Bible Atlas: A Manual of Biblical Geography and History

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

1. The Mesopotamian Oppression (Judges 3:1-11) was the first, occurring soon after the death of Joshua. It resulted from the conquests of a king named Chushan-rishathaim, who reigned in Mesopotamia. From the two facts, that at this period the kings of Edom had Aramean names (Gen. 36), and that the deliverer of Israel was Othniel, of the tribe of Judah, the first judge, it has been concluded that the region of this oppression was the territory of that tribe, in the southern portion of Palestine.

2. The Moabite Oppression. (Judges 3:12-30.) The Moabites lived south of the torrent Arnon, on the east of the Dead Sea. In alliance with the wandering Ammonites, further eastward, and the Amalekites of the desert, under their king, Eglon, they took possession of Jericho (which stood as an unwalled town), and made it the centre of rule over the central portion of the land, chiefly Benjamin and Judah. Ehud, the second judge, assassinated Eglon, and then called upon his countrymen to assemble at Mount Ephraim. A decisive battle was fought at the "Fords of Moab" (where the Israelites had crossed the Jordan on their first entrance to the land), resulting in the defeat of the Moabites and the freedom of Israel.

3. The Early Philistine Oppression (Judges 3:31) was perhaps no more than a raid of these people upon the mountain region of Judah. It was repelled by Shamgar, the third judge, whose army of farmers, hastily gathered, had no other weapons than their formidable ox-goads. The precise place of the victory is unknown, but it was on the frontier between Judah and Philistia.

4. The Canaanite Oppression (Judges 4, 5) was an uprising of the native people against the Israelite conquerors. They changed the relations of the two races, by becoming the dominant people in all the region north of the Carmel range of mountains. Their capital was at Hazor, and their chief military post at Harosheth, near the Plain of Esdraelon. A woman, Deborah, living between Ramah and Bethel, was then recognized as the fourth judge. She called upon Barak, of Naphtali, who aided her in gathering a little army, chiefly from the tribes of Issachar, Zebulon and Naphtali. They met at Mount Tabor, from which they poured down upon the Canaanites, who were encamped upon the plain. In the rout that followed, the Israelites were aided by a sudden storm, and a rise in the torrent Kishon, which swept away many of their enemies. The power of the Canaanites was broken, and thenceforward the race made no attempt to regain its independence.

5. The Midianite Oppression (Judges 6-8) was the most severe, thus far, in the history of the judges. The Midianites, a migratory tribe on the east of Palestine, joined with the Amalekite Bedouins in an invasion which overran all the central portion of the land, plundering the inhabitants, and destroying the fruits of the field. So low were the Israelites reduced, that they were compelled to hide their crops, and themselves also, in the caves of the mountains. The deliverer of Israel at this period was Gideon, the fifth judge. At God's call he summoned his countrymen, and gathered an army on Mount Gilboa, while their enemies were encamped at the foot of the Hill Moreh (Little Hermon), an innumerable host. With three hundred chosen men Gideon made a night attack upon the Midianite host. They were defeated, and fled down the ravine to the Jordan Valley, past Beth-shean, Abel-meholah and Tabbath. Beth-barah, where they were intercepted by the men of Ephraim, was not the same with the Bethabara of the New Testament, but probably in the Jordan Valley, north of the Jabbok. At Succoth, near the junction of the Jabbok and the Jordan, and at Penuel, in the valley of the Jabbok, the pursuing Israelites under Gideon were inhospitably treated by the inhabitants, but avenged themselves on their return. The remains of the routed Midianite army were found by Gideon at Karkor, a place not precisely known. He made a circuit, attacked them on the east, and utterly destroyed them. After this victory Gideon bore rule over Israel from his home in Ophrah, until his death.

After the death of Gideon arose his son Abimelech, the sixth judge, "the bramble king," who reigned over a small district around Shechem. (Judges 9.) He was not one of the divinely chosen deliverers, and strictly should not be reckoned in the list of judges. He was slain ignobly at Thebez, north of Shechem. The seventh judge was Tola, who ruled from Shamir, in Mount Ephraim. (Judges 10:1, 2.) The eighth was Jair, whose home was at Camon, in Mount Gilead, east of the Jordan. (Judges 10:3-5.)

6. The Ammonite Oppression (Judges 10:6-18; 11:1-40) was perhaps contemporaneous with the early part of the one named after it, the Philistine. It embraced the land of the tribes on the east of the Jordan, and lasted eighteen years. The Israelites rallied at Mizpeh of Gilead (the place where Jacob and Laban made their covenant, Gen. 31:49), and called to the command Jephthah, the ninth judge, who was living as a freebooter in the land of Tob, north of Gilead. He marched against the Ammonites, and fought them at Aroer, on the border of the torrent Arnon. He drove them in flight northward, and wasted their territory as far as Minnith, near Heshbon. On his return took place the fulfillment of his vow upon his daughter (Judges 11:40); and a civil strife with the haughty tribe of Ephraim (Judges 12:1-6), which attacked Gilead, but was beaten and put to flight. At the fords of Jordan many thousand Ephraimites were slain in attempting to cross. Probably this was the same place referred to already as Beth-barah. (Judges 7:24.)

After Jephthah, the tenth judge was Ibzan of Bethlehem, north of Mount Carmel; the eleventh, Elon of Aijalon, in the tribe of Zebulon; the twelfth, Abdon of Pirathon, in Ephraim. (Judges 12:8-15.)

7. The Philistine Oppression (Judges 13-16) began about the same time with the Ammonite, but lasted far longer. During all the judgeships of Eli, the thirteenth judge, of Samson the fourteenth, of Samuel the fifteenth and last, and the forty years of Saul's reign, Israel remained more or less under Philistine domination. In the reign of Saul we read of Philistine garrisons throughout the land, as at Bethel (1 Sam. 10:3-5) and at Geba (1 Sam. 13:3), and not until all Israel was consolidated under the strong sceptre of David, was the Philistine yoke entirely thrown off.

Eli, the thirteenth judge, was also high-priest, and ruled from Shiloh, the place of the ark. The history relates only the events at the close of his judgeship, when, by the loss of the ark at Ebenezer, and the death of Eli, on the same day, the Israelites were reduced to the lowest condition of trouble.