The Book of Judges

The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Old Testament and covers the long, troubled age after the conquest of Chanaan, when Israel had no king and was governed, from crisis to crisis, by men and one woman whom the Lord raised up to save it. It is a book of heroes, but its real subject is God's patience with a people that forgets Him again and again. Each of its twenty-one chapters can be read from the grid below, in the Douay-Rheims Bible set beside the Latin Vulgate.

The author: Samuel, according to tradition

The book does not name its author. The common opinion received in the Church attributes it to the prophet Samuel, the last of the judges. Challoner's preface to the Douay-Rheims says: "The writer of it, according to the more general opinion, was the prophet Samuel." Jewish tradition agrees: the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Bathra 14b) holds that Samuel wrote his own book, Judges and Ruth.

The internal evidence fits this tradition. The writer looks back on the period of the judges from a time when Israel already had a king, for he repeats four times, "In those days there was no king in Israel" (Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:24). Yet Jerusalem is still the Jebusite city, "Jebus, which by another name is called Jerusalem" (Judges 19:10), and "the Jebusite hath dwelt with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem until this present day" (Judges 1:21).

David took the city only after reigning seven years and six months in Hebron (2 Kings 5), so the book was in all likelihood complete before then. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 concludes that "there is no more probable writer thereof than Samuel," who drew on older records such as the Song of Debbora.

Many modern scholars see the book instead as part of a longer "Deuteronomistic" history edited during or after the Exile. The Church has issued no decree on the authorship of Judges; we keep to the traditional view.

Date of composition

On the traditional view, Judges was written early in the monarchy. The Catholic Encyclopedia judges it "most likely written in the first years of Saul's reign," and in any case before David had reigned seven years, that is, before the capture of Jerusalem: roughly the eleventh century before Christ. St Paul, preaching at Antioch, sums up the period in one line: "after these things, he gave unto them judges, until Samuel the prophet" (Acts 13:20).

The narrator also notes that the idol of the Danites remained "all the time that the house of God was in Silo" (Judges 18:31), so he writes as one who knew the sanctuary of Silo, which had its end in the days of Heli and Samuel.

What is the Book of Judges about? A summary

The book has three parts: an introduction that explains why Israel kept falling, the history of the judges themselves, and two appendices showing how low the nation sank without a king.

Israel after Josue and the cycle of sin (chapters 1–2)

Chapters 1–2 open "after the death of Josue," and so continue the story of the Book of Josue. The tribes fail to drive out the Chanaanites entirely. An angel of the Lord rebukes them at the "place of weepers" (Bochim), and chapter 2 gives the key to the whole book.

"The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served Baalim" (2:11); God gave them up to their enemies; then "the Lord raised up judges, to deliver them from the hands of those that oppressed them" (2:16); but "after the judge was dead, they returned, and did much worse things than their fathers had done" (2:19). This is the cycle of sin, servitude, supplication and salvation that the rest of the book plays out. At its root is a breach of the First Commandment: Israel's sin is, before all else, idolatry.

Othoniel, Aod, Samgar, Debbora and Barac (chapters 3–5)

In chapter 3 the Lord raises up Othoniel, Caleb's younger brother, against the king of Mesopotamia; then Aod the Benjamite, "who used the left hand as well as the right," who slays Eglon, king of Moab; then Samgar, who "slew of the Philistines six hundred men with a ploughshare" (3:31). In chapter 4 Israel is oppressed by Jabin, king of Chanaan, and his general Sisara. Debbora the prophetess, who "judged the people" under her palm tree in Mount Ephraim, summons Barac to battle and warns him that "Sisara shall be delivered into the hand of a woman" (4:9). That woman is Jahel, who kills the fleeing general in her tent. Chapter 5 is the Song of Debbora, one of the oldest poems in Scripture.

Gedeon and Abimelech (chapters 6–9)

Under the Madianites the angel of the Lord appears to Gedeon (Gideon), the least of his father's house, in chapter 6. Gedeon pulls down his father's altar of Baal, asks for the sign of the fleece, and in chapter 7 routs Madian with three hundred men bearing trumpets, pitchers and lamps, so that Israel should not "glory against me, and say: I was delivered by my own strength" (7:2). Offered a crown, he refuses it: "the Lord shall rule over you" (Judges 8:23). But the golden ephod he makes becomes a snare, and in chapter 9 his son Abimelech murders his seventy brothers and makes himself king at Sichem, until a woman casts a piece of a millstone upon his head.

Thola, Jair, Jephte and the minor judges (chapters 10–12)

Chapter 10 briefly records Thola and Jair, then the oppression of the Ammonites. In chapter 11 the elders of Galaad call back Jephte, an outcast, who makes his famous vow and defeats Ammon; his daughter is the first to come out to meet him. Chapter 12 tells of the quarrel with Ephraim over the password "Scibboleth" (Shibboleth) and closes with three more judges: Abesan of Bethlehem, Ahialon the Zabulonite and Abdon.

Samson (chapters 13–16)

In chapter 13 an angel announces his birth to the barren wife of Manue: he is to be "a Nazarite of God, from his infancy, and from his mother's womb." In chapter 14 he tears a lion apart and sets the Philistines his riddle; in chapter 15 he slays a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. Chapter 16 brings Dalila, the betrayal of his secret, his blinding and captivity at Gaza, and his last prayer, when he pulls down the temple of Dagon and "killed many more at his death, than he had killed before in his life."

The idol of Michas and the crime of Gabaa (chapters 17–21)

In chapters 17–18 a man of Mount Ephraim named Michas makes an idol and hires a Levite as his priest; the tribe of Dan, migrating north, steals both and sets them up in their new city. In chapters 19–21 a Levite's concubine is abused to death by the men of Gabaa in Benjamin; the other tribes gather "as one man" (Judges 20:1) and nearly wipe out Benjamin, then grieve that "one tribe should be taken away" (21:3) and find wives for the survivors in chapter 21. The book ends on its refrain: "In those days there was no king in Israel: but every one did that which seemed right to himself."

The twelve judges of Israel

The "judges" were not chiefly magistrates but deliverers, called "saviours" by the text itself (3:9, 3:15), who led Israel in war and then governed it. Twelve judges are traditionally counted in the book:

1. Othoniel (3:7–11)
2. Aod, or Ehud (3:12–30)
3. Samgar, or Shamgar (3:31)
4. Debbora, or Deborah, with Barac (4–5)
5. Gedeon, or Gideon (6–8)
6. Thola, or Tola (10:1–2)
7. Jair (10:3–5)
8. Jephte, or Jephthah (10:6–12:7)
9. Abesan, or Ibzan (12:8–10)
10. Ahialon, or Elon (12:11–12)
11. Abdon (12:13–15)
12. Samson (13–16)

The six whose deeds are told at length (Othoniel, Aod, Debbora, Gedeon, Jephte, Samson) are often called the major judges. Abimelech is not counted, for he seized power rather than being raised up by God. The last two judges, Heli and Samuel, appear in 1 Kings (1 Samuel), and the Book of Ruth is set "in the days of one of the judges."

Themes and the Catholic reading

God's mercy. Against the faithlessness of the people stands the fidelity of God, who "was moved to mercy, and heard the groanings of the afflicted" (2:18); and the closing refrain prepares the way for the monarchy and for the King of whom David was a figure.

Faith and weakness. God chooses the least and the weak so that the victory may be seen to be His. This is why the Epistle to the Hebrews ranks the judges among the heroes of faith: "the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, Barac, Samson, Jephthe... who by faith conquered kingdoms" (Hebrews 11:32–33). Ecclesiasticus praises them too: "all the judges, every one by name, whose heart was not corrupted" (Ecclesiasticus 46:13). St Ambrose, writing on fortitude (De Officiis I, 40), recalls how "Gedeon with three hundred men gained a triumph over a great nation and a cruel foe."

Gedeon's fleece. St Ambrose, at the opening of On the Holy Spirit, reads the choice of Gedeon as a figure of the Incarnation: the dew on the fleece signified the faith once found among the Jews alone, which then passed to the nations; of Christ the Psalm had said, "He shall come down like rain upon the fleece" (Psalm 71 (72):6). The Church has made this a hymn to the Virgin Birth.

On 1 January, the Octave Day of the Nativity, the Roman Breviary sings at Lauds and Vespers: "When thou wast born ineffably of a Virgin, then were the Scriptures fulfilled: thou camest down like rain upon the fleece, to save mankind: we praise thee, O our God." So the fleece became a figure of Our Lady's virginal motherhood, which we treat in the perpetual virginity of Mary.

Samson, a figure of Christ. Samson's birth is announced by an angel to a barren woman, and he is consecrated to God from his mother's womb, a pattern that returns in the births of Samuel and of St John the Baptist (Luke 1), and that Catholic mothers still invoke when praying to conceive a child. The angel calls his own name "wonderful" (13:18), the very title Isaias gives the Messias (Isaias 9:6). Challoner's note on Samson's death draws the lesson: "Samson, by dying in this manner, was a figure of Christ, who by his death overcame all his enemies."

Marian echoes. The angel greets Gedeon with "The Lord is with thee" (6:12), and Debbora sings, "Blessed among women be Jahel" (5:24): words that return for Judith ("Blessed art thou, O daughter... above all women upon the earth," Judith 13:23) and, perfectly, for the Mother of God, saluted by Gabriel and St Elizabeth as "blessed among women" (Luke 1:28, 42), the greeting we repeat in the Hail Mary.

Hard passages. The crimes of the last chapters are recorded, not approved. On Jephte's vow, Challoner reports two opinions: that his daughter was only consecrated to perpetual virginity, or, as "the common opinion followed by the generality of the holy fathers and divines" holds, that she was truly offered.

Famous chapters and verses of Judges

Beyond the passages quoted above, from Judges 2, Judges 6, Judges 11 and Judges 19, a few lines are worth knowing by heart. Debbora's song ends: "So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love thee shine, as the sun shineth in his rising" (5:31). Gedeon's men cry in the night: "The sword of the Lord and of Gedeon" (Judges 7:20). Samson's riddle runs: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness" (Judges 14:14). And his last prayer: "O Lord God, remember me, and restore to me now my former strength" (Judges 16:28).

Its place in the canon and in the liturgy

Judges stands between Josue and Ruth in every Catholic Bible. Its place in the canon has never been questioned: as the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, it is "admitted by all" to belong to the Hebrew canon. In the Vulgate it is Liber Iudicum, after the Hebrew Shophetim; the Council of Trent, in its Fourth Session (1546), lists it by name, "Josue, Judges, Ruth," among the sacred and canonical books. Protestant Bibles contain it too, with the same chapters and Hebrew spellings (Gideon, Jephthah).

St Augustine devoted the seventh book of his Questions on the Heptateuch to Judges; Theodoret and Procopius of Gaza commented on it, and in the liturgy it lives on above all in the antiphon of the fleece at Christmastide.

How to read the Book of Judges

Read chapter 2 first and keep its pattern in mind; every later story fits it. Then read the great narratives whole: Debbora in chapters 4–5, Gedeon in chapters 6–8, Samson in chapters 13–16, noticing how the judges themselves decline from Othoniel to Samson. Read the appendices soberly, as Scripture's own judgement on a people without God's order, and continue into Ruth and 1 Kings, which complete the story. Every other book is in the Iter Fidei Bible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Book of Judges?

The book names no author, but the more general opinion in the Church, recorded by Challoner, is that the prophet Samuel wrote it, and the Talmud says the same. He would have drawn on older records, such as the Song of Debbora.

When was the Book of Judges written?

Traditionally, early in the reign of Saul, around the eleventh century before Christ. A king already reigned when it was written, yet Jerusalem was still held by the Jebusites, so it predates David's capture of the city.

What is the Book of Judges about?

It tells the history of Israel from the death of Josue to the time of Samuel, when the tribes had no king. Israel repeatedly falls into idolatry, is oppressed by its neighbours, cries to the Lord and is delivered by a judge raised up by God. Its great stories are those of Debbora, Gedeon, Jephte and Samson.

How many judges are in the Book of Judges?

Twelve judges are traditionally counted: Othoniel, Aod (Ehud), Samgar, Debbora (with Barac), Gedeon (Gideon), Thola, Jair, Jephte (Jephthah), Abesan (Ibzan), Ahialon (Elon), Abdon and Samson. Abimelech, Gedeon's son, ruled but is not counted, since he seized power himself. Heli and Samuel, the last judges, appear in 1 Kings (1 Samuel).

How many chapters are in the Book of Judges?

The Book of Judges has 21 chapters, in the Vulgate, the Douay-Rheims and Protestant Bibles alike. Chapters 1–2 introduce the period, 3–16 tell of the judges, and 17–21 form two appendices. You can read each chapter in the Book of Judges in English and Latin.

Who was Deborah in the Book of Judges?

Debbora (Deborah) was a prophetess, "the wife of Lapidoth, who judged the people" (Judges 4:4). She called Barac to fight Sisara and foretold that the victory would go to a woman. Her canticle in Judges 5 says that the valiant men ceased in Israel "until Debbora arose, a mother arose in Israel."

Who was Jael in the Book of Judges?

Jahel (Jael) was the wife of Haber the Cinite, who killed the fleeing general Sisara in her tent while he slept (Judges 4:21). Debbora's song blesses her: "Blessed among women be Jahel" (5:24). Like praise is given to Judith, and the same words, "blessed among women," are said of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St Luke's Gospel.

What is the main message of the Book of Judges?

Its main lesson is that infidelity to God brings ruin and that God, in His mercy, saves His people whenever they return to Him. It also shows that God works through the weak, so that the glory may be His.

How does the Book of Judges point to Jesus?

Each judge is a "saviour" raised up by God, a shadow of Christ the Saviour. Samson, whose birth an angel announced and who overcame his enemies by his death, is called "a figure of Christ" in Challoner's notes; Gedeon's fleece was read by St Ambrose and by the Church's liturgy as a figure of the Incarnation from the Virgin.

Read the whole Book of Judges verse by verse, in Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner) and Latin Vulgate: Judges; Acts 13; Hebrews 11; Ecclesiasticus 46; Psalm 71 (72); Isaias 9; Judith 13; 2 Kings 5; Ruth 1; Luke 1; Challoner's preface and notes to Judges; Babylonian Talmud, Baba Bathra 14b; St Ambrose, De Spiritu Sancto I, prologue, and De Officiis I, 40; St Augustine, Quaestiones in Heptateuchum VII; Council of Trent, Session IV (1546), Decree on the Canonical Scriptures; Roman Breviary, Octave Day of the Nativity, antiphons at Lauds and Vespers; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Judges."