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connected with the progress of the kingdom of God. Sacred history is primarily that of
the kingdom of God, and only secondarily that of individuals or periods. More
particularly is this the reason why we have no record at all of five of the Judges^172 - not
even that Jehovah had raised them up.
For this cause also some events are specially selected in the sacred narrative, which, to
the superficial reader, may seem trivial; sometimes even difficult or objectionable. But a
more careful study will show that the real object of these narratives is, to bring into full
view one or other of the great principles of the Old Testament dispensation. For the
same reason also we must not look for strict chronological arrangement in the
narratives. In point of fact, the Judges ruled only over one or several of the tribes, to
whom they brought special deliverance. Accordingly, the history of some of the Judges
overlaps each other, their reign having been contemporaneous in different parts of the
land. Thus while in the far east across Jordan the sway of the children of Ammon lasted
for eighteen years, till Jephthah brought deliverance (Judges 10:6-12:7), the Philistines
at the same time oppressed Israel in the far southwest. This circumstance renders the
chronology of the Book of Judges more complicated.
The Book of Judges divides itself into three parts: a general introduction (1-3:6), a
sketch of the period of the Judges (3:7-16:31), arranged in six groups of events (3:7-11;
3:12-31; 4, 5; 6-10:5; 10:6-12:15; 13-16), and a double Appendix (17-21). The two
series of events, recorded in the latter, evidently took place at the commencement of the
period of the Judges. This appears from a comparison of Judges 18:1 with 1:34, and
again of Judges 20:28 with Joshua 22:13 and 24:33. The first of the two narratives is
mainly intended to describe the religious, the second the moral decadence among the
tribes of Israel. In these respects they throw light upon the whole period. We see how
soon, after the death of Joshua and of his contemporaries, Israel declined - spiritually, in
combining with the heathen around, and mingling their idolatrous rites with the service
of Jehovah; and nationally, the war with the Canaanites being neglected, and the tribes
heeding on every great occasion only their private interests and jealousies, irrespective
of the common weal (5:15-l7, 23; 8:1-9), until "the men of Ephraim" actually levy war
against Jephthah (12:1-6), and Israel sinks so low as to deliver its Samson into the
hands of the Philistines (15:9-13)!
Side by side with this decay of Israel we notice a similar decline in the spiritual
character of the Judges from an Othniel and a Deborah down to Samson. The mission of
these Judges was, as we have seen, chiefly local and always temporary, God raising up
a special deliverer in a time of special need. It is quite evident that such special
instruments were not necessarily always under the influence of spiritual motives. God
has at all periods of history used what instruments He pleased for the deliverance of His
people - a Darius, a Cyrus, a Gamaliel, and in more modern times often what appeared
the most unlikely, to effect His own purposes. Yet in the history of the Judges it seems
(^)