The Covenant Charge and the Cycle of the Judges

The messenger speaks in God’s own first person, “I made you to go up out of Egypt”, as the angel at the bush did (Exodus 3:2–6). Rashi, following older tradition, held that this messenger was Phinehas the priest. “I will never break my covenant” echoes Leviticus 26:44, “I will not... break my covenant with them.”

The command to throw down their altars is Deuteronomy 7:5. “Why have ye done this?” is close to God’s question to the woman in Eden: “What is this that thou hast done?” (Genesis 3:13). The rebuke opens with history and closes with a question.

The Hebrew says only “they shall be to you for sides”; the King James supplies “thorns” from Numbers 33:55, and some ancient versions read “adversaries”, a word that differs by one letter. “Snare” is moqesh, the word of Exodus 23:33: “if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”

“Lifted up their voice, and wept” is what the whole congregation did at Kadesh after the spies’ report (Numbers 14:1), and what Esau did when he lost the blessing (Genesis 27:38). Each time the weeping follows a verdict that cannot be undone by tears.

Bochim means “weepers”. The Greek adds “and to Bethel” in verse 1, and near Bethel stood Allon-bachuth, “the oak of weeping”, where Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, was buried (Genesis 35:8). The place may have taken its name from both griefs.

The Book of Judges steps back in time here: 1:1 already announced Joshua’s death, and verses 6–9 now retell the close of the Book of Joshua (24:28–31) almost word for word. The flashback sets up the contrast between generations.

The Book of Joshua said the elders had “known” all the works of the LORD (Joshua 24:31); here they had “seen” them. The change sharpens the point for what follows: the next generation had neither seen nor known.

Joshua’s death is reported twice in this book, at 1:1 and here. “The servant of the LORD” is a title the Old Testament gives by name almost only to Moses and Joshua, and to David in the headings of Psalms 18 and 36.

Here the town is Timnath-heres, “portion of the sun”, where the Book of Joshua has Timnath-serah (19:50; 24:30), the same letters in a different order. Heres, the sun, recurs in Judges: Mount Heres in 1:35 and the “ascent of Heres” in 8:13.

The pattern is that of Exodus 1:8: “there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” There, forgetting led to Israel’s oppression; here, forgetting leads Israel into oppression of its own making. “Gathered unto their fathers” means buried with their ancestors.

“Did evil in the sight of the LORD” becomes the refrain of the book, opening the accounts of Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson (3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1). “Baalim” is the plural: many local Baals, such as the Baal-berith of Shechem (8:33).

The wording is almost that of Deuteronomy 6:14: “Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.” The commandment is quoted in the act of being broken, verb for verb.

Baal was the Canaanite storm god, known in detail from the texts found at Ugarit from 1929; Ashtaroth is the plural of Ashtoreth, Astarte, a goddess of love and war. Many scholars think the Hebrew vowels of Ashtoreth were borrowed from boshet, “shame”, to mock the name.

“Could not any longer stand before their enemies” reverses the summary of Joshua 21:44: “there stood not a man of all their enemies before them.” “Spoilers” are raiders who plunder crops and flocks, as the Midianites later do (6:3–4). “Sold” is the language of the slave market.

“As the LORD had sworn” points to the curses of Deuteronomy 28, especially 28:25, “The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies.” “Whithersoever they went out” recalls the curse on going out and coming in (Deuteronomy 28:19).

“Judges” is shofetim, leaders who deliver and govern more than magistrates who hear cases. The same Semitic word named the chief magistrates of Carthage, whom Roman writers called sufetes. “Nevertheless” is the pivot of the whole book.

“Turned quickly out of the way” is the phrase God used at the golden calf: “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them” (Exodus 32:8). “Went a whoring” is the marriage image for idolatry, drawn from Exodus 34:15–16 and developed by Hosea.

“Groanings” is neaqah, the word of Exodus 2:24: “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant.” “It repented the LORD” means he was moved to pity and relented, the verb used when he turned from the evil he had threatened after the golden calf (Exodus 32:14).

“Ceased not from their own doings” is literally “they let nothing fall” of their practices. “Stubborn way” is “hard way”, from the same root as “stiffnecked”. “Corrupted themselves” is shachat, the verb of the golden calf in Exodus 32:7.

“Transgressed my covenant” is literally “crossed over” it, using avar, the verb of crossing the Jordan. The people who crossed into the land have now crossed over the covenant that brought them there.

“The nations which Joshua left when he died” are listed by name in 3:3: the five lords of the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Sidonians and the Hivites of Lebanon. God will do no more than Joshua did.

“Prove” is nasah, to test. God used the same words of the manna: “that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no” (Exodus 16:4). The remaining nations become the new manna: a daily test of whether Israel will walk in the way.

“Without driving them out hastily” gives the book’s explanation for the unfinished conquest: God himself held the nations back. The next chapter adds a second reason, to teach war to the generation that had never fought (3:1–2).