NIV Archaeological Study Bible

⁷The descendants of Merari,^† clan by clan, received twelve towns from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Zebulun.^†

⁸So the Israelites allotted to the Levites these towns and their pasturelands, as the LORD had commanded through Moses.

⁹From the tribes of Judah and Simeon they allotted the following towns by name ¹⁰(these towns were assigned to the descendants of Aaron who were from the Kohathite clans of the Levites, because the first lot fell to them):

¹¹They gave them Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron ^†), with its surrounding pastureland, in the hill country of Judah. (Arba was the forefather of Anak.) ¹²But the fields and villages around the city they had given to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his possession.

¹³So to the descendants of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron (a city of refuge for one accused of murder), Libnah,^† ¹⁴Jattir,^† Eshtemoa,^† ¹⁵Holon,^† Debir, ¹⁶Ain, Juttah ^† and Beth Shemesh,^† together with their pasturelands—nine towns from these two tribes.

¹⁷And from the tribe of Benjamin they gave them Gibeon, Geba,^† ¹⁸Anathoth and Almon, together with their pasturelands—four towns.

¹⁹All the towns for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were thirteen, together with their pasturelands.

²⁰The rest of the Kohathite clans of the Levites were allotted towns from the tribe of Ephraim:

²¹In the hill country of Ephraim they were given Shechem ^† (a city of refuge for one accused of murder) and Gezer, ²²Kibzaim and Beth Horon,^† together with their pasturelands—four towns.^†

²³Also from the tribe of Dan they received Eltekeh, Gibbethon, ²⁴Aijalon and Gath Rimmon,^† together with their pasturelands—four towns.

²⁵From half the tribe of Manasseh they received Taanach and Gath Rimmon, together with their pasturelands—two towns.

²⁶All these ten towns and their pasturelands were given to the rest of the Kohathite clans.

²⁷The Levite clans of the Gershonites were given: from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan^† (a city of refuge for one accused of murder^†) and Be Eshtarah, together with their pasturelands—two towns;

²⁸from the tribe of Issachar,^† Kishion, Daberath, ²⁹Jarmuth and En Gannim, together with their pasturelands—four towns;

³⁰from the tribe of Asher,^† Mishal, Abdon, ³¹Helkath and Rehob, together with their pasturelands—four towns;

³²from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh ^† in Galilee (a city of refuge for one accused of murder^†), Hammoth Dor and Kartan, together with their pasturelands—three towns.

³³All the towns of the Gershonite^† clans were thirteen, together with their pasturelands.

³⁴The Merarite clans (the rest of the Levites) were given: from the tribe of Zebulun,^† Jokneam, Kartah, ³⁵Dimnah and Nahalal, together with their pasturelands—four towns;

³⁶from the tribe of Reuben, Bezer,^† Jahaz, ³⁷Kedemoth and Mephaath, together with their pasturelands—four towns;

³⁸from the tribe of Gad, Ramoth ^† in Gilead (a city of refuge for one accused of murder), Mahanaim,^† ³⁹Heshbon and Jazer, together with their pasturelands—four towns in all.

⁴⁰All the towns allotted to the Merarite clans, who were the rest of the Levites, were twelve.

⁴¹The towns of the Levites in the territory held by the Israelites were forty-eight in all, together with their pasturelands.^† ⁴²Each of these towns had pasturelands surrounding it; this was true for all these towns.

⁴³So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers,^† and they took possession^† of it and settled there.^† ⁴⁴The LORD gave them rest ^† on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies^† withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies^† over to them.^† ⁴⁵Not one of all the LORD ’s good promises ^† to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Joshua 22

Eastern Tribes Return Home

¹Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh ²and said to them, “You have done all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded,^† and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. ³For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the LORD your God gave you. ⁴Now that the LORD your God has given your brothers rest as he promised, return to your homes ^† in the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan.^† ⁵But be very careful to keep the commandment^† and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands,^† to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.^† ”

⁶Then Joshua blessed^† them and sent them away, and they went to their homes. ⁷(To the half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given land in Bashan,^† and to the other half of the tribe Joshua gave land on the west side^† of the Jordan with their brothers.) When Joshua sent them home, he blessed them, ⁸saying, “Return to your homes with your great wealth—with large herds of livestock,^† with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and a great quantity of clothing—and divide^† with your brothers the plunder^† from your enemies.”

⁹So the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan to return to Gilead,^† their own land, which they had acquired in accordance with the command of the LORD through Moses.

¹⁰When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. ¹¹And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, ¹²the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh ^† to go to war against them.

¹³So the Israelites sent Phinehas^† son of Eleazar,^† the priest, to the land of Gilead—to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. ¹⁴With him they sent ten of the chief men, one for each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelite clans.^†

¹⁵When they went to Gilead—to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh—they said to them: ¹⁶“The whole assembly of the LORD says: ‘How could you break faith ^† with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the LORD and build yourselves an altar in rebellion^† against him now? ¹⁷Was not the sin of Peor ^† enough for us? Up to this very day we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the LORD! ¹⁸And are you now turning away from the LORD?

“ ‘If you rebel against the LORD today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community ^† of Israel. ¹⁹If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the LORD ’s land, where the LORD ’s tabernacle stands, and share the land with us. But do not rebel against the LORD or against us by building an altar for yourselves, other than the altar of the LORD our God. ²⁰When Achan son of Zerah acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things,^[56] ^† did not wrath^† come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.’ ”^†

²¹Then Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the heads of the clans of Israel: ²²“The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God,^† the LORD!^† He knows!^† And let Israel know! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the LORD, do not spare us this day. ²³If we have built our own altar to turn away from the LORD and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings,^† or to sacrifice fellowship offerings^[57] on it, may the LORD himself call us to account.^†

²⁴“No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, ‘What do you have to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? ²⁵The LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you—you Reubenites and Gadites! You have no share in the LORD.’ So your descendants might cause ours to stop fearing the LORD.

²⁶“That is why we said, ‘Let us get ready and build an altar—but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.’ ²⁷On the contrary, it is to be a witness ^† between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the LORD at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and fellowship offerings.^† Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours, ‘You have no share in the LORD.’

²⁸“And we said, ‘If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the LORD ’s altar, which our fathers built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.’

²⁹“Far be it from us to rebel^† against the LORD and turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle.^† ”

³⁰When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community—the heads of the clans of the Israelites—heard what Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had to say, they were pleased. ³¹And Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, said to Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is with us,^† because you have not acted unfaithfully toward the LORD in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the LORD ’s hand.”

³²Then Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting with the Reubenites and Gadites in Gilead and reported to the Israelites. ³³They were glad to hear the report and praised God.^† And they talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived.

³⁴And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness^† Between Us that the LORD is God.

Joshua 23

Joshua’s Farewell to the Leaders

¹After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest^† from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years,^† ²summoned all Israel—their elders,^† leaders, judges and officials^† —and said to them: “I am old and well advanced in years. ³You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you.^† ⁴Remember how I have allotted ^† as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Great Sea^[58] ^† in the west. ⁵The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.^†

⁶“Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.^† ⁷Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear ^† by them. You must not serve them or bow down^† to them. ⁸But you are to hold fast to the LORD ^† your God, as you have until now.

⁹“The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations;^† to this day no one has been able to withstand you.^† ¹⁰One of you routs a thousand,^† because the LORD your God fights for you,^† just as he promised. ¹¹So be very careful to love the LORD ^† your God.

¹²“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them^† and associate with them,^† ¹³then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares ^† and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes,^† until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.

¹⁴“Now I am about to go the way of all the earth.^† You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.^† ¹⁵But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.^† ¹⁶If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD ’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.^† ”

Joshua 24

The Covenant Renewed at Shechem

¹Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel,^† and they presented themselves before God.

Shechem

Joshua 24 The city of Shechem (“Map 3”) is perhaps best remembered by Bible readers as the place at which Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi deceitfully carried out a terrible slaughter of the local population to avenge the rape of their sister Dinah (Ge 34). Shechem is located in the hill country of Ephraim, in a pass with Mount Ebal to the north and Mount Gerizim to the south. Unfortunately, there are many unanswered questions about its history, particularly as it relates to the Bible.

The earliest occupation of Shechem is known to have been during the Chalcolithic period, from approximately 4000–3500 B.C. No occupation levels of the site are apparent at all from the third millennium B.C., although a substantial city did arise there during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1900–1550 B.C.). This city suffered a calamitous annihilation at the end of this period; a great deal of destruction debris was found at this level. Shechem was again rebuilt during the Late Bronze Age. A large temple found there probably was that of El-Berith, mentioned in Judges 9:46–49, the site at which Abimelech killed about a thousand people.¹ Shechem appears to have been a fairly modest city throughout much of the Iron Age and the postexilic period. First Kings 12:25 mentions that Jeroboam made it his residence for a time, and Shechem is also mentioned in Jeremiah 41:4–8.

The situation of Late Bronze-era Shechem presents the greatest challenges for archaeologists. Many believe that the city was rebuilt in approximately 1450 B.C. (after having been completely destroyed at the end of the Middle Bronze period). A commonly held view is that a people group called Labayu dominated the central hill country, using Shechem as a base during the Late Bronze II Age, from approximately 1400–1300 B.C. (also called the “Amarna Age” because of the Amarna Letters, diplomatic correspondence between Canaan and Egypt from this time period).²

Wall at Shechem made of rough-hewn “cyclopean” stones

Photograph courtesy of © Dr. Gary Pratico

A problem here is the Biblical reference to Joshua’s gathering of Israel at Shechem for covenant ceremonies in the vicinities of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim (Jos 8:30–35; 24:1).³ An encounter with the city or people of Shechem is never mentioned in this context, though it would have been unavoidable if the site had been occupied by a regional power at that time. Some historians suggest that the Shechemites cooperated with the Israelites, but this is highly unlikely, given God’s stipulation that the Israelites were to exterminate the Canaanites—not to negotiate concessions from them (Dt 7:1–2).⁴

The chronology and history of Late Bronze Age Shechem are far from settled matters. The notion that Labayu dominated the hill country from Shechem is speculative. There is also uncertainty about when the first Late Bronze period city at Shechem was actually built. This may have occurred after the conquest; Joshua 8 and 24 appear by their silence to imply that there was no significant Canaanite city there in Joshua’s time. Joshua 24 does mention a place by this name but never alludes to an encounter with Canaanite inhabitants of the city. The Biblical and archaeological evidence for Shechem is difficult to work into a coherent history, and this dilemma is compounded by other issues surrounding the date of the conquest.⁴ Researchers are wise, as always, to exercise caution about jumping to conclusions.

1. See “Abimelech at Shechem.”

2. See “The Amarna Tablets and the Habiru.”

3. See “Joshua’s Altar on Mount Ebal.”

4. See “The Conquest of Canaan.”

²Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River^[59] and worshiped other gods.^† ³But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan ^† and gave him many descendants.^† I gave him Isaac,^† ⁴and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.^† I assigned the hill country of Seir^† to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.^†

⁵“ ‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron,^† and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. ⁶When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen ^[60] ^† as far as the Red Sea.^[61] ⁷But they cried to the LORD for help, and he put darkness ^† between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them.^† You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time.^†

⁸“ ‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land.^† ⁹When Balak son of Zippor,^† the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you.^† ¹⁰But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you ^† again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹“ ‘Then you crossed the Jordan^† and came to Jericho.^† The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.^† ¹²I sent the hornet ^† ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. ¹³So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’^†

¹⁴“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness.^† Throw away the gods^† your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt,^† and serve the LORD. ¹⁵But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites,^† in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”^†

¹⁶Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! ¹⁷It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. ¹⁸And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”

¹⁹Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God;^† he is a jealous God.^† He will not forgive your rebellion^† and your sins. ²⁰If you forsake the LORD ^† and serve foreign gods, he will turn^† and bring disaster on you and make an end of you,^† after he has been good to you.”

²¹But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.”

²²Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen^† to serve the LORD.”

“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

²³“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods^† that are among you and yield your hearts^† to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

²⁴And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.”^†

²⁵On that day Joshua made a covenant^† for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws.^† ²⁶And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God.^† Then he took a large stone^† and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD.

²⁷“See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness^† against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”

Buried in the Promised Land

²⁸Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.

²⁹After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.^† ³⁰And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah ^[62] ^† in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

³¹Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders^† who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.

³²And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt,^† were buried at Shechem in the tract of land^† that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver^[63] from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.

³³And Eleazar son of Aaron^† died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas^† in the hill country of Ephraim.

Judges 1

Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites

¹After the death^† of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, “Who will be the first^† to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?^† ”

The Judges Period

Judges 1 The period of the judges extended from the end of the conquest, around 1400 B.C., until Saul was anointed king of Israel in approximately 1050 B.C. An Egyptian document, Papyrus Anastasi I, describes Canaan at that time as something like the American “Wild West,” with roads nearly impassable by chariot and boding ever-present dangers from wild animals and robbers. During this era Israel functioned as a tribal society led by leaders called judges, and its religious center was at Shiloh (Jos 18:1; “Map 3”).¹

By the late thirteenth century B.C. the Israelites were the major political power in the region. That changed, however, with the invasion of the Philistines in the early twelfth century B.C.² The Israelites were almost continuously at war with the Philistines for the next two centuries, until David finally subdued this troublesome adversary once and for all.³

A major socioeconomic change took place in the eastern Mediterranean region during the period of the judges. The city-states that had predominated in the Late Bronze Age⁴,⁵ were destroyed in the late thirteenth and early twelfth centuries B.C., ushering in the Iron Age.⁶ Rural shepherds like the Israelites could no longer depend upon the city-states for produce and were forced to settle down and become agriculturists in order to survive. Thus, while the Israelites were pastoralists, dependent largely upon flocks and herds for their economic security (Ge 46:32–34; 47:3; Ex 12:38; Jdg 5:16) and dwelling in tents (20:8) at the beginning of the Judges period, by the time of Gideon, around 1190 B.C., at least some of them had become farmers living in villages (6:3–4, 11, 27–30, 37).⁷

Many scholars claim that the record of the conquest in Joshua is idealistic, with a more realistic account detailed in Judges 1. However, the two books identify the same list of cities that could not be conquered (Jos 13:3–4; 15:63; 16:10; 17:11–12, 16; Jdg 1:27–36). The focus in Joshua is not on those failures but rather on the victories resulting from remaining true to the Lord. Judges, on the other hand, emphasizes Israel’s failings during a period when the people of God followed the pagan ways of the nations around them.

1. See “The Tabernacle at Shiloh.”

2. See “The Archaeology of Philistia” and “Technological Supremacy of the Philistines’ Iron Weapons.”

3. See “David.”

4. See Glossary for definitions of bolded words.

5. See “Archaeological Periods Chart” in the front of this Bible.

6. See “Changes in Canaan.”

7. See “Food and Agriculture.”

²The LORD answered, “Judah^† is to go; I have given the land into their hands.^† ”

³Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites^† went with them.

⁴When Judah attacked, the LORD gave the Canaanites and Perizzites^† into their hands and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek.^† ⁵It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. ⁶Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

⁷Then Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back^† for what I did to them.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem^† also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.

⁹After that, the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country,^† the Negev^† and the western foothills. ¹⁰They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron ^† (formerly called Kiriath Arba^†) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.^†

¹¹From there they advanced against the people living in Debir^† (formerly called Kiriath Sepher). ¹²And Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.” ¹³Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.

¹⁴One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him ^[1] to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What can I do for you?”

¹⁵She replied, “Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water.” Then Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

¹⁶The descendants of Moses’ father-in-law,^† the Kenite,^† went up from the City of Palms^[2] ^† with the men of Judah to live among the people of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.^†

¹⁷Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites^† their brothers and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed^[3] the city. Therefore it was called Hormah.^[4] ^† ¹⁸The men of Judah also took^[5] Gaza,^† Ashkelon and Ekron—each city with its territory.

¹⁹The LORD was with^† the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots.^† ²⁰As Moses had promised, Hebron ^† was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak.^† ²¹The Benjamites, however, failed ^† to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem;^† to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.

²²Now the house of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the LORD was with them. ²³When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz),^† ²⁴the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Show us how to get into the city and we will see that you are treated well.^† ” ²⁵So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared ^† the man and his whole family. ²⁶He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.

²⁷But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam ^† or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites^† were determined to live in that land. ²⁸When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. ²⁹Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer,^† but the Canaanites continued to live there among them.^† ³⁰Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, who remained among them; but they did subject them to forced labor. ³¹Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib ^† or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob, ³²and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. ³³Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath ^†; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. ³⁴The Amorites ^† confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. ³⁵And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon ^† and Shaalbim, but when the power of the house of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor. ³⁶The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion ^[6] Pass^† to Sela and beyond.

Judges 2

The Angel of the LORD at Bokim

¹The angel of the LORD^† went up from Gilgal to Bokim^† and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt^† and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers.^† I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,^† ²and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land,^† but you shall break down their altars.^† ’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? ³Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you;^† they will be [thorns]^† in your sides and their gods will be a snare^† to you.”

The Amarna Tablets and the Habiru

Judges 2 A few decades after the conquest, in the mid-fourteenth century B.C., a reformer and visionary named Amenhotep IV came to the throne in Egypt. He instituted sweeping changes in the areas of art, politics and especially religion. Amenhotep IV rejected the traditional pantheon of Egyptian deities and worshiped only “Aten,” the sun disk. Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaten, “One who is effective on behalf of the Aten,” and built a new capital which he called Akhetaten, “the horizon of Aten,” in Amarna about 250 miles (403 km) north of the original capital of Thebes. Life in the new capital centered upon the worship of Aten. Following Akhenaten’s 17-year reign, the conservative Egyptians soon reverted to their old ways, moving the capital back to Thebes¹ and reestablishing their traditional gods.

In 1887 a Bedouin woman discovered a number of clay tablets with writing on them among the ruins of Akhetaten.² When it was learned that the tablets were valuable, the local natives dug up several hundred of them and sold them to various museums and individuals. A few more were later found in officially sanctioned excavations. Altogether, 382 tablets have been recovered, nearly all of which are diplomatic correspondence and thus referred to in total as the Amarna Letters.

The letters are written in Akkadian (Babylonian), the international language of the day, instead of in Egyptian hieroglyphics.³ They span a period of about 20 years during the mid-fourteenth century B.C. A stamped brick identified the building where the tablets were found as the “Place of the Pharaoh’s Correspondence.” A few of the letters are in the form of outgoing correspondence, but the vast majority are incoming diplomatic messages from throughout the ancient Near East. Some 106 of them are from Egypt’s vassal kings in Canaan and thus are of great interest to students of the Bible.

An Amarna tablet

Preserving Bible Times; © Dr. James C. Martin; permission of The Cairo Museum

The letters from Canaan provide a rare glimpse into conditions a half century or so after the conquest.⁴ This was early in the period of the judges, when individual tribes were consolidating their hold upon the land. The Biblical account is similar to the situation reflected in the Amarna Letters. The city-state rulers reported hostilities throughout Canaan. In particular, they complained about a group of people called Habiru. If the pharaoh did not take action, the letters warned, all of Canaan would be taken over by these people. The king of Jerusalem lamented, “The war against me is severe … Habiru have plundered all the lands of the king.” But who were these Habiru?

The Habiru are mentioned in texts from various places in the Near East between about 1750 and 1150 B.C. These texts indicate that they were nomadic tribesmen or fugitives who had penetrated urbanized areas and were proving troublesome to the metropolitan populations. It is possible that there is a linguistic connection between the term “Habiru” and the Biblical name “Hebrew.” Some of the Habiru in the highlands of Canaan in the mid-fourteenth century B.C. may in fact have been the Israelites, since the Bible identifies them as having been in this area at that time. Although it is certain that not all people called Habiru were Israelites, the indigenous peoples of Canaan may well have dubbed the Israelites as such, and the name may have stuck as Hebrews.

See the study note at Genesis 10:21 for another possible origin for the name Hebrews.

1. See “Thebes.”

2. See “Cuneiform and Clay Tablets in the Ancient Near East.”

3. See “Languages of the Old Testament World.”

4. See “Canaan.”

⁴When the angel of the LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, ⁵and they called that place Bokim.^[7] There they offered sacrifices to the LORD.

Disobedience and Defeat

⁶After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. ⁷The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.

⁸Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. ⁹And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres ^[8] ^† in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.^† ¹¹Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD^† and served the Baals.^† ¹²They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods ^† of the peoples around them.^† They provoked the LORD to anger ¹³because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.^† ¹⁴In his anger ^† against Israel the LORD handed them over^† to raiders who plundered them. He sold them^† to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.^† ¹⁵Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

¹⁶Then the LORD raised up judges,^[9] ^† who saved^† them out of the hands of these raiders. ¹⁷Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted ^† themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD ’s commands.^† ¹⁸Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion ^† on them as they groaned^† under those who oppressed and afflicted them. ¹⁹But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt ^† than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them.^† They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

²⁰Therefore the LORD was very angry^† with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, ²¹I will no longer drive out ^† before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. ²²I will use them to test ^† Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did.” ²³The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

Judges 3

¹These are the nations the LORD left to test^† all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan ²(he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): ³the five^† rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo^[10] Hamath. ⁴They were left to test ^† the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD ’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.

Eglon’s Palace

Judges 3 Eglon, king of Moab,¹ led a coalition of Moabites, Ammonites and Amalekites from east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley and subdued the Israelite tribes during the second half of the fourteenth century B.C. (Jdg 3:12–14). He established a headquarters at Jericho, the City of Palms (8 mi—nearly 13 km—northwest of the Dead Sea), and from there collected tribute from the Israelites. When British archaeologist John Garstang excavated Jericho in 1933 he discovered a large structure that he identified as the palace of Eglon. He dubbed it the “Middle Building,” since it was sandwiched between Iron Age² structures above and the destroyed Bronze Age city below.³ It had been erected sometime during the second half of the fourteenth century B.C., precisely the time of Eglon.

The building measured 39 feet (11.9 m) by 48 feet (14.6 m) and had much expensive local and imported painted pottery inside. A cuneiform tablet, a rare find in Palestine, attested that the owner had been involved in high-level administrative activities. No other buildings from that time period were discovered, so it is evident that there was no local community. The single structure that was excavated had been occupied for a relatively short period of time and then abandoned. This matches the situation in Judges 3. Apparently Eglon traveled to Jericho periodically to collect tribute from the Israelites. There he constructed a luxury villa, as mentioned in chapter 3. But this building was indeed abandoned after 18 years when Eglon was assassinated by Ehud and the Moabites fled back across the Jordan River.

1. See “Moab.”

2. See “Archaeological Periods Chart” in the front of this Bible.

3. See “The Walls of Jericho.”

⁵The Israelites lived^† among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁶They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.^†

Othniel

⁷The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD^† their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.^† ⁸The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold ^† them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim,^[11] to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. ⁹But when they cried out ^† to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel^† son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. ¹⁰The Spirit of the LORD came upon him,^† so that he became Israel’s judge^[12] and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. ¹¹So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Ehud

¹²Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD,^† and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab^† power over Israel. ¹³Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.^[13] ^† ¹⁴The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.

¹⁵Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer^† —Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. ¹⁶Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half ^[14] long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. ¹⁷He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man.^† ¹⁸After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. ¹⁹At the idols^[15] near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

The king said, “Quiet!” And all his attendants left him.

²⁰Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace^[16] and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, ²¹Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. ²²Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. ²³Then Ehud went out to the porch^[17]; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

²⁴After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself^† in the inner room of the house.” ²⁵They waited to the point of embarrassment,^† but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.

²⁶While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet ^† in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.

²⁸“Follow me,” he ordered, “for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.^† ” So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan^† that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. ²⁹At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. ³⁰That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace ^† for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath,^† who struck down six hundred^† Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

Judges 4

Deborah

¹After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil^† in the eyes of the LORD. ²So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.^† The commander of his army was Sisera,^† who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. ³Because he had nine hundred iron chariots^† and had cruelly oppressed^† the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.

Deborah and Barak and the Destruction of Hazor

Judges 4 After 20 years of oppression Deborah and Barak rallied six Israelite tribes and defeated the army of Jabin, king of Canaan, at the Kishon River (Jdg 4:15). Sisera was Jabin’s general. Deborah and Barak continued their offensive “until they destroyed” Jabin, who ruled at Hazor (v. 24; see “Map 3”).¹ According to the chronological data in the Old Testament this event would have occurred during the second half of the thirteenth century B.C.

Excavations at Hazor have indeed revealed evidence of massive destruction at this time—so severe that the city was not rebuilt until the time of Solomon, during the tenth century B.C.² An intriguing aspect of the destruction is that the heads and hands of the statues of both deities and dignitaries were intentionally broken off (cf. 1Sa 5:4). Excavators suggest that this could have been the work of the Israelites, carrying out Moses’ injunction to “cut down the idols of their gods” (Dt 12:3).

At first glance it might appear strangely coincidental that Jabin was the name both of the king of Hazor defeated by Deborah and Barak and of the king of the same city defeated by Joshua (Jos 11). However, an eighteenth- or seventeenth-century B.C. royal letter from Hazor, eighteenth-century tablets from Mari³ and a thirteenth-century Egyptian text all refer to kings at Hazor with the name Jabin. Clearly, Jabin was a dynastic name at Hazor (much as individual Egyptian rulers were each called Pharaoh), and the Bible accurately reflects this historical fact.

Kishon Pass, the lower gate

Photograph: © Todd Bolen/Bible Places.com

1. See “Hazor.”

2. See “The Building Activity of Solomon.”

3. See “Mari.”

⁴Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading^[18] Israel at that time. ⁵She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel ^† in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. ⁶She sent for Barak son of Abinoam^† from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. ⁷I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River ^† and give him into your hands.’ ”

⁸Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

⁹“Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this,^[19] the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh,^† ¹⁰where he summoned ^† Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

¹¹Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites,^† the descendants of Hobab,^† Moses’ brother-in-law,^[20] and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim^† near Kedesh.

¹²When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, ¹³Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots ^† and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead^† of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. ¹⁵At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed ^† Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. ¹⁶But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.^†

¹⁷Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.

¹⁹“I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk,^† gave him a drink, and covered him up.

²⁰“Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say ‘No.’ ”

²¹But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.^†

²²Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.

²³On that day God subdued^† Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites. ²⁴And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.

Judges 5

The Song of Deborah

¹On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:^†

The Bulletin and Poetic Accounts of the Battle of Kadesh

Judges 5 Judges 4 records in prose the defeat of Sisera, captain of Jabin’s army, at the hand of a Kenite woman. This is followed in chapter 5 by a poetic account of the same event. Differences in style and detail between the two versions have led many scholars to discount the reliability of one or the other account. For instance, chapter 4 mentions only the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun as having been involved in the battle (4:6, 10), while chapter 5 also includes Ephraim, Benjamin, Manasseh and Issachar (4:13–18). Some argue that the two versions stem from separate sources that were later combined by the ancient editor of the book of Judges. This conclusion, however, is unnecessary, as the seeming discrepancies can be explained by other means.

That prosaic and poetic accounts of the same events occurred together in antiquity can be demonstrated by Egyptian literary carvings. In the fifth year of the reign of Egypt’s Rameses II (1275 B.C.), the Egyptian army fought Muwatalli II of the Hittites at the site of Kadesh (“Map 5”) near the Orontes River.¹ The Egyptian triumph is depicted in paired wall reliefs that were carved on several Egyptian temples, always accompanied by double inscriptions recounting the heroic role of Rameses II in the victory (although the victory was not as complete as the inscriptions suggest).

One of the two accounts appearing with the battle scenes is known as the Poem, a poetic description of the entire battle with an occasional prosaic section. A prose text (known as the Bulletin) provides supplementary information, namely an account of the pharaoh questioning two Hittite scouts. Like Judges 4 and 5, the Bulletin and Poem recount a military victory in differing forms: one prosaic, the other poetic. In addition, the two works do not repeat precisely the same information but complement one another, with the Poem being the more complete or universal account of the battle. The appearance of these two segments, together with the same two battle reliefs on several temples, indicates that they were intended to be read together and had been commissioned and composed at the same time.

Therefore, the fact that Judges 4 comprises a narrative account of the battle against Jabin and Sisera, while Judges 5 is a poetic rendering of the same event, is not a signal that one report is less reliable than the other. It was not uncommon for significant events to be memorialized in a literary, poetic form while also being recorded in more ordinary prose. As the Bulletin account gives more precise information regarding specific events at the Kadesh battle, Judges 4 most likely focuses on the two tribes that provided the most significant military force, even though other tribes assisted in the fight.

1. See “Anatolia and the Hittites.”

²“When the princes in Israel take the lead,

when the people willingly offer^† themselves—

praise the LORD!^†

³“Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!

I will sing to^[21] the LORD, I will sing;

I will make music to^[22] the LORD, the God of Israel.^†

⁴“O LORD, when you went out from Seir,^†

when you marched from the land of Edom,

the earth shook, the heavens poured,

the clouds poured down water.^†

⁵The mountains quaked^† before the LORD, the One of Sinai,

before the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁶“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,^†

in the days of Jael,^† the roads^† were abandoned;

travelers took to winding paths.

⁷Village life^[23] in Israel ceased,

ceased until I,^[24] Deborah, arose,

arose a mother in Israel.

⁸When they chose new gods,^†

war came to the city gates,

and not a shield or spear was seen

among forty thousand in Israel.

⁹My heart is with Israel’s princes,

with the willing volunteers^† among the people.

Praise the LORD!

¹⁰“You who ride on white donkeys,^†

sitting on your saddle blankets,

and you who walk along the road,

consider ¹¹the voice of the singers ^[25] at the watering places.

They recite the righteous acts^† of the LORD,

the righteous acts of his warriors^[26] in Israel.

“Then the people of the LORD

went down to the city gates.^†

¹²‘Wake up,^† wake up, Deborah!

Wake up, wake up, break out in song!

Arise, O Barak!

Take captive your captives,^† O son of Abinoam.’

¹³“Then the men who were left

came down to the nobles;

the people of the LORD

came to me with the mighty.

¹⁴Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek;^†

Benjamin was with the people who followed you.

From Makir captains came down,

from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s staff.

¹⁵The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;^†

yes, Issachar was with Barak,

rushing after him into the valley.

In the districts of Reuben

there was much searching of heart.

¹⁶Why did you stay among the campfires^[27]

to hear the whistling for the flocks?^†

In the districts of Reuben

there was much searching of heart.

¹⁷Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.

And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?

Asher remained on the coast^†

and stayed in his coves.

¹⁸The people of Zebulun risked their very lives;

so did Naphtali on the heights of the field.^†

¹⁹“Kings came^†, they fought;

the kings of Canaan fought

at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo,^†

but they carried off no silver, no plunder.^†

²⁰From the heavens^† the stars fought,

from their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹The river Kishon^† swept them away,

the age-old river, the river Kishon.

March on, my soul; be strong!

²²Then thundered the horses’ hoofs—

galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the LORD.

‘Curse its people bitterly,

because they did not come to help the LORD,

to help the LORD against the mighty.’

²⁴“Most blessed of women be Jael,^†

the wife of Heber the Kenite,

most blessed of tent-dwelling women.

²⁵He asked for water, and she gave him milk;^†

in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.

²⁶Her hand reached for the tent peg,

her right hand for the workman’s hammer.

She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,

she shattered and pierced his temple.^†

²⁷At her feet he sank,

he fell; there he lay.

At her feet he sank, he fell;

where he sank, there he fell—dead.

²⁸“Through the window peered Sisera’s mother;

behind the lattice she cried out,^†

‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’

²⁹The wisest of her ladies answer her;

indeed, she keeps saying to herself,

³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:^†

a girl or two for each man,

colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,

colorful garments embroidered,

highly embroidered garments for my neck—

all this as plunder?’

³¹“So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!

But may they who love you be like the sun^†

when it rises in its strength.”

Then the land had peace^† forty years.

Judges 6

Gideon

¹Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD,^† and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.^† ²Because the power of Midian was so oppressive,^† the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.^† ³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites ^† and other eastern peoples invaded the country. ⁴They camped on the land and ruined the crops ^† all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. ⁵They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.^† It was impossible to count the men and their camels;^† they invaded the land to ravage it. ⁶Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out ^† to the LORD for help.

The Descent of Ishtar

Judges 6 Modern Christian readers of Judges 6 may be astonished to learn how quickly—and evidently almost casually—Israelite families fell into the worship of pagan gods and set up shrines in their honor. It is helpful to see how widespread and universally accepted these myths of pagan gods were. For example, there are several versions of the Descent of the Goddess Inanna (also called Ishtar) Into the Underworld.

A Sumerian version begins with the goddess Inanna determined to visit the underworld, perhaps in order to rule there. She gains admission but must pass through seven gates in order to enter the underworld. At each gate she is divested of the symbols of her prestige and divinity: her crown, jewelry and garments. The process is symbolic of death, and Inanna arrives naked, as the dead do when they enter the underworld. Inanna is then condemned for her act of entering the underworld, and her corpse is hung up.

Hymn to Inanna (Ishtar); Babylonia, twentieth—seventeenth centuries B.C.

Inanna’s servant Ninshubur appeals to the gods, and Enki, the god of wisdom, fashions two creatures who enter the underworld and revive Inanna. Inanna is allowed to return to the world above but must find a substitute to take her place. She determines not to take anyone who has mourned for her but is angered to discover her former lover Dumuzi arrayed in splendid robes rather than in mourning clothes. Dumuzi’s sister Geshtinanna pleads for him, and an arrangement is made whereby Dumuzi and Geshtinanna will each spend half of the year in the underworld. Their cycles of descending into death and again ascending symbolize the seasons and the apparent annual death of vegetation (in an Akkadian version, no plants on Earth would grow while Inanna/Ishtar was in the underworld).

Variants of this myth can be found throughout the ancient world. Dumuzi is mentioned in the Bible under the name Tammuz.¹ The Canaanite counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna or the Akkadian Ishtar is Astarte² (or sometimes Anat). The Egyptian goddess Isis plays a similar role. Although the details differ, there are overtones here as well of the Greek myth of Persephone. Through these myths ancient peoples attempted to come to terms with issues of fertility, the seasons, sexuality and death. Because the myths were almost universally held, and because they seemed to help people understand the most fundamental problems of life, it was difficult for the average Israelite to avoid succumbing to their allure. Despite all they had been told to the contrary, many Israelites believed that they could embrace these myths and the gods and goddesses behind them and yet remain faithful to their God, Yahweh, and his covenant.

1. See “Mourning for Tammuz.”

2. See “The Queen of Heaven.”

⁷When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, ⁸he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt,^† out of the land of slavery. ⁹I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land.^† ¹⁰I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; do not worship ^† the gods of the Amorites,^† in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

¹¹The angel of the LORD^† came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite,^† where his son Gideon^† was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹²When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you,^† mighty warrior.”

¹³“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told^† us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned^† us and put us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have^† and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵“But Lord,^[28] ” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.^† ”

¹⁶The LORD answered, “I will be with you^†, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign^† that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the LORD said, “I will wait until you return.”

¹⁹Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah ^[29] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.^†

²⁰The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock,^† and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. ²¹With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread.^† Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. ²²When Gideon realized ^† that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”^†

²³But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid.^† You are not going to die.”

²⁴So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called^† it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah^† of the Abiezrites.

²⁵That same night the LORD said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.^[30] Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole^[31] ^† beside it. ²⁶Then build a proper kind of ^[32] altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second^[33] bull as a burnt offering.”

²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

²⁸In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar,^† demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!

²⁹They asked each other, “Who did this?”

When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.”

³⁰The men of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”

³¹But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.” ³²So that day they called Gideon “Jerub-Baal,^[34] ^† ” saying, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he broke down Baal’s altar.

³³Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples^† joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.^† ³⁴Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon ^† Gideon, and he blew a trumpet,^† summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. ³⁵He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali,^† so that they too went up to meet them.

³⁶Gideon said to God, “If you will save^† Israel by my hand as you have promised— ³⁷look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.^† If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know^† that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” ³⁸And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request.^† Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” ⁴⁰That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Judges 7

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

¹Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal^† (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.^† ²The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength ^† has saved her, ³announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.^† ’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

Ancient Voices

To Kurnugi, land of [no return],^*

Ishtar daughter of Sin was [determined] to go;

The daughter of Sin was determined to go

To the dark house, dwelling of Erkalla’s god,

To the house which those who enter cannot leave,

On the road where traveling is one-way only,

To the house where those who enter are deprived of light,

Where dust is their food, clay their bread.

They see no light, they dwell in darkness…

* Words in brackets added by translator for clarity or where text has gaps

—The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld

See “The Descent of Ishtar” article.

Changes in Canaan

Judges 7 During the course of the period of the judges (c. 1400–1050 B.C.), major political, social and economic changes impacting the Israelite tribes took place throughout the Mediterranean region. When the Israelites entered Canaan¹ they encountered fortified city-states. On the eve of their entry Moses warned them that they were going in to face great cities fortified “to the sky” (Dt 9:1). Israel managed to subdue the highlands, leaving that area nearly devoid of any urban population. Urban centers, however, remained intact in the lowlands.

In the late thirteenth century B.C., for reasons not totally understood, urban cultures throughout the Mediterranean began to collapse. Beginning in the twelfth century B.C. a new culture appeared in Canaan—small, unwalled, agricultural villages dispersed across the landscape. Archaeologists refer to this as the Iron Age I² period.

These agricultural centers provide the first tangible archaeological evidence for Israel’s presence in Canaan. Prior to the twelfth century B.C., evidence for Israel’s existence in the land is virtually impossible to find. Also, we have no records in the Bible or elsewhere of God’s people encountering the Egyptian forces that sometimes swept through Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. The first documented encounter, in fact, does not occur until the time of Merneptah at the end of the thirteenth century.³

A group of scholars, therefore, believes that Israel did not exist in the land until about 1200 B.C. Some maintain that the Israelite nation emerged from the indigenous Canaanite population at this time. This theory totally dismisses as nonhistorical the Biblical record of the patriarchs,⁴ Egyptian sojourn, exodus,⁵ wilderness wanderings,⁶ conquest⁷ and the period of the early judges.⁸

Fragment of the book of Judges from Qumran, first century B.C.

While it is true that there is sparse evidence for the Israelites in the land of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age, several identifiable factors may reasonably account for this:

• For the first 200 years of their existence in Canaan, the Israelites had no material culture of their own. The generation that had departed from Egypt equipped with knowledge of building techniques, crafts, etc., had died out during the 40 years of wilderness wandering. Those who entered Canaan, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, had been born and raised as shepherds in the Sinai wilderness. Thus, during the early period of the judges (fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C.) the Israelites, although present, were archaeologically “invisible.”

• The rural, pastoral existence of the early Israelites is not likely to have left much behind in the way of material evidence.

• The number of Israelites who entered Canaan may have been relatively small. The issue here is how we are to understand the census figures given in Numbers 1. It is possible that the total number of Israelites departing Egypt was only around 20,000; if so, their archaeological impact upon entering Canaan would have been minimal.⁹

• Some of the language of the book of Joshua is misleading to the modern reader, and this problem is compounded by the picture of “Israel During the Period of the Judges” typically shown on Bible maps. We get the impression that the Israelites ruled all the territory that had been allotted to them by Joshua and that they were a unified nation with fixed borders. This perception is entirely erroneous. Joshua’s allotment represented the ultimate, ideal situation, but many areas were never conquered. The tribe of Dan, for example, was totally unable to secure its prearranged territory.¹⁰

• Because the Israelites tended to be rural and pastoral in their lifestyle, and because they settled in the highlands, they tended to be bypassed by major military forces sweeping through the area, such as the army of the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II (c. 1279–1213). These frequently nomadic shepherds and herdsmen were much more likely to be troubled by local enemies like the Amalekites (Jdg 6–7) and the Ammonites (chs. 10–11).

There are limits to what archaeology can tell us about early Israel. However, what information this discipline does provide corresponds well with a careful reading of the Biblical account.

1. See “Canaan.”

2. See “Archaeological Periods Chart” in the front of this Bible.

3. See “The Merneptah Stele.”

4. See “The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives.”

5. See “The Date of the Exodus.”

6. See “A Timeline for the Wilderness Wanderings.”

7. See “The Conquest of Canaan.”

8. See “The Judges Period.”

9. See “Numbers and Their Meaning.”

10.See “The Migration of the Danites.”

⁴But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many^† men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

⁵So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” ⁶Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

⁷The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.”^† ⁸So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. ⁹During that night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.^† ¹⁰If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah ¹¹and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. ¹²The Midianites, the Amalekites ^† and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts.^† Their camels^† could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.^†

¹³Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”

¹⁴His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”

¹⁵When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God.^† He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” ¹⁶Dividing the three hundred men ^† into three companies,^† he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

¹⁷“Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. ¹⁸When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets,^† then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’ ”

¹⁹Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword ^† for the LORD and for Gideon!” ²¹While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.^†

²²When the three hundred trumpets sounded,^† the LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other^† with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah^† near Tabbath. ²³Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out,^† and they pursued the Midianites. ²⁴Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ^† ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.”

So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they took the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. ²⁵They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb ^†. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb,^† and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.^†

Judges 8

Zebah and Zalmunna

¹Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?”^† And they criticized him sharply.^†

The Merneptah Stele

Judges 8 The Merneptah Stele is an inscribed stone slab discovered in Pharaoh Merneptah’s mortuary temple in Thebes, Egypt, in 1896 (Merneptah is sometimes spelled Merenptah). This monument is the earliest record of Israel outside the Bible and contains the only mention of Israel in Egyptian records. This reference occurs in a short section describing a military campaign in Canaan conducted by Merneptah during the first few years of his reign, around 1210 B.C. It claims that “Israel is wasted, its seed is not; and Hurru is become a widow because of Egypt.”

As was often the case in ancient records, the text exaggerates Merneptah’s accomplishments. He did not in fact annihilate Israel as the stele implies. Israel’s mention in the list of city-states and nations supposedly defeated by this pharaoh attests that Israel was an important entity in Merneptah’s day—assuming that he would not have seen fit to boast about defeating an obscure or defenseless people group.

The Merneptah Stele

The real importance of the Merneptah Stele, however, is difficult to exaggerate:

• It demonstrates that Israel was a recognized people in the land of Canaan in approximately 1200 B.C. This is important because some scholars today suggest that Israel did not even exist as a recognizable entity at this time. In the light of this contemporary witness to Israel’s existence, such a claim makes no sense.

• It provides us with an outside boundary for fixing the date of the exodus and conquest. Some scholars postulate a very late date for the conquest—even as late as about 1150 B.C. in the Iron Age I.¹ However, the stele indicates that Israel was already in the land and apparently well established.² Although it does not totally rule it out, the stele also makes unlikely the more broadly accepted “late date” for the exodus and conquest (in the late thirteenth century).³

Egyptian wall inscriptions at Karnak

1. See “Archaeological Periods Chart” in the front of this Bible.

2. See also “The Pharaoh of the Exodus.”

3. See “The Date of the Exodus” and “The Conquest of Canaan.”

²But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? ³God gave Oreb and Zeeb,^† the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.

⁴Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan^† and crossed it. ⁵He said to the men of Succoth,^† “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna,^† the kings of Midian.”

⁶But the officials of Succoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread^† to your troops?”^†

⁷Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna^† into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”

⁸From there he went up to Peniel^[35] ^† and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Succoth had. ⁹So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”^†

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen.^† ¹¹Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah ^† and Jogbehah^† and fell upon the unsuspecting army. ¹²Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.

¹³Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. ¹⁴He caught a young man of Succoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Succoth, the elders of the town. ¹⁵Then Gideon came and said to the men of Succoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?^† ’ ” ¹⁶He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Succoth a lesson ^† by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. ¹⁷He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.^†

¹⁸Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?^† ”

“Men like you,” they answered, “each one with the bearing of a prince.”

¹⁹Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the LORD lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.” ²⁰Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid.

²¹Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’ ” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments^† off their camels’ necks.

Gideon’s Ephod

²²The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.”

²³But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule^† over you.” ²⁴And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites ^† to wear gold earrings.)

²⁵They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each man threw a ring from his plunder onto it. ²⁶The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels,^[36] not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. ²⁷Gideon made the gold into an ephod,^† which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare^† to Gideon and his family.

Gideon’s Death

²⁸Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land enjoyed peace^† forty years.

²⁹Jerub-Baal^† son of Joash went back home to live. ³⁰He had seventy sons ^† of his own, for he had many wives. ³¹His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech.^† ³²Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age ^† and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals.^† They set up Baal-Berith^† as their god^† ³⁴and did not remember ^† the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. ³⁵They also failed to show kindness to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for them.^†

Judges 9

Abimelech

¹Abimelech^† son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, ²“Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember, I am your flesh and blood.^† ”

Abimelech at Shechem

Shechem

Judges 9 Gideon’s son Abimelech attempted to become king of Israel by taking control of Shechem¹ (see “Map 3”), an important commercial and political center. He was given funds from “the temple of Baal-Berith” (Jdg 9:4), also known as “Baal of the covenant.” Baal was the Canaanite storm god and the god of fertility.² Further references to the “temple of their god” (v. 27), the “tower of Shechem” (vv. 46–47, 49) and the “temple of El-Berith” (v. 46) all appear to regard the same temple. Several archaeological findings at Shechem relate directly to Judges 9:

• A great fortress-temple excavated there has been identified as the temple of this chapter. It was constructed in the seventeenth century B.C. and lasted until the city’s destruction by Abimelech in the twelfth century B.C. The largest temple yet found in Canaan, it measures 70 feet (21 m) by 86 feet (26 m), with foundations 17 feet (5 m) thick.

• In front is a courtyard with a sacred stone 4.8 feet (1.5 m) wide and 16.5 inches (.4 m) thick. It was broken in antiquity but still stands 4.8 feet (1.5 m) high. This sacred stone may be the “pillar” where the coronation ceremony took place when Abimelech was declared king (v. 6).

• The city gate from the time of Abimelech was excavated on the eastern side of the site. It was from this point that Abimelech’s rival, Gaal, observed Abimelech and his men approaching the city (vv. 35–37). Leaving the security of the walls of Shechem, Gaal engaged Abimelech in battle but was defeated (vv. 38–40). The gate is an impressive structure some 54 feet (16.5 m) wide and 44 feet (13.4 m) deep, with orthostats (stone slabs) lining its walls.³

• Evidence of massive destruction from the time of Abimelech has been found throughout the site, attesting to his razing of the city (v. 45).

1. See “Shechem.”

2. See “Baal and the Fertility Cults.”

3. See “The City Gate.”