Judges chapter 12

After reading chapter 12:

*Meanwhile, the men of the tribe of Ephraim crossed the Jordan over to where Jephthah was. They were offended at not being asked to go with the people of Gilead to fight the Ammonites, and they threatened to burn down Jephthah's house. Jephthah claimed that he did call for help, even though the bible doesn't mention it, but they didn't come. So he had to take matters into his own hands. Why did they come to fight him? A good question. Why would you pick a fight with your allies?

*Jephthah and his men fought the men of Ephraim because the Ephraimites called them renegades. Jephthah also devised a test to keep any of the Ephraimite survivors from crossing back over the Jordan. They took control of the fording places and questioned crossers. Are you an Ephraimite? If they said no, they were required to say the word "Shibboleth," which was apparently difficult for an Ephraimite to pronounce. If he had trouble pronouncing it, he was killed. 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.

*Jephthah led Israel for six years. Wasn't Ephraim part of Israel? Then he died. Next, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage and took thirty young women into the clan as wives for his sons. He led Izrael 7 years then died. Next was Elon the Zebulunite who led for 10 years.  After that, Abdon, an Ephraimite, led Israel. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons. Gee, everyone has nice even numbers of children and obviously multiple wives. Abdon led Israel for 8 years. Then he died.

Judges chapter 11 part 2

*Starting in verse 29, Jephthah gets that mysterious "Spirit of the lord (Yahweh)" He took his army to attack the Ammonites. Then he made a vow to Yahweh that, if he had the victory over the Ammonites, he would offer the first thing that came out of the door of his house as a burnt offering sacrifice to Yahweh. The spirit of the lord should have told him that was a bad idea, but maybe it was sleeping at the time.

*Jephthah fought the Ammonites and won. He also destroyed twenty of their towns, effectively subduing them. So, Jephthah went home. What was the first thing that came out of his house? His beloved daughter, an only child. Naturally, he was distraught. He told his daughter about his vow, which was apparently unbreakable. Couldn't Yahweh have absolved him of it? I guess it wasn't top on his list of things to do that day. His daughter agreed that the vow could not be broken. (That makes for a better story than if she didn't agree and Jephthah had to force her to be sacrificed.) She only asked to be allowed to spend two months roaming the hills and weeping with her friends, because she would never marry. We all know that if a girl doesn't have a husband in this life,  she doesn't have anything.

*So, she went off for two months and then came back home so her father could do what he promised. "And he did to her as he vowed." Let's be clear. He offered her as a burnt offering sacrifice to Yahweh, and Yahweh was ok with that. Some people will try to argue that it was just a metaphorical sacrifice, or they will rationalize the event in other ways. That is only to ease their own discomfort at this passage. There is no reason to think that this is anything other than what it appears to be, a blood sacrifice.

*For some reason, importance is attached to the claim that Jephthah's daughter was a virgin. Every year in her remembrance, young women of Israel went out for four days. Those four days of freedom were probably well spent. If it happened, which is doubtful. Even my study bible says there is no other evidence of this custom, so it must have just been a local one. (Or nonexistent.)

Judges chapter 11 part 1

After reading chapter 11:

*Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. (Gilead is a region east of the Jordan) His father's name was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. Gilead's sons by his wife drove Jephthah away because they didn't want him to have a share of their father's inheritance. Jephthah settled in Tob where a band of adventurers gathered around him. Sounds a little bit like Robin Hood and his merry men.

* When the Ammonites were making war on the Israelites, the elders of Gilead asked Jephthah to be their commander against them. (See chapter 10) Jephthah was understandably peeved that they needed him, now that they were in trouble, when they had rejected him before. The elders asked him to forget all that. Jephthah wanted confirmation that he would be the leader of Gilead if he could defeat the Ammonites. The elders swore that he would. So, he went to Mizpah with the elders and took an oath of office in front of Yahweh. Mizpah apparently means watchtower and there are a few possibly different Mizpah's mentioned in the bible, which makes sense because a watchtower would be a good thing for an area to have, considering all the wars and raids in the region. What doesn't make sense is how a person could "go before Yahweh" at Mizpah. What did that entail? I thought all the Yahweh ritual stuff had been assigned to Shiloh. However, there has been no mention of Shiloh yet in this book.

*Then Jephthah sent a message to the Ammonite King asking why he was attacking Gilead. The reply was that when the Israelites had travelled through the land during the exodus, they had taken land which originally belonged to the Ammonites. They wanted it back. Jephthah sent a message back saying that the king had his facts wrong. That land used to belong to the Amorites, not the Ammonites. Not only that, Yahweh had personally given them the victory over the people who used to live in that land. The Israelites had to forcibly take it because the original inhabitants were rude and suspicious, unwilling to let over 2 million strangers parade through their land on their way to take over someone else's land. This proves that the Ammonites have no claim to the land. Besides, don't they also take whatever land their god Chemosh gives them? This is a brilliant example of the tu quoque argument. Notice also, that Jephthah is acknowledging that the god Chemosh speaks to the Ammonites, just like Yahweh speaks to the Israelites. So, is he intimating both gods are real, or both gods are fictional?

*Then Jephthah goes on to argue that the king of Moab isn't suddenly trying to take back land that the Israelites were given by Yahweh. What makes the king of the Ammonites so high and mighty that he thinks he should take back land where the Israelites have lived for about three hundred years? Why now, at such a late date? The king of the Ammonites has no personal reason to do so. Plus, Yahweh will see that justice is done. The king ignored Jephthah's message.

*This passage helps us hang a date on these supposed events. Assuming the creationist stance that history began about 4,000 B.C.E., and taking all the dates from Genesis on literally, this would have taken place at approx. 1,000 B.C.E. This is a problem because it is supposed to be the traditional date of the start of the Israelite monarchy. One of the reasons they don't match up is because even the biblical literalists do not take every single year count mentioned in the Old Testament literally. They also try to make things match up with extra information from the New Testament which skews the dates. I noticed this some time back, but can't remember where. I will try to find  out where I first discovered the disparity.

Judges chapter 10

After reading chapter 10:

*After Abimelech, the Israelites were led by a man named Tola of the tribe of Issachar. Twenty three years later he was followed by Jair of Gilead. He had 30 sons who rode 30 donkeys and controlled 30 towns. Fascinating. Twenty two years later, the Israelites were backsliding again. They served other gods besides Yahweh, so he became angry. For 18 years Yahweh let the Philistines, Amorites, and Ammonites oppress the Israelites in many parts of the promised land. Then the Israelites called out to Yahweh again. Yahweh said he was fed up with their disloyalty and told the Israelites to let the other gods save them. The Israelites got rid of the other gods and served Yahweh again, till he just couldn't stand their misery any more. That's what the book says. The Ammonites were camped in Gilead and the leaders  of Gilead held a meeting to discuss eradicating the Ammonites, offering the leader of such an attack a chance to be the head guy of Gilead.

* Still, there has been no mention of Levites, priests, religious rituals other than sacrifice, or who it is that is speaking for Yahweh. How do all the tribes get the message?

Note: For some reason the labels will not allow me to capitalize the word Judges. I'm not being lazy with my Capitals. :-p

Judges chapter 9 part 2

* Abimelech governed Israel for three years but he was not well liked by the citizens of Shechem. Yahweh is said to have caused animosity between them on purpose as a punishment for the slaughter of Gideon's 70 other sons. The men of Shechem terrorized anyone who passed through their land. The people of Shechem began to put their confidence in a newcomer by the name of Gaal.

*At a festival celebrating the grape harvest, Gaal, probably in an alcoholic haze, declared that he would get rid of Abimelech and serve an ancestor of the city's founder if he were them. Zebul, the governor of the city, and Abimelech's deputy, reported this to Abimelech. He advised that Abimelech's men should conduct a surprise attack on Gaal in the morning. When Gaal went out to the city gate in the morning he saw people coming from different directions in attack. Zebul mocked him and said, "Where is your big talk now."

*Gaal led men of Shechem against Abimelech's army. Gaal was defeated and driven out of the city. The next day Abimelech ambushed men of Shechem who came out to work in the fields. Abimelech's men killed all the people of Shechem, destroyed the city and sprinkled salt over it.

*Apparently there were still some of Shechem's people left in a religious stronghold of their temple on mount Zalmon. Abimelech and his men cut branches, laid them against the walls of the stronghold and set fire to it, burning all the people inside alive. About a thousand died. Next, Abimelech captured the city of Thebez. All the people of the city fled and locked themselves into a strong tower . Abimelech stormed the tower and was going to set it on fire. However, a woman in the tower dropped a millstone down on his head and broke his skull. Abimelech begged his servant to kill him with his sword so that no one could say he had been killed by a woman. It was done as he asked. The Israelites were without a leader, so they went home.

*This was supposed to prove that Yahweh had paid back Abimelech and the Shechemites for their slaughter of Gideon's sons, plus the curse of Jotham had come true.

*I still want to know what happened to the supposed city of refuge and the Levites who were supposed to be living in Shechem. Also, why did Abimelech attack Thebez? Wikipedia says it is because they were revolting against Abimelech, along with Shechem. But the Bible doesn't actually say that. This serves as a reminder that Wikipedia can be wrong. If you have questions about the validity of an article that I link, or anything I post,  please do some personal research. Wikipedia is merely a convenience for general info.

Judges chapter 9 part 1

After reading chapter 9:

*Now Gideon had a son named Abimelech by a concubine from Shechem. Abimelech went to Shechem and spoke to his uncles and the rest of his mother's clan. He asked them if they were more inclined to have Gideon's 70 other sons rule over them, or him, one man of their own flesh and blood.
When put like that, they were in favor of Abimelech. They gave him silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and he used it to hire some mercenaries. Abimelech went to Gideon's home in Orphah and murdered his seventy brothers except one who hid,  Jotham the youngest.

*Then the citizens of Shechem gathered at their great tree to crown Abimelech King. During the ceremony, Jothan yelled at them from the top of Mount Gerizim. He told them a story in which an olive tree, a fig tree, and a vine, were each asked to be king. They each turned down the honor, stating that they already had good jobs. When a thorn bush (representing Abimelech) was asked to be king, it  said the people must take refuge in its shade or fire would come out of it and consume the cedars of Lebanon, presumably meaning "if you make your bed, you must lie in it." Next, Jotham said that if they have acted honorably toward Gideon's family, may Abimilech be their joy. (I think he was being facetious.) If they have not acted honorably, may fire come out of Abimelech and consume them all. In other words, he cursed them. Then Jotham fled to hide from Abimelech.

*A bit of review about Shechem: The great tree there is where Abraham had built an altar, sacrificed to Yahweh, and recieved confirmation of the covenant. (Genesis 12) Shechem is where Joseph's bones were buried after the exodus, on a piece of land that had been previously purchased by Jacob.  (Genesis 33- 34) There Jacob had also built an altar and sacrificed to Yahweh. That is also where Jacob's sons, Dinah's brothers, had massacred the inhabitants after demanding their circumcision. In Joshua 20, Shechem was in the territory of Ephraim and designated as one of the cities of refuge. It was given to the Kohathite Levites in Joshua 21. There Joshua renewed Israel's covenant with Yahweh. He took a large stone and set it up under the oak, near the holy place of Yahweh. ( Joshua 24) Now, combine that with the mention that the god Baal-Berith, which means "Lord of the covenant" was worshipped in Shechem. (Judges 8) My study bible calls this ironic and says that the covenant probably referred to a treaty between Canaanite cities. I'm more inclined to think it was an example of religious syncretism.   Does anyone else wonder what happened to the Levites?

Judges chapter 8

After reading chapter 8:

*For some reason, the Ephraimites took offense that Gideon had not asked for their help when he originally went to fight the Midianites. Even so, they had come to Gideon's aid and helped capture two of the  Midianite leaders. Pursuing the rest of the Midianites, Gideon and his men crossed the Jordan after two more rulers of Midian. They asked a couple of different cities for food, but were rejected. Gideon cursed those cities.

*There were 15,000 men left of the remnants of the eastern armies. 120,000 had been killed in battle. Gideon and his 300 men (amazingly, none dead) routed the remaining Midianites and captured the leaders, Zebah and Zalmunna. Then Gideon went to the towns of Succoth and Peniel, who had rejected his plea for food. He punished the elders of Succoth with desert thorns and briars, tore down the tower of Peniel, and killed the men of the town. Questioning Zebah and Zalmunna, Gideon found out they had killed his brothers. He ordered his son to kill them, but being just a boy, he wouldn't. Zebah and Zalmunna dared him to do it himself and he did.

*The Israelites asked Gideon to be their king. He refused, saying Yahweh should rule over them. However, he asked each of them to give him one gold earring from their plunder. The  earrings had a total weight of about 43 pounds. Gideon made the gold into an ephod. It was taken to Gideon's town of Ophrah and eventually worshipped. The land had rest for another forty magical years. Gideon went back home and had 70 sons by his many wives and concubines. (Seventy being another special number usually referring to large assemblies.) After Gideon died the Israelites began worshipping Baal-Berith and forgot about Yahweh and the heroic deeds of Gideon.

Judges chapter 7

After reading chapter 7:

*Gideon and his men are getting ready to go to battle with the Midianites. Yahweh tells him he has too many men. There is a danger that the Israelites will not ascribe their victory to Yahweh but to themselves. Gideon is to tell the men that anyone afraid can go.Twenty two thousand men left, leaving ten thousand. That was still too many. So the men were taken to some water and told to drink. The men that knelt down on their knees to drink were let go. The remaining 300 who lapped up water from their hands were chosen to fight the Midianites.

*The Israelite army was camped on high ground with the Midianites in a valley below. During the night, Yahweh told Gideon that if he was afraid to fight, he and his servant could go down spy on the Midianites first. The army of the eastern invaders was huge. " Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore." When Gideon was spying, he heard one enemy tell another about a dream he had. The dream was interpreted to mean that God had given the Midianite army into Gideon's hands. Gideon returned to camp and told his men. They were divided into three groups of a hundred and given trumpets and empty jars with torches inside. Then they crept down and surrounded the enemy's camp. On Gideon's signal, the they blew their trumpets, smashed the jars,  and raised the torches high. They yelled "A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!" The Midianites ran around yelling in confusion. They attacked each other with swords, then fled. Other Israelite tribes helped speed them on their way. The Jordan River was secured and two of the Midianite leaders were captured and executed. Their heads were brought to Gideon.

Judges chapter 6

After reading chapter 6:

* The last sentence of chapter five was " then the land had rest for forty years," forty being one of the bible's magical numbers. Now we again see Israel backsliding. So, Yahweh gave them to the Midianites for seven years (another magical number). They were reduced to hiding in caves and other secluded places. Whenever they planted crops, their crops were destroyed by invading Midianites and Amalekites from the east. The odd thing about this is that back in Numbers chapter 31, all the Midianite males were killed, their towns and  camps burned,  and their virgin women taken as plunder. The apparently resurrected Midianites harassed and plundered the Israelites, causing poverty and distress. Again they cried to Yahweh for help.

*Yahweh sent the Israelites a prophet who gave them a review lesson in history then said their troubles were their own fault for not listening to Yahweh and for following other gods. Then, one day an angel of Yahweh, appearing as a man, visited Gideon and said Yahweh was with Gideon. He was naturally sceptical. The angel said he was sending Gideon to save Israel. Gideon was naturally sceptical, again. He asked for a sign but first made some food as an offering and gave it to the Angel under the oak in Ophrah. Remember that great trees, often oaks, were ancient places of cultic worship and where people communed with gods. We have seen this motif in the bible before.

*The angel had Gideon put the food on a rock, then he incinerated it with his staff. This surprised Gideon who apparently hadn't realized he was a REAL angel. The angel said "Peace, do not be afraid." Then Gideon built an altar to Yahweh on the spot and called it Yahweh is Peace (shalom). This passage is one of the reasons Peace is considered one of the names of God. That night, according to Yahweh's instruction, Gideon destroyed his father's altar to Baal, cut down the Asherah pole, and used the wood in the fire for the sacrifice of one of his father's bulls on the altar to Yahweh. This was done at night, in secret, because of course none of that was his property.

*In the morning all was discovered. Gideon was denounced as the culprit by a hostile crowd and his execution was demanded. Gideon's father, Joash, seems to have been a rational man. He argued that if Baal needed defending, couldn't he defend himself? This seemed to placate the mob and they settled for calling Gideon names.

*Now all those marauding easterners joined forces and came across the Jordan. Gideon was the beneficiary of the spirit of the lord and blew a trumpet summoning help. Then Gideon tested Yahweh's promise of help by placing a wool fleece on the threshing floor and seeing if it would be wet in the morning, but the ground dry.  It was. The next day he requested another test. This time asking for the fleece to be dry and the ground wet. It was. In spite of having the spirit of Yahweh, and personally meeting the angel of the lord, Gideon wasn't taking any chances.

Edited: The Midianites were exterminated in Numbers 31, not 13.

Judges chapter 5

After reading chapter 5:

*This chapter contains the Song of Deborah, a poetic account of the battle in chapter five. It differs in some details from the previous chapter and may have been written considerably earlier than the surrounding text.

Judges chapter 4

After reading chapter 4:

*The Israelites began to do Evil in the eyes of Yahweh again. Let's talk about this "evil."  It's probably not what we would consider evil acts, like murder and stealing. They were probably just living ordinary every day Iron Age lives. More likely, they were just not  following the many dozens of tedious rules and regulations laid down by Moses in the previous books, plus they were performing acts of worship to other less demanding gods. Also, they were showing signs of getting along with their neighbors by letting their children marry each other. However, throughout ancient history, trouble was usually attributed to the anger of a god or gods. In fact, that still happens today. So, when trouble happened, people would be more likely to look for ways to alleviate it, including trying to please a particular god by tightening up on their religious rituals and increasing blame to those who didn't comply.

*Yahweh again "sold" Israel into subjection, this time to Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Funny thing, in Joshua 11, Jabin the king of Hazor was killed and Hazor was completely decimated. All its people were slaughtered and the city burnt down, which seems to agree with the archaeological record. My study bible has various speculative reasons for the anomaly, including saying it was probably a new Jabin and new Hazor. Wikipedia says some scholars believe these are two versions of the same destruction, one in Joshua, one in Judges.  Now, however, we read that a king Jabin of Hazor has an army with 900 iron chariots! Remember, Yahweh had trouble defeating iron chariots. The text states that Jabin had oppressed the Israelites for twenty years and they cried out to Yahweh.

*Deborah, a prophetess, was leading Israel at this time. She told a man named Barak that Yahweh was commanding him to take an army of 10,000 to go fight Jabin's army, chariots and all. Yahweh would lure them to the Kishon River and deliver them into Barak's hands. Barak refused to go unless Deborah went too. Many people have said Barak was a coward to need a woman to go with him to fight. I say this is a smart man, testing Deborah to see if she really believes Yahweh will do what she says he will. After all, he didn't personally hear Yahweh. Deborah agrees to go, but says the honor of the battle's victory will go to a woman, as though that is a disgrace.

*Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army,  heard about Barak's army and gathered the 900 chariots and his men. Deborah gave the word and Barak's army descended from Mount Tabor and routed Sisera's army by the sword. I'm guessing chariots have trouble on hillsides. Every one in Sisera's army was slaughtered except Sisera, who ran away and hid in the tent of a Kenite woman named Jael. The Kenites, descendants of Moses's brother-in-law, had been friendly with King Jabin. Jael, invited Siisera into her tent, gave him a drink, and covered him up. He told her to deny his presence if anyone should ask. However, when he fell asleep, Jael took a tent peg and a hammer and drove the peg through his head into the ground. He died. Barak came by looking for Sisera and Jael showed him her handiwork. After that, the Israelites supposedly grew stronger until they destroyed
Jabin himself. Again.

After the battle, what did they do with the 900 iron chariots?