{"id":593,"date":"2017-11-22T02:52:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T02:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/?page_id=593"},"modified":"2017-11-22T03:17:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T03:17:57","slug":"overview-of-joshua-and-judges","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/the-former-prophets\/overview-of-joshua-and-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Overview of Joshua and Judges"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s in the Text?<\/h2>\n

Both Joshua and Judges tell the story of the Hebrew people\u2019s entry into Canaan after their wandering in the wilderness, and both relate their early occupation of that land.<\/p>\n

Joshua<\/h3>\n

Chapters 1\u201412<\/b>\u00a0of the book of Joshua tell the story of a violent military campaign in which \u201call Israel\u201d is led by Joshua against the people of Canaan. Chapters 13\u201421 relate the distribution of the land among the victorious tribes of Israel.\u00a0The final chapters (22\u201424) focus on the debt of the Hebrew tribes to their God who has given them the land.<\/p>\n

\"Tribes
Land allotments to the tribes in the book of Joshua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This final section may itself be divided into three smaller sections. Chapter 22 relates the return of the warriors of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh to their people. They had been given land earlier by Moses on the eastern side of the Jordan river with the agreement that they would go into Canaan (west of the Jordan) and fight to win the land for the other tribes. When the war of conquest is over, they return to their families on the eastern side of the Jordan.<\/p>\n

In chapter 23 Joshua gives a farewell speech in which he reminds the people that their success depends on allegiance to the Lord<\/i>. The people are then gathered at Shechem (in what would centuries later become the region of Samaria) for a ceremony to renew their commitment to the covenant (Joshua 24).<\/p>\n

Judges<\/h3>\n

The book of Judges opens with a restatement of the settlement of the land (1:1\u20142:5). The bulk of the book (2:6\u201416:31) is a collection of short stories about particular heroes who have come to be called \u201cjudges.\u201d\u00a0The final chapters (17\u201421) tell about the tribe of Dan moving north and the punishment of the tribe of Benjamin in a civil war.\u00a0The material within each of these broad sections is more loosely organized than the material in Joshua.<\/p>\n

The first half of the book presents a cycle in which the people abandon the\u00a0Lord<\/span> and are then abandoned by the\u00a0Lord<\/span>; they cry out to God and God has compassion on them by raising up a leader to deliver them and return them to divine favor. In the last half of the book, though, after Abimelech attempts unsuccessfully to make himself king (chapter 9), the author presents a steady decline in the people\u2019s faithfulness to the\u00a0Lord<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The collection of short stories in 2:6\u201416:31 focusses on heroes\u2014charismatic leaders who delivered the people at some point of crisis. These stories usually end with the formula \u201cand [heroe’s name] judged Israel [number] years.\u201d<\/p>\n

We should ask what it means to say they \u201cjudged\u201d Israel. Clearly, it does not mean what we typically mean by the term \u201cjudge\u201d in our modern context. Most of these leaders are not shown carrying out any judicial function (with the notable exception of Deborah). Here are the locations of stories about some of the more prominent Judges:<\/p>\n