Summary of the Book of Judges

Like Joshua, Judges is a historical book. It follows Joshua chronologically beginning with the death of Joshua at 1370 B.C. It covers a period of about 300 years until the death of Samson in 1070 B.C. Judges bridges the period of time when the people had settled into their inheritance but before they were given a king.

The main subjects in the book are the wickedness of the people and the 12 judges. Thus the title Judges.

The recipients of this book are not specifically named. This seems to be the case for all of the historical books in the Bible. The book was written as a reminder to future generations of how God has worked in the past.

Author

According to Jewish tradition, Samuel was the author, but there is no strong proof for this. Clues as to when it must have been written support that Samuel could have been the author. It seems to have been written shortly after the events of the book. There is no reason to think it was not Samuel other than the lack of proof that he was the author.

Date Written

The time period covered in the narrative is about 300 years from the death of Joshua to the death of Samson, 1370 to 1070 B.C. However it was written at a time after Israel had a king. Several times in the book the statement is made such as, “in those days there was no king in Israel.” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21-25). This is an indication that the author knew there would be a king in Israel. It is as if there was a king at the time of the book’s writing. But it was also written early in this period as shown in Judges 1:21. In this verse the Jebusites still lived in Jerusalem, even though the Bible says that David drove them out in 1003. Therefore the book had to be written after kings were established in the land, but before David drove out the Jebusites from Jerusalem. Or, sometime between 1047 and 1003 B.C. Read the rest of this entry