. Perhaps this is not referring to the gods themselves, but to symbols of them? There is much debate over whether the term Asherah refers to the goddess or to the tree/pole symbol of her.
It all seems a bit like the author didn't really understand what he was critiquing. "You kids these days, with your Ashermabahs, and your Snoopy Poopy Poop Baals."
Asherah poles will play a role in Judges ch. 6. We'll see Israelite religion up close.
Baal just means 'master' so Baalim might well mean the multiple male gods in a polytheistic culture (e.g., the god of this city, the god of that city, etc.). Baal might also mean a man who is a master (e.g., master of the house in Exodus 22:8) though unlikely in this context.
ReplyDelete@Bruce,
ReplyDeleteI need to get this done before wonder pets is over. My son is still awake :-D
"Adonibezek tries to run but is caught and has his thumbs and big toes cut off. More twisted violence from God's chosen people."
Did you notice that Adonibezek had done the same thing to 70 kings? 1:7 Just a little reaping what you have sown.
OK Ni Hao Kai-Lan, i did not realize how far along wonder pets was. :-)
"More instances of God not being able to fulfill his covenant with the Israelites."
How is this so? He states in 2:1-4 that the Hebrews had not keep their part of the covenant. They went against what God had instructed them to do.
Something from MHC
he that was the chief person in a city was then called a king,
"Why did they allow these people to stay and live?"
Because some of them didn't have enough resolution to offer to dispossess them.
"Chapter 2 acknowledges that God doesn't like the peaceful cohabitation."
Because God knows the downfall this is going to bring to the people. And it does, as you noticed. :-D
"Who is this Judge? The Holy Spirit? It says that the judge dies. So confused"
The Judges are people that were commissioned by God to lead the Hebrew people and to restore them into the terms of the covenant. Some many don't know much about, however i think Samson is one that, i think, people are most familiar with. The reason for the judges is that the Hebrews did not have a king like the other nations at this time. God was to be their king. We will get to the part where they reject God as their King and demand a man fill that position.
"Sometimes reading the OT gives me a headache."
Always when i do my taxes i get a headache. I just did them tonight. I'm so glad they're done. Burden on the common man is what they are. :-D
Baal just means 'master'
ReplyDeleteOh, wow, it does.
Should I assume that this usage (as "master") is cognate with Ugaritic usage? I.e., to the people of Ugarit, "baal" was a title/epithet to a certain god ("the master").
c.f. "El", which in biblical hebrew was reduced to a generic word for "gods", but surely had a more specific meaning in the Ugaritic texts?
Uhhh you don't have to actually answer that I'm just thinking out loud.
More information on Ugaritic and its importance to understanding Biblical Hebrew, for anyone who wants to know what the hell I'm babbling about:
http://www.theology.edu/ugarbib.htm