CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE. THE CHRONOLOGY.
1. Soon after the death of Joshua the conquest of the land was continued under the lead of the tribe of Judah. But the Israelites soon began to be affiliated with the inhabitants. Intermarriages, commercial and social intercourse brought about the change whereby the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth took the place of the ancient service of the God of their fathers, and the Israelites seemed to be given up to the idolatries of the surrounding nations.
2. A long series of captivities and servitudes now began which introduced a new class of public officers, called Judges, who united the office of general-in-chief and of referee in civil cases, thus partaking somewhat of the duties indicated by the name “judge” by which they are called in Scripture.
3. But the duties of the so-called judge variedwith the times and the person. Gideon declined to rule, delegating all rule to Jehovah, and acted only as deliverer. His son Abimelech coveted the office of king, and was the only king during this period and the first king in any part of Israel. Eli judged Israel 40 years, 1 Sam. 4:18, and was a noted high-priest. Samuel judged all the days of his life, 1 Sam. 7:15, and was also the first of the long unbroken series of prophets, uniting with this accredited and newly created office that of sacrifice and intercession for the people, 1 Sam. 7:5. Samuel closed the line of Judges.
4. The period of the Judges presents us with a most singular form of government and totally unlike any other form which either had preceded or did succeed it. These rulers were generally divinely appointed, but at times seem to have been elected by the people, as in the case of Jephthah and Abimelech, Judg. 11:6; 9:3.
5. The most remarkable fact connected with the history of the times of the Judges, from about B. C. 1400–1060, is found in the private and public idolatry of the Israelites. This idolatry should be considered in view of the covenant their fathers had solemnly made at Sinai, and more especially in view of the warnings by Moses, reiterated by Joshua, and despite the consecration of themselves at Shechem. Many who were living at this time had formed a part of the great convention of consecration and covenant held under Joshua. Notwithstanding all these promisesof loyalty to God, there seems to have been no form of idolatry into which they did not fall. The cause of this strange defection is very forcibly presented in Judg. 3:5–8.
Another remarkable feature of this age is seen in the renewals of idolatry after equally repeated deliverances from distressful servitudes followed by temporary reforms.
6. One constant cause of the persistent idolatry was doubtless to be found in the continued social relations of the Israelites with the tribes of the Canaanites. The wisdom of the forewarnings of Moses, Deut. 7:3–5, and of Joshua, and of the command made very early in their history that the Canaanites should be driven out from the land, and that no association should be had with them, is now very apparent, Exod. 34:16. The non-observance of the command was followed by these intimate relations all over the land. At least seven tribes are named, Judg. 1, as living together with the Canaanites. Even Judah, Benjamin, and the Jebusites dwelt in Jerusalem together at this time, Josh. 15:63 and Judg. 1:21.
7. The Canaanites therefore were admitted into the nation of Israelites by a kind of naturalization, and they brought in with them their customs and idolatries, although they themselves were made tributary.
8. The history of the times of the Judges is derived mainly from the books of Judges, Ruth, and 1 Samuel. But considerable light is added from therecords of surrounding nations, especially from those of the Egyptians. In a poem by the poet laureate of the times of Rameses II., B. C. 1350, it is asserted that the Hittites in a battle on the plain of Esdraelon had 2,500 chariots of war. This was before the Israelites left Egypt, and the monuments record that Rameses III. captured 994 Canaanitish chariots.