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THE BOOK OF JUDGES

EDWARD LEWIS CURTIS

INTRODUCTION

I. TEXT

THE text of the Book of Judges has a common history with that of the Old Testament as a whole. The Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament all represent a single text called the Massoretic or traditional text. Thus these manuscripts differ widely from those of the New Testament, which represent a number of variant texts, the product of different copyists who carefully or with intention departed from originals. The reason for this uniformity of Old Testament manuscripts lies in the great reverence which the Jews had for their Scriptures. This reverence was of gradual growth, but by the first century A.D. it had become so intense that the work of a copyist was then called divine, and warnings were given against dropping or adding a letter. This resulted in the establishment, probably early in the second century, of a single authorized text. All other manuscripts were either destroyed or allowed to disappear. Care was also taken that manuscripts worn or defective through age should be destroyed. Hence the existing manuscripts of the Old Testament are all much younger than those of the Greek New Testament. The oldest Hebrew manuscript of the Pentateuch, the most revered portion of the Jewish Scriptures, is of the ninth century A.D., and that of the entire Old Testament of the tenth.

This single Massoretic text of the Old Testament is preserved in two forms, one, the earlier, of consonants only, and one of consonants with vowel signs which were introduced sometime between the beginnings of the fifth and ninth centuries A.D. But the variations between these forms are slight. The text itself, however, is not without corruptions which came in before its authorization. Some of these may be corrected by a recourse to the Greek translations of the third and second centuries B.C., and some help also in the same direction is given by the Syriac translation of the third century A.D., which is based upon the earlier Greek. Many corruptions, however, must either be allowed to remain, giving passages which are untranslatable or without meaning, or else be removed by conjecture. The Book of Judges compared with the Books of Samuel has few of these corruptions. Some, however, will be found, especially in the fifth chapter, the song of Deborah; this like many passages of poetry seems to have suffered badly at the hand of early copyists.

II. PLACE AND CONTENTS

The Book of Judges is the seventh book in the Old Testament in the Hebrew, Greek, and English Bibles, coming in the two latter between the Books of Joshua and Ruth, and in the first between the Books of Joshua and Samuel (the Book of Ruth having a later place in the Hebrew Canon). This place was given it from its contents. It narrates the history of Israel from the conquest of the land of Canaan given in the Book of Joshua to the beginnings of the establishment of the Hebrew monarchy with which the Books of Samuel open.

The book falls into three divisions: chapters 1-2: 5, an introduction giving a fragmentary account of the conquest of Canaan; chapters 2:6-16: 31, the main history of the judges; and chapters 17-21, an appendix containing the stories of the origin of the sanctuary at Dan and of the sin of Gibeah.

The first division (1-2: 5) pictures especially the unsubdued Canaanites west of the Jordan. It opens with the invasion by the tribes of Judah and Simeon of their subsequent territory, situated from Jerusalem southward and embracing the regions of Hebron, Debir, and Hormah, whose captures are related (1:1-21). Then follows the conquest of Central and Northern Palestine. The seizure of Bethel by the house of Joseph is given in detail (1:22-26), but the failure of the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan to completely expel the Canaanites is particularly recorded. Lists of the unconquered cities are given (1: 27-36), and the section closes with the story of a reproof from the angel of Jehovah for this failure (2:1–5).

The second part (2:6-16:31) opens with the mention of the death of Joshua and of the character of the men of his generation (2:6-10). Then follows a general statement of the course of Israel's history, which consists of a series of alternating oppressions and deliverances occasioned by apostasies in the worship of Jehovah and returns in loyalty to him (2: 11-3:6). The people do evil in the eyes of Jehovah, who sells them into the hand of their enemies; and in their distress they cry unto Jehovah, who raises up a judge to deliver them; but at his death they backslide, and the same events are repeated. The failure of

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