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?

Judges chapter 1

After reading chapter 1:

*After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked Yahweh which tribe should continue the fighting. Yahweh chose the tribe of Judah. Who was Yahweh speaking through now? We are not told, but presumably it was the current high priest, Phineas. The men of Judah invited the Simeonites to accompany them.  Together they killed ten thousand men. They captured the king of Bezek and cut off his thumbs and big toes. The king viewed this as a kind of divine Karma, because he had done the same thing to 70 other kings.

*Next, they attacked Jerusalem, slaughtered its inhabitants, and burned the city to the ground. Then we are told they attacked Canaanites living in Hebron and Debir, which had already been totally conquered in Joshua chapter 10! We are also retold the story of Caleb's daughter marrying Othniel, the conqueror of Debir. We are also retold the story of her asking for land with springs of water from Joshua chapter 15. Only this time it all happens after the death of Joshua, not before!

*The Judahites and Simeonites, with the help of Yahweh, went on conquering Canaanites and took Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron. (History says these Canaanite cities were actually conquered by the Philistines or the sea people.) They also took possession of the hill country, which appears redundant because Joshua is said to have done the same thing in Joshua chapter 11. Again, we are told they could not conquer the people of the plains because they had iron chariots. Foiled again, Yahweh!

*Caleb was given Hebron and drove three sons of Anak from it.The sons of Anak, or Anakim, are interesting fellows. They are considered to be Giants. Also, Numbers 13 says they are descendants of the Nephilim, introduced in Genesis 6. The big question is how did they survive the flood?

*The Benjaminites could not drive out the Jebusites. Manasseh could not drive out four tribes that were determined to live in that land. Ephraim could not completely drive out Canaanites living in Gezer. Zebulon could not drive out Canaanites living in Kitron nor Nahalol. Asher could not drive out 7 tribes of Canaanites living in "his" land, so he just had to live with them. Naphtali could not drive out two tribes. The Amorites  confined the tribe of Dan to the hill country and wouldn't let them come down into the plain. Sounds like Yahweh's powers either waned or experienced limitations. It is quite clear that the Israelites did not completely control the land of Cannan, no matter how you look at it. Nevertheless, this chapter insists that the Israelite tribes grew stronger and eventually subjected these pesky leftover Canaanites to forced labor. Yeah, right.