The Seven Detailed Cycles
3:7 to 16:31
As Michael Hattin relates in his book Judges, the Perils of Possession, this section of the book is the actual story of the judges. With a total of twelve judges, there were actually twelve cycles, but the author does not detail all twelve . . . only seven (to see link click Ae – The Cycle of Sin in Judges). In each cycle, the tribes strayed from Ha’Shem by failing to uproot Canaanite settlement, and consequently embraced Canaanite idolatry, they suffered oppression and then cried out to God for rescue. ADONAI relented and inspired a charismatic leader, a judge, who rose from obscurity to lead the tribes of Isra’el in battle against their foes. This judge triumphed, restored some semblance of stability, and led the people for a number of years. After the judges’ death, however, their hard-won accomplishments were forgotten, and once again the people strayed from God. The cycle then repeated itself.
The reason why there are twelve judges, and no more or less, is precisely because there are twelve tribes. While most, but not all, of the tribes are represented by at least one judge, the point is not to be comprehensive in terms of their tribal identity but rather to indicate to us that this is a book about twelve individual tribes . . . not about the nation of Isra’el. In other words, during the period of the judges, tribalism reigned. Its effects are acutely felt at every point in the book. When a tribe is oppressed, they will usually have to deal with the threat on their own. Rarely do other tribes come to the aid of their brothers, unless they themselves are also threatened. Rarely does a judge exercise any authority over, or rescue, any tribe but their own. This naturally led to an important conclusion about the judges in the book, unlike Moses or Joshua, they were regional, rather than national leaders.
With this surprising insight, it is now possible to appreciate why some judges are treated at length, while others receive only a few lines of text. We are familiar with the names Ehud, Debroah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson because the book tells us about them in a fair amount of detail. But how many of us recognize the names Othniel, Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, or Abdon? How many of us remember any significant details of their exploits? This is in spite of the fact that these seven “minor” judges actually outnumber the five mentioned above. From this we may reason that the point of the narrative is not to completely relate the story of all of Isra’el’s leaders over the course of hundreds of years; but rather, to indicate that there were twelve of them, neither more nor less, because their story is the story of the tribes. In other words, it may very well be the case that many of these minor judges are included not because their exploits were pivotal or that their lives were memorable; but rather, because we need a total of exactly twelve judges in order to construct a framework that is intended to highlight the theme of tribalism!59
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