Joshua Installed as Leader

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’”

But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you after he said, ‘The Lord your God will give you rest by giving you this land.’ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, ready for battle, must cross over ahead of your fellow Israelites. You are to help them until the Lord gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey it, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”

Rahab and the Spies

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

“Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”

“Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”

So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”

Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

“Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”

Crossing the Jordan

Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it.”

Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.

And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”

Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the Lord and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, ready for battle, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war.

That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant law to come up out of the Jordan.”

So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”

And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

Circumcision and Passover at Gilgal

At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.

Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.

On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.

The Fall of Jericho

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”

When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.

Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho:

“At the cost of his firstborn son
    he will lay its foundations;
at the cost of his youngest
    he will set up its gates.”

So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

Achan’s Sin

But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”

The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

“Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

“‘In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the Lord chooses shall come forward clan by clan; the clan the Lord chooses shall come forward family by family; and the family the Lord chooses shall come forward man by man. Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord and has done an outrageous thing in Israel!’”

Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes, and Judah was chosen. The clans of Judah came forward, and the Zerahites were chosen. He had the clan of the Zerahites come forward by families, and Zimri was chosen. Joshua had his family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was chosen.

Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord.

Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.”

Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since.

Ai Destroyed

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”

Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people.

Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand. As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.

The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua.

So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.

The Covenant Renewed at Mount Ebal

Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.

The Gibeonite Deception

Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things—the kings in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea as far as Lebanon (the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites)— they came together to wage war against Joshua and Israel.

However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. They put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the Israelites, “We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us.”

The Israelites said to the Hivites, “But perhaps you live near us, so how can we make a treaty with you?”

“We are your servants,” they said to Joshua.

But Joshua asked, “Who are you and where do you come from?”

They answered: “Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard reports of him: all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan—Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. And our elders and all those living in our country said to us, ‘Take provisions for your journey; go and meet them and say to them, “We are your servants; make a treaty with us.”’ This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.”

The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

Three days after they made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbors, living near them. So the Israelites set out and on the third day came to their cities: Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath Jearim. But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel.

The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, but all the leaders answered, “We have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that God’s wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them.” They continued, “Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers in the service of the whole assembly.” So the leaders’ promise to them was kept.

Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, “Why did you deceive us by saying, ‘We live a long way from you,’ while actually you live near us? You are now under a curse: You will never be released from service as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

They answered Joshua, “Your servants were clearly told how the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you.”

So Joshua saved them from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. That day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the assembly, to provide for the needs of the altar of the Lord at the place the Lord would choose. And that is what they are to this day.

The Sun Stands Still

Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish and Debir king of Eglon. “Come up and help me attack Gibeon,” he said, “because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.”

Then the five kings of the Amorites—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon—joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it.

The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.

On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
    and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
So the sun stood still,
    and the moon stopped,
    till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.

Five Amorite Kings Killed

Now the five kings had fled and hidden in the cave at Makkedah. When Joshua was told that the five kings had been found hiding in the cave at Makkedah, he said, “Roll large rocks up to the mouth of the cave, and post some men there to guard it. But don’t stop; pursue your enemies! Attack them from the rear and don’t let them reach their cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hand.”

So Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely, but a few survivors managed to reach their fortified cities. The whole army then returned safely to Joshua in the camp at Makkedah, and no one uttered a word against the Israelites.

Joshua said, “Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me.” So they brought the five kings out of the cave—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon. When they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks.

Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.” Then Joshua put the kings to death and exposed their bodies on five poles, and they were left hanging on the poles until evening.

At sunset Joshua gave the order and they took them down from the poles and threw them into the cave where they had been hiding. At the mouth of the cave they placed large rocks, which are there to this day.

Southern Cities Conquered

That day Joshua took Makkedah. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Makkedah to Libnah and attacked it. The Lord also gave that city and its king into Israel’s hand. The city and everyone in it Joshua put to the sword. He left no survivors there. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish; he took up positions against it and attacked it. The Lord gave Lachish into Israel’s hands, and Joshua took it on the second day. The city and everyone in it he put to the sword, just as he had done to Libnah. Meanwhile, Horam king of Gezer had come up to help Lachish, but Joshua defeated him and his army—until no survivors were left.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Lachish to Eglon; they took up positions against it and attacked it. They captured it that same day and put it to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it, just as they had done to Lachish.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron and attacked it. They took the city and put it to the sword, together with its king, its villages and everyone in it. They left no survivors. Just as at Eglon, they totally destroyed it and everyone in it.

Northern Kings Defeated

When Jabin king of Hazor heard of this, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon, to the kings of Shimron and Akshaph, and to the northern kings who were in the mountains, in the Arabah south of Kinnereth, in the western foothills and in Naphoth Dor on the west; to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah. They came out with all their troops and a large number of horses and chariots—a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the Waters of Merom to fight against Israel.

The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them, slain, over to Israel. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.”

So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and to the Valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. Joshua did to them as the Lord had directed: He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.

At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed, and he burned Hazor itself.

Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds—except Hazor, which Joshua burned. The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed. As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.

So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and put them to death. Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive.

So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.

Joshua’s Farewell to the Leaders

After a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man, summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials—and said to them: “I am very old. You 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. Remember 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 Mediterranean Sea in the west. The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the Lord your God promised you.

“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. Do 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. But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.

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

“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, then 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.

“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. But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. If 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.”

The Covenant Renewed at Shechem

Then 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.

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.

“‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But 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 wilderness for a long time.

“‘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. When 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. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

“‘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. I 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. So 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.’

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

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents 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. And 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.”

Joshua 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. If 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.”

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

Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

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

And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”

On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. And 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.

“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.”

Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.

Buried in the Promised Land

After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Israel 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.

And 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 from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.

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

Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites

After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites?”

The Lord answered, “Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands.”

The men of Judah then said to the Simeonites their fellow Israelites, “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.

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

Then 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.

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

After that, Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills. They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath Arba) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai. From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher).

And Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Aksah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.” Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Aksah to him in marriage.

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

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

The descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms with the people of Judah to live among the inhabitants of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.

Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites their fellow Israelites and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed the city. Therefore it was called Hormah. Judah also took Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron—each city with its territory.

The 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 chariots fitted with iron. As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak. The Benjamites, however, did not drive out the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.

Now the tribes of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the Lord was with them. When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz), the 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.” So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared the man and his whole family. He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.

But 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. When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them, but Zebulun did subject them to forced labor. Nor did Asher drive out those living in Akko or Sidon or Ahlab or Akzib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob. The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out. Neither 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. The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor. The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion Pass to Sela and beyond.

The Angel of the Lord at Bokim

The 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 I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and 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? And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’”

When the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

Disobedience and Defeat

After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. The 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.

Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever 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.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever 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 relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

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

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

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

Othniel

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But 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. The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Ehud

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. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.

Again 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. Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.”

The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left.

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

After 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 palace.” They 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.

While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah. When 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.

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

Shamgar

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

Deborah

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.

Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She 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 them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

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

“Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.

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

When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.

Then 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, with ten thousand men following him. At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

Jael 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 covered him with a blanket.

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

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

But 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.

Just then Barak 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.

On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.

The Song of Deborah

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

“When the princes in Israel take the lead,
    when the people willingly offer themselves—
    praise the Lord!

“Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
    I, even I, will sing to the Lord;
    I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song.

“When you, Lord, went out from Seir,
    when you marched from the land of Edom,
the earth shook, the heavens poured,
    the clouds poured down water.
The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai,
    before the Lord, the God of Israel.

“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
    in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned;
    travelers took to winding paths.
Villagers in Israel would not fight;
    they held back until I, Deborah, arose,
    until I arose, a mother in Israel.
God chose new leaders
    when war came to the city gates,
but not a shield or spear was seen
    among forty thousand in Israel.
My heart is with Israel’s princes,
    with the willing volunteers among the people.
    Praise the Lord!

“You who ride on white donkeys,
    sitting on your saddle blankets,
    and you who walk along the road,
consider the voice of the singers at the watering places.
    They recite the victories of the Lord,
    the victories of his villagers in Israel.

“Then the people of the Lord
    went down to the city gates.
‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
    Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Arise, Barak!
    Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’

“The remnant of the nobles came down;
    the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty.
Some 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.
The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
    yes, Issachar was with Barak,
    sent under his command into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
Why did you stay among the sheep pens
    to hear the whistling for the flocks?
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
    And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast
    and stayed in his coves.
The people of Zebulun risked their very lives;
    so did Naphtali on the terraced fields.

“Kings came, they fought,
    the kings of Canaan fought.
At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo,
    they took no plunder of silver.
From the heavens the stars fought,
    from their courses they fought against Sisera.
The river Kishon swept them away,
    the age-old river, the river Kishon.
    March on, my soul; be strong!
Then thundered the horses’ hooves—
    galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.
‘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.’

“Most blessed of women be Jael,
    the wife of Heber the Kenite,
    most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
He asked for water, and she gave him milk;
    in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
Her 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.
At her feet he sank,
    he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
    where he sank, there he fell—dead.

“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?’
The wisest of her ladies answer her;
    indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:
    a woman or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
    colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments for my neck—
    all this as plunder?’

“So may all your enemies perish, Lord!
    But may all who love you be like the sun
    when it rises in its strength.”

Then the land had peace forty years.

Gideon

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They 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. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he 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. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I 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.”

The 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. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

The 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?”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please 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.”

Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah 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.

The 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. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

So 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.

That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of 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 bull as a burnt offering.”

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

In the morning when the people 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!

They asked each other, “Who did this?”

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

The people 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.”

But 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.” So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, “Let Baal contend with him.”

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

Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— look, 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.” And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

Then 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, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

Early 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. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out 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.”

So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

The 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 others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home 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. During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and 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. The 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.

Gideon 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.”

His 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.”

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

“Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When 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.’”

Gideon 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. The 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!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.

When 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. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. Gideon 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 seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. They 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.

Zebah and Zalmunna

Now 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 challenged him vigorously.

But 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? God 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.

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

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

Then 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.”

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

Now 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. Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army. Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.

Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town. Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “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?’” He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.

Then 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.”

Gideon 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.” Turning 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.

Zebah 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

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

But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” And 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.)

They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, 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. Gideon 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

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

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

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

Abimelek

Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, “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.”

When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, “He is related to us.” They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding.

Tola

After the time of Abimelek, a man of Issachar named Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir.

Jair

He was followed by Jair of Gilead, who led Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys. They controlled thirty towns in Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth Jair. When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.

Jephthah

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.”

The Lord replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”

But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.

When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.”

Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.

Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”

Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?”

The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”

Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?”

The elders of Gilead replied, “The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.

Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”

The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”

Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, saying:

“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

“Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.

“Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’ Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.

“Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.

“Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess. Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time? I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”

The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”

“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”

“You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite tradition that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Jephthah and Ephraim

The Ephraimite forces were called out, and they crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head.”

Jephthah answered, “I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn’t save me out of their hands. When I saw that you wouldn’t help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?”

Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.” The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

Jephthah led Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in a town in Gilead.

Ibzan, Elon and Abdon

After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage to those outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty young women as wives from outside his clan. Ibzan led Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

After him, Elon the Zebulunite led Israel ten years. Then Elon died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

After him, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, led Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel eight years. Then Abdon son of Hillel died and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

The Birth of Samson

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.’”

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!”

Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”

“I am,” he said.

So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”

The angel of the Lord answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”

Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.”

The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)

Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

“We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”

But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”

The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson’s Marriage

Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”

His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”

But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” (His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)

Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions.

“Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”

He replied,

“Out of the eater, something to eat;
    out of the strong, something sweet.”

For three days they could not give the answer.

On the fourth day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property?”

Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”

“I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,

“What is sweeter than honey?
    What is stronger than a lion?”

Samson said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
    you would not have solved my riddle.”

Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.

“I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”

Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.”

So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.

The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

“Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Then Samson said,

“With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have killed a thousand men.”

When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.

Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.

Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Samson and Delilah

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.”

But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”

He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”

He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric and tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,

“Our god has delivered our enemy
    into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
    and multiplied our slain.”

While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.

When they stood him among the pillars, Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.

Naomi Loses Her Husband and Sons

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Ruth Meets Boaz in the Grain Field

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.

And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”

“The Lord bless you!” they answered.

Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”

The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”

So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”

Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

“May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”

When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”

So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.

Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”

Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor

One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”

“I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.

When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”

“The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”

So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.”

He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he went back to town.

When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”

Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

Boaz Marries Ruth

Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)

So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.

Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Naomi Gains a Son

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The Genealogy of David

This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

Context

The books from Joshua to Esther tell the story of God's sovereign actions in dealing with

the nation of Israel from the conquest to the dispersion. Each book focuses on the key people,

events, cycles, and patterns in its stories. While these books describe what humans did

throughout the history of Israel, they also tell the story of the God who works in history to

accomplish His divine purposes.

The historical books comprise one-third of the Old Testament and serve as the continuation

of the story of Israel after the era of the patriarchs and the exodus. The book of Joshua opens

with the death of Moses and then transitions to Joshua's leading the tribes of Israel to cross

the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land. The book of Judges serves as a transition from

the success of the conquest to the difficulties of the settlement of the tribes. The books of

Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles trace the history of the kings of Israel through the stages of

unity, division, and collapse, resulting in the deportation of Israel into Assyrian and Judah

into Babylonian captivity.

The story of Israel's survival after the exile is told in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and

Esther. The first two record the account of the Jews who returned to Jerusalem after the

Babylonian deportation. Esther tells the story of the protection and survival of the Jews of the

Diaspora, who did not return to their homeland but remained dispersed throughout the

Persian Empire.

DIVINE PERSPECTIVE

Biblical history is written from a perspective of theological interpretation. By contrast,

secular Western history is generally written in a naturalistic style that records facts and

interprets them as arbitrary events that are the results of social, political, or economic factors.

Hill and Walton observe: "Cause and effect in the world of the ancient Near East is viewed

almost entirely in supernatural terms."1 Thus, the style of the Old Testament historical books

is typical of the era from which they originate.

The Hebrew canon includes the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings

under the heading "Former Prophets" in the section called Nevi'im because some thought they
were written by the prophets Samuel and Jeremiah. Historical books that were put in the
section of "Writings" (Ketuvim) of the canon include Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles, books
thought to be written by Ezra, plus the book of Esther, which was recorded by the "men of
the great assembly."2
CRITICAL CONCERNS
Critical scholars have raised numerous questions about the historical accuracy of many
technical details in these narratives: miraculous events (e.g., the sun standing still, Josh 10:1–
15), exaggerated emphases (e.g., Samson's exploits, Judg 15:16), large numbers (e.g.
Gideon's foes, Judg 8:10), the accuracy of dates (e.g., 300 years from the conquest to
Jephthah, Judg 11:26) and even the general accuracy of the biblical accounts of the exodus,
conquest, settlement, and the kingships of David and Solomon.3 Minimalist critical scholars
tend to reject the historicity of all these people and events and consider many archaeological
finds as having little significance on proving the historical accuracy of the biblical record
(e.g., the "house of David" reference in the Tell Dan inscription).4 Therefore, they interpret
the individual accounts of major events (e.g., exodus, conquest, judges, kings) as ideographic
accounts that are colored by the author's limited religious and political perspective (e.g.,
Judean interpretation of northern Israel's kings).
Most critical scholars today tend to view the Old Testament historical books as a series of
independent literary units woven together by various editors with revisions and additions by
redactors during the exilic period. They view the final form of these books as a
"Deuteronomistic history," designed to reinforce the theology of the book of Deuteronomy
as the determining theological ideology in the history of Israel. What remains unproven in
their approach is whether these books were rewritten to recast their recorded events to fit a
theology of Deuteronomy (curses and blessings) or whether they were originally written to
express such a viewpoint as inspired Scripture in the first place.
Walter Kaiser points out that there is currently no consensus among critical scholars in
regard to any plausible reconstruction of the history of Israel. He counters many of their
objections by pointing out that miracles in the historical accounts are not arbitrary
explanations but a network of divine interventions that determined the course of events. He
also argues that lack of documentation does not prove that certain events never occurred.
Several people mentioned in the Bible have only recently been attested in nonbiblical sources
(e.g., Belshazzar, Jehoiachin). Even debatable archaeological sites (Jericho, Ai) may yet be
clarified by future excavations.5
BIBLICAL SOURCES

The twelve books that comprise the Historical Books of the Old Testament provide a rich

treasure of information about Israel's leaders: judges, kings, priests, and prophets. They also

open up a window into the daily lives of the people: their culture, their customs, beliefs,

practices, successes, and failures. Because of the information recorded in these books, there

is more known about life in ancient Israel than any of her Middle Eastern neighbors. Leon

Wood observes: "Israel was one of the smallest countries of the pre-Christian era, but her

history has had a major impact on the world."6

The Historical Books cover a period of nearly 1,000 years from Joshua's conquest of

Canaan (c. 1405 BC) until the Persian period in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah (c. 430 BC).

The biblical record defines the following periods of Israel's history:

PERIODS OF ISRAEL'S HISTORY

1405–1390 BC Conquest of Canaan (Joshua)

1390–1050 BC Settlement of the Tribes (Judges)

1050–1010 BC Kingship of Saul (1 Samuel)

1010–970 BC Kingship of David (2 Samuel)

970–931 BC Kingship of Solomon (1 Kings 1–11)

931–586 BC Kings of Israel and Judah (Kings and Chronicles)

605–535 BC Babylonian Captivity (Kings and Chronicles)

486–464 BC Dispersion of the Jews (Esther)

458–430 BC Return from Exile (Ezra and Nehemiah)

The precise dating of many Old Testament historical events cannot be determined by any

permanent fixed point of reference, but events that intersect with well-known ancient Near

Eastern kings (e.g., Sennacherib's attack on Hezekiah in Jerusalem in 701 BC) make precise

dating possible. Other dates in the biblical books are often limited to the number of years a

particular king ruled (e.g., "the eleventh year of Joram," 2 Kgs 9:29). Longer periods of time

are indicated (e.g., 430 years in Egypt, Exod 12:40; or 480 years from the exodus to the

fourth year of Solomon's reign, 1 Kgs 6:1); but sometimes no beginning or ending dates are

given. The resolution to this challenge, writes Eugene Merrill, is "the discovery of datable

events of ancient Near Eastern history to which those of the OT can be associated. These

consist primarily of astronomical phenomena that can be precisely pinpointed and

chronological texts that make reference to them. When these are integrated, a consistent and

virtually certain chronological framework emerges for the OT historical books."7

The themes of the Historical Books revolve around God's activity in calling, choosing,

punishing, redeeming, and using the nation of Israel as His covenant people to accomplish

His global purposes. In this regard these books not only tell the story of the nation and people

of Israel but the greater story of God's redeeming grace for all people (e.g., Rahab the

Canaanite, Ruth the Moabite, Naaman the Syrian). In each book the covenant promises of

God are expressed in terms of divine blessing, judgment, forgiveness, restoration, and

preservation.

THEMES OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

Joshua - The Conquest

Judges - The Struggle

Ruth - Ray of Hope

1–2 - Samuel Kings and Prophets

1–2 - Kings Kings of Israel and Judah

1–2 - Chronicles Priestly Perspective

Ezra - Rebuilding the Temple

Nehemiah - Rebuilding the Wall

Esther - Rescuing the People

Written mostly as narrative prose, with a few outbursts of poetic expression (e.g., Song of

Deborah and Barak, Judges 5), the Historical Books transport the reader down the corridor of

time through nearly a millennium of human encounters with divine providence. The Lord

Yahweh Himself intervenes in Israel's national life to preserve the promises and fulfill the

prophecies of His covenant with them time and time again.

The book of Joshua tells the story of the conquest and settlement of the Promised Land

under the leadership of Joshua (yehoshua', "the LORD is salvation"). The LXX title is rendered

Iēsous, which is also the Greek spelling of the name Jesus (savior). Thus, Joshua is depicted

as a savior or deliverer of the Israelites. He is the representative of Yahweh and the human

instrument of the fulfillment of His divine promises to the children of Israel.

The conquest was the fulfillment of God's prophecy to Abraham that his descendants

would possess the land of Canaan after 400 years of slavery and oppression (Gen 15:12–15).

While the book of Joshua opens the section of the Historical Books in the English Bible, it

was the first book of the Former Prophets in the section of the Prophets (Nevi'im) in the

Hebrew Bible. Marten Woudstra explains: "The intent of the Former Prophets is to present an

interpretive (prophetical) history of God's dealings with his covenant people Israel."1

Like the other historical books, Joshua is an anonymous work. Despite its anonymity,

several lines of evidence point to Joshua as the book's author. The Babylonian Talmud (Baba

Bathra 14b) names Joshua as the author. The book itself portrays Joshua's involvement in

various writing projects (8:32; 18:8–9; 24:26). The events spoken of in the book are narrated

from the perspective of an eyewitness. Moreover, the writer sometimes uses the first-person

plural pronouns "we" (5:1 NIV) and "us" (5:6 NIV) when describing the events of the book.

Other indications of a fifteenth- to thirteenth-century BC composition include the

employment of ancient names of Canaanite peoples, deities, and cities (3:10; 13:4–6;

15:9,13–14) and the fact that the covenant renewal ceremony (chap. 24) reflects Hittite

suzerain vassal treaty structures from that era.2

BACKGROUND

Because the events of the book are narrated from the perspective of an eyewitness, how

one dates the book is contingent upon how one dates the exodus and the conquest of Canaan.

While many date the exodus in 1290 BC and the conquest in 1250 BC, it seems better to date

the exodus in 1446 BC and the conquest in 1406 BC. According to 1 Kgs 6:1, the exodus

happened 480 years earlier than the inauguration of the building of the temple, which took

place in the fourth year of Solomon's reign in 966 BC. Thus, the exodus took place in c. 1446

BC. Because of the existence of an additional 40-year period between the exodus and the

entrance into Canaan (Exod 16:35; Num 14:34–35), the beginning of the conquest took place

in 1406 BC.

Also, Caleb indicates that he was 40 years old at the time of the Kadesh Barnea failure

(Josh 14:7) and 85 at the conclusion of the conquest (Josh 14:10). Thus, 45 years elapsed

between the Kadesh Barnea incident and the completion of the conquest. Because Israel

wandered in the desert for roughly 38 years before entering Canaan (Num 10:11; 20:1,22–29;

33:38; Deut 1:3; Josh 4:19), the conquest must have taken about seven years. This figure is

not surprising in light of Josh 11:18, which indicates that the conquest took some time. All

things considered, the conquest probably began in 1406 BC and was completed around 1399

BC. Thus the first half of the book of Joshua (chaps. 1–14) depicting the conquest transpired

from 1406 BC to 1399 BC, while the last half (chaps. 15–24) took place between 1399 and

1374 BC.happened 480 years earlier than the inauguration of the building of the temple, which took

place in the fourth year of Solomon's reign in 966 BC. Thus, the exodus took place in c. 1446

BC. Because of the existence of an additional 40-year period between the exodus and the

entrance into Canaan (Exod 16:35; Num 14:34–35), the beginning of the conquest took place

in 1406 BC.

Also, Caleb indicates that he was 40 years old at the time of the Kadesh Barnea failure

(Josh 14:7) and 85 at the conclusion of the conquest (Josh 14:10). Thus, 45 years elapsed

between the Kadesh Barnea incident and the completion of the conquest. Because Israel

wandered in the desert for roughly 38 years before entering Canaan (Num 10:11; 20:1,22–29;

33:38; Deut 1:3; Josh 4:19), the conquest must have taken about seven years. This figure is

not surprising in light of Josh 11:18, which indicates that the conquest took some time. All

things considered, the conquest probably began in 1406 BC and was completed around 1399

BC. Thus the first half of the book of Joshua (chaps. 1–14) depicting the conquest transpired

from 1406 BC to 1399 BC, while the last half (chaps. 15–24) took place between 1399 and

1374 BC.3

The oasis of Jericho taken from atop the Old Testament tel Jericho.

Furthermore, archaeological evidence indicates support for the early date for the

conquest. The excavations of Jericho, Ai, and Hazor have led to a vigorous debate about the

date of the destruction of various Canaanite cities during Israel's conquest of Canaan.4 Both

Jericho and Hazor clearly show evidence of being burned in the fifteenth century BC, which

fits with the early date for the exodus. References to Joshua's death (24:24) and the elders

that outlived him (24:31) indicate that these final notations were added by another inspired

writer, perhaps Phinehas (24:33).

The place of writing is Canaan since Israel was in this land at the time of the book's

closing. Joshua addresses the second generation that emerged from the wilderness to experience the conquest. At the end of the initial conquest, much land remained to be

conquered (13:1). Thus, Joshua wrote to the second generation of Israelites to exhort them to

continue to conquer the land as well as honor God's covenant so that their descendants would

continue to stay in the land. Whereas the older generation failed to trust God fully in the

wilderness (Numbers 14), the younger generation, born in the wilderness, fully committed

themselves to God and followed Joshua's leadership in conquering the Promised Land.

The structure of the book of Joshua contains three major sections: the conquest of Canaan

(chaps. 1–12), the division of Canaan (chaps. 13–22), and the conditions necessary for

remaining and prospering in Canaan (chaps. 22–24). The conquest section (chaps. 1–12) can

be further divided according to the various campaigns waged by Joshua against the

Canaanites. Among them are the central campaign (5:13–9:27), the southern campaign (chap.

10), and the northern campaign (chap. 11).

Outline

I. Conquest of Canaan (Joshua 1–12)

A. Preparation of the People (Joshua 1–5)

B. Progression of the Conquest (Joshua 6–12)

1. Central Campaign (Joshua 6–9)

2. Southern Campaign (Joshua 10)

3. Northern Campaign (Joshua 11–12)

II. Division of Canaan (Joshua 13–21)

A. Unconquered Land (Josh 13:1–7)

B. East Bank Tribes (Josh 13:8–33)

C. West Bank Tribes (Joshua 14–19)

D. Designated Cities (Joshua 20–21)

III. Conclusion of Joshua's Ministry (Joshua 22–24)

A. Dispute about the Altar (Joshua 22)

B. Joshua's Final Sermon (Joshua 23)

C. Covenant Renewal at Shechem (Joshua 24:1–28)

D. Deaths of Joshua and Eleazar (Joshua 24:29–33)

MESSAGE

I. Conquest of Canaan (Joshua 1–12)

The first major section of the book describes Israel's conquest of Canaan (chaps. 1–12).

This section can be divided into the following two parts: preparations for the conquest

(chaps. 1–5) and the actual conquest itself (chaps. 6–12). Joshua meticulously records all of

this information not only to show God's faithfulness to the promises given in the Abrahamic

covenant but also to demonstrate that the second generation will consistently have victory

over their enemies when they honor the Mosaic covenant. These patterns would serve as a

valuable model for continued prosperity in the future.

A. Preparation of the People (Joshua 1–5)

The opening chapters of Joshua (chaps. 1–5) emphasize the importance of spiritual

preparation for the people of Israel. Before the author deals with the actual account of the

conquest, he introduces several key elements that will be essential for Israel's military

success against such overwhelming odds. These preparations will include meditating on the

Word of God and reciting its principles (1:7–9); challenging the people to total obedience

(1:16–18); sending out two spies to identify their options (2:1–24); miraculously crossing the

Jordan River on dry ground (3:1–17); setting up the memorial stones as a testimony to future

generations (4:1–24); establishing the battle camp at Gilgal (4:20); circumcising the men who

were not circumcised in the wilderness (5:2–9); and celebrating the Passover (5:11–12).

While Joshua prepared to attack Jericho, the major Canaanite fortress city in the Jordan

Valley, he encountered the theophanic "commander of the LORD's army" (5:12–15). The

divine nature of this person is evident in His command to Joshua to remove his shoes

because he is standing on holy ground. Just as Moses met God at the burning bush (Exod

3:1–6) and removed his shoes, so now Joshua has a similar experience confirming that God

was calling him to lead the Israelites to victory, just as Moses led them in the exodus. Both

men have a divine encounter and experience a miraculous water crossing which affirmed

their leadership to the people of Israel.

Hebrew Highlight

Devote. Hebrew חרם (chêrem). The basic meaning is the exclusion of an object and its irrevocable surrender

to God (Lev 27:28). The term first appears in Num 21:2–3 where the Israelites vow to "utterly destroy" the

Canaanites (NKJV). The noun form chêrem is found in Josh 6:17 meaning "to place under the ban" or

"devoted to destruction." God's command to Joshua to annihilate and eradicate Jericho meant the entire city

was placed under the divine ban and devoted to God for destruction. Many people today balk at God's
command to Joshua to destroy the Canaanites. However, the Canaanites were not innocent victims but rather
were involved in gross depravity (Leviticus 18; 19:26,31; Deut 9:4–5; 12:31; 18:9–11; 2 Kgs 23:10). God had
already extended patience to the Amorites (Gen 15:13–16), but they and the Canaanites ignored God's
warnings.
B. Progression of the Conquest (Joshua 6–12)
1. Central Campaign (Joshua 6–9). The central campaign was built on a "divide and
conquer" theory that drove a wedge between northern and southern Canaan, thus inhibiting
these two entities from forming an alliance. This strategy allowed Israel to defeat each of
them separately. Jericho was the first Canaanite city Israel conquered in her central
geographic thrust. The fall of Jericho resulted from Joshua's obedience to follow the plan of
the "commander of the LORD's army." When he spoke, the Lord (Yahweh) spoke (6:2), telling
Joshua to circle the city every day for six days and then seven times on the seventh day.
When they were finished, they were to shout and blow the trumpets (shofars), then the walls
would fall. Joshua includes this event so that his audience will understand that national
victory does not come through military strength alone but through covenant obedience
(6:21,24,26). Joshua also records how Rahab and her household were saved from genocide
that was imposed on all of the inhabitants of Jericho (6:22–23,25). Joshua includes this story
as an example of God's grace, showing his readers how they too could experience divine
protection if they honor God's covenant.
The nation's subsequent defeat at Ai (chap. 7) is included to show how individual
covenant disobedience (6:19; 7:1,11,15) damages the success of the entire community.
Things quickly turned around for Israel when they did away with Achan, the covenant
transgressor (8:1–29), and finally experienced victory at Ai. The covenant renewal ceremony
at Shechem (8:30–35) reinforced the nation's need for continual obedience to the covenant
(Exod 20:25; Deuteronomy 27; Josh 8:35).
This section also includes the story of Israel's treaty with the deceptive Gibeonites (chap.
9) as Joshua fails to pray about his decision and gives his word to their deceptive
representatives (9:1–14). Thus, both the defeat at Ai (chap. 7) and the treaty with the
Gibeonites (chap. 9) contribute to the book's literary purpose of emphasizing the necessity of
covenant obedience.
2. Southern Campaign (Joshua 10). In the southern campaign the king of Jerusalem
became fearful of Israel due to the nation's resounding victories at Jericho and Ai. Thus, he
persuaded the southern coalition (Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon) to attack the
Gibeonites, thereby drawing Israel into open conflict (10:1–5). However, God's blessing was
upon Israel, evidenced by His confounding of the enemy by the hailstorm He sent to defeat
them, and by the miraculous extension of the day that allowed Israel time to route the
enemy.5 Joshua eventually captured the five fleeing kings, publicly executed them, and conquered the southern territory (10:16–43). Throughout these events the writer consistently

calls attention to how Israel honored her treaty with the Gibeonites and manifested covenant

obedience (10:28–30,33,35,37).

3. Northern Campaign (Joshua 11–12). After some time Joshua advanced against the

gathering northern Canaanite coalition to fight them at Merom (11:1–5) and handily defeated

them with a surprise attack, routing their forces and destroying Hazor, the major Canaanite

fortress city in the north (11:6–11). The chapter concludes with a summation of the northern

campaign emphasizing Israel's obedience to the Mosaic covenant as the key to her victories

(11:16–23). The summary of Israel's conquests in chap. 12 is provided for the same reason.

This chapter lists Israel's conquests of 31 individual city-states in Transjordan (12:1–6) and

Canaan (12:7–24). Despite Joshua's initial successes, the next chapter reminds the reader that

a great deal of the land remains to be possessed.

List of 31 Cities Conquered

Jericho Ai Jerusalem Hebron

Jarmuth Lachish Eglon Gezer

Debir Geder Hormah Arad

Libnah Libnah Adullam Makkedah

Bethel Tappuah Hepher Aphek

Lasharon Madon Hazor Shimron-meron

Achshaph Taanach Megiddo Kedesh

Jokneam in Carmel Dor in Naphath-dor Goiim in Gilgal Tirzah

II. Division of Canaan (Joshua 13–21)

A. Unconquered Land (Joshua 13:1–7)

At this point the author inserts a list of unconquered regions that still remained

independent of Israelite control (13:1–6). These included pockets of Philistines, Geshurites,

Canaanites, Amorites, and Phoenicians (Sidonians of Lebanon). These will be left for future

generations to deal with as is described in Judg 1:1–3:6. These areas were not completely

absorbed until the time of David and Solomon many years later.

B. East Bank Tribes (Joshua 13:8–33)

Joshua begins this section by reviewing the settlement of the Transjordan tribes (13:8–

33). Now that the Transjordan tribes fulfilled their obligations in helping liberate Canaan, the

soldiers from these tribes were released from military obligation and allowed to return home.

These tribes included Reuben (13:15–23), Gad (13:24–28), and half of Manasseh (13:29–31).

Much of this area was later known as Gilead (Josh 22:9; Judg 10:8). However, the author

later records the crisis that occurred when the eastern tribes erected a large altar on the

frontier at the Jordan River (Josh 22:9–12).

C. West Bank Tribes (Joshua 14–19)

The decision to divide the land by lot (14:1–5) shows that Israel's gains came about

through compliance with the covenant since Moses originally mandated division by lot as the

method to be used when apportioning the land among the tribes (Num 26:55; 33:54; 34:13).

Caleb's proclamation of God's faithfulness in finally awarding him what was originally

promised is included to show God's faithfulness to the Abrahamic covenant and to His

faithful servant Caleb. Caleb's desire to drive out the Canaanites is also included as a positive

example for Joshua's readers to follow. Thus, all of the material in chaps. 13 and 14 is

included to stimulate Joshua's readers toward further covenant obedience.

The designation of Judah's borders (15:1–12) as well as the inheritance of the various

clans within Judah (15:20–63) once again shows God's covenant faithfulness. Caleb's

decision to conquer Hebron and drive the Canaanites out of his territory also serves as a

positive example of covenant obedience that the next generation is to imitate (15:13–19).

However, Judah's failure to drive the Jebusites from Jerusalem (15:63) left the city under

Jebusite control until the time of David (2 Samuel 5).

Joseph's inheritance (chaps. 16–17), which included the inheritances of both Ephraim

(chap. 16) and west Manasseh (chap. 17), is included to show God's faithfulness to Joseph

through Jacob's promise to him in his patriarchal blessing (Gen 48:10–22). However, the

failure of Ephraim (16:10) and Manasseh (17:12–13) to drive the Canaanites from their

territory (16:10) serves as a negative example to challenge Joshua's readers to continue the

effort to remove them. The same challenge to keep the covenant and remove God's enemies

was given at the tabernacle in Shiloh (18:1) to Benjamin (18:11–28), Simeon (19:1–9),

Zebulun (19:10–16), Issachar (19:17–23), Asher (19:24–31), Naphtali (19:32–39), and Dan

(19:40–48). Shiloh would serve as the nation's religious headquarters for the next 300 years.

Correspondingly, the tribe of Levi was to serve as the nation's priests and was given no

territorial allotment.

D. Designated Cities (Joshua 20–21)

More examples of God's faithfulness to His covenant promises are given through the

establishment of the promised cities of refuge (chap. 20) and the Levitical cities (21:1–42).

Because these items were also promised in the Mosaic covenant (Numbers 35; Deut 4:41–43;

19:1–13), they serve as further testimony to Joshua's readers of the blessings that could be

received through covenant obedience. Joshua concludes this major section of his book on the

division of the land (chaps. 13–21) with a comprehensive statement regarding God's

faithfulness to the promises He gave to the second generation (21:43–45).

III. Conclusion of Joshua's Ministry (Joshua 22–24)

Now that Joshua has described the conquest (chaps. 1–12) and division of Canaan (chaps.

13–21), he transitions into the third and final section of his book where he assembles material

showing the second generation how they can remain in the land as well as experience

prosperity in the land (chaps. 22–24).

A. Dispute about the Altar (Joshua 22)

Joshua begins this final section by recounting how the soldiers from the Transjordan tribes,

after being given permission to return home, built an altar in the Jordan Valley, potentially

rivaling Shiloh as the central sanctuary (chap. 22). The establishment of such an altar

represented a potential covenant violation since the Mosaic covenant mandated a single

centralized sanctuary (Deut 12:1–7). Fortunately the situation was resolved amicably since

the motivation for the altar was to establish unity between the eastern and western tribes

rather than to set up a rival system of worship. Thus, the altar was called Ed, which means

"witness." In other words, the altar was a witness to the unity between the eastern and

western tribes, which were united in their devotion to the Lord.

B. Joshua's Final Sermon (Joshua 23)

Joshua's farewell address to the nation's leaders attributes the nation's past blessings to its

covenant fidelity (23:1–12). He also explained that the future curses Israel will experience

will be due to the nation's covenant infidelity (23:13–16). The main danger will be the threat

of idolatry, which represents an attack on the foundation of the covenant itself since the first

two commandments in the Decalogue prohibit idolatry. The message to the second generation

is clear. They will remain in Canaan and prosper in the land only when they comply with the

Mosaic covenant.

C. Covenant Renewal at Shechem (Joshua 24:1–28)

Joshua concludes the book by recording the second covenant renewal ceremony at

Shechem. After assembling the leaders to Shechem (24:1), Joshua summarized the history of

Israel from her election to the conquest (24:2–13), reviewed the covenant terms (24:14–24),

and encouraged covenant's preservation (24:25–28).6 The book of Joshua contains two

covenant renewal ceremonies (8:30–35; 24). Because the first of these ceremonies took place toward the beginning of the conquest and the last of these ceremonies took place after the

land was conquered and divided, they serve as brackets for this section of the book. Such

bracketing shows that everything God has done for the nation and will continue to do on her

behalf is based on Israel's response to the Mosaic covenant. Thus, the nation's entire future is

inextricably bound to her response to the Lord Yahweh. Thus, Joshua challenges the people

with the options of worshipping the gods the patriarchs rejected "beyond the river," the gods

of the Egyptians from whom they escaped, or the gods of the Amorites whom they had

conquered (24:14–15). "No!" the people insisted, "We will worship the LORD" (24:21, author's

translation). D. Deaths of Joshua and Eleazar (Joshua 24:29–33)

Not only does this section record the deaths of Joshua (24:29–30) and Eleazar the high

priest (24:33), but it also records information regarding the burial of Joseph's bones in

Shechem (24:32). This detail is included to emphasize Israel's faithfulness to Joseph's request

to bury his mummified remains in the Promised Land (Gen 50:29).

THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Joshua emphasizes God's faithfulness to both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants.

God's faithfulness to these covenants is seen in His unilateral actions in support of Israel by

restraining the Jordan (3:14–17), destroying the walls surrounding Jericho (6:20), sending a

hailstorm on Israel's enemies (10:11), and extending the day so Israel could gain victory over

her enemies (10:13–14). God's faithfulness is accentuated in that He provides victory in spite

of the death of His choice servant Moses and in spite of overwhelming odds.

The book also teaches the importance of covenant obedience as the key to God's

blessings. The reader is drawn to the focus on key spiritual disciplines that are essential for

spiritual formation—prayer, meditation, faith, and courage are highlighted as keys to Joshua's

success. The underlying theology of the book reminds the reader that spiritual discipline is

the key to victorious living. Vigilance must be consistent so that today's success might not turn into tomorrow's defeat.

The book of Judges introduces us to the long years of Israel’s struggle to maintain control of

the Promised Land from the death of Joshua until the rise of the kings. After Joshua’s death,

a loose tribal confederacy emerged with various military heroes empowered by the Spirit of

God to bring deliverance from their common enemies. The main body of the story revolves

around six cycles of apostasy, distress, and deliverance. God intervenes time and again to

rescue the struggling Israelites from military oppression, spiritual depression, and ethnic

annihilation.

The covenant violations of Israel’s first generations born in the land are exposed as the

cause of her constant struggle for survival. The temptations of idolatry, immorality, and

religious syncretism left the tribes divided, confused, and in a constant state of conflict. The

repeated phrases, “There was no king in Israel,” and, “Everyone did what was right in his

own eyes,” remind the reader that the theocracy was in jeopardy without a strong central

leader to maintain justice, stability, and order.

The book of Judges derives its title from the Latin Liber Judicum. The Hebrew title is

shophetim. The verbal form describes the activity of the various deliverers whom God used

despite their personal challenges, oddities, or inadequacies. Ehud is left-handed, Deborah is a

woman, Barak was reluctant, Gideon was afraid, Jephthah was an outcast, and Samson was a

Nazirite. Nevertheless, the book of Hebrews lists many of these judges (Gideon, Barak,

Samson, Jephthah) as heroes of the faith (Heb 11:32). The real key to their success was the

empowerment of the Spirit of God (3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:6,25; 15:14) who enabled them to

accomplish great feats.

Many believe the books of Judges and Ruth originally formed one document in the

Hebrew Bible. They deal with events following Joshua’s death (c. 1380 BC) and continue

until the reference to David in Ruth 4:17,22, but they were written from a prophetic

viewpoint following the days of the judges (cf. 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25, “In those days there

was no king in Israel”) and prior to David’s conquest of Jerusalem, since it was still held by

the Jebusites according to the author in 1:21. While the author is not indicated by the text,

Jewish tradition has ascribed it to Samuel the prophet, and rightly so since he was the major

spiritual figure of the time of the judges. The critical view, which would attribute the

authorship of this book to a Deuteronomistic recension based on mythological hero sagas,

must be rejected in light of the many historical details which may only be attributed to the

time of the judges themselves.1

Hebrew Highlight

Judge. Hebrew שׁפט (shophet). The word for a judge (shopet) is closely related to the verb shaphat, “to

judge,” and also to mishpat, “justice.” The biblical concept of judgment includes the administration of justice.

Thus, there is no justice without judgment and no proper judgment without justice. The two are interconnected;

therefore the judge was to maintain justice as well as settle legal disputes. In the book of Judges, the Hebrew

word shofet is used once in reference to Yahweh (11:27), six times in reference to those who “delivered” Israel

under the empowerment of God’s Spirit (2:18; 3:9; 13:25; 14:6,19; 15:14), and seven times in relation to those

“judges” who served as administrators (4:4; 12:8–9,11,13–14; 15:20). Throughout the book of Judges, the

Spirit-empowered “judges” functioned as the “deliverers” of Israel as God judged the hearts of His people in

response to their prayers (2:16–19).

If Samuel the prophet was the author of Judges, its composition would date from circa

1050–1000 BC. The chronological material in the book has been subject to a great deal of

discussion and widely variant dating. British evangelical scholarship has tended to follow the

late date for the exodus and, therefore, dates Othniel at 1200 BC, while conservative

American scholars date him at circa 1350 BC.2 The latter approach takes the biblical data

regarding these dates as exact rather than general figures. In Judg 11:26 Jephthah referred to

a period of 300 years between the conquest and his own time, which correlates with the

figures supplied in the text by subtracting the 18-year Ammonite oppression with which he

was contemporary. The total number of years mentioned in Judges is 410 years. However, a simple adding of numbers may not be the key to the chronology of this period, for there

probably were overlapping judgeships functioning at the same time but in different

locations. Many commentators believe that the 20 years of Samson’s judgeship should be

included within the Philistine oppression, which was finally broken by Samuel at Ebenezer (1

Samuel 7). Jephthah’s reference (11:26) to 300 years from Joshua (1406 BC) to himself

(1105 BC) coincides with the statement in 1 Kgs 6:1 regarding 480 years from the exodus

(1446 BC) to the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (931 BC). The biblical data supports the

early date for the exodus.

Outline

I. Reason for the Judges (Judges 1–2)

II. Rule of the Judges (Judges 3–16)

A. First Cycle: Othniel Versus Cushan (Judges 3:1–11)

B. Second Cycle: Ehud Versus Eglon (Judges 3:12–31)

C. Third Cycle: Deborah and Barak Versus the Canaanites

(Judges 4:1–5:31)

D. Fourth Cycle: Gideon Versus the Midianites (Judges 6:1–10:5)

E. Fifth Cycle: Jephthah Versus the Ammonites (Judges

10:6–12:15)

F. Sixth Cycle: Samson Versus the Philistines (Judges 13:1–16:31)

III. Ruin of the Judges (Judges 17–21)

A. Idolatry (Judges 17–18)

B. Immortality (Judges 19–21)

MESSAGE

Most of the biblical judges were heroes or deliverers more than legal arbiters. They were

raised up by God and empowered to execute the judgment of God upon Israel’s enemies. The

sovereignty of God over His people is seen in these accounts as God, the ultimate Judge

(11:27), judges Israel for her sins, brings oppressors against her, and raises up judges to

deliver her from oppression when she repents.

I. Reason for the Judges (Judges 1–2)

The period of the judges followed the death of Joshua (1:1) when Israel was left with no

central ruler. While the book of Joshua represents the apex of victory for the Israelite tribes,

the book of Judges tells the story of their struggle to maintain control of the land. While the

conquest of the land was relatively quick and decisive, the settlement of the tribal territories

was slow and cumbersome. Many pockets of resistance remained, and the Israelites

eventually settled on a policy coexistence rather than conquest.

Initial resistance came from the Canaanites, the aboriginal tribal inhabitants of the region.3

They were a loosely confederated settlement of various city-states, related to the Amorites,

Perizzites, and Jebusites. Their religion was essentially a nature cult based on a pantheon of

deities led by the gods El, Baal, and the goddess Asherah (also called Ashtar). The first

chapter includes a catalog of unoccupied territories that remained after the initial conquest

(1:27–36). The second chapter explains the reasons for this failure and the rebuke by the

angel of the Lord at Bochim (“weepers,” 2:1–5).4 The author concludes this section noting

the cycles of apostasy, oppression, distress, and deliverance that would follow because they

would continue to sin and God would continue to “raise up judges” to deliver them (2:16).

II. Rule of the Judges (Judges 3–16)

The six cycles of the judges include years of oppression, deliverance, and rest, punctuated

by interludes that discuss minor judges and the usurper Abimelech (chaps. 9–10). Each cycle

portrays a downward spiral which includes Barak’s reluctance, Deborah’s insistence,

Gideon’s cowardice, Jephthah’s foolish vow, and Samson’s immoral relationship with foreign

women. The recurring theme in these chapters is Israel’s apostasy which is displayed in her

covenant violations of idolatry and immorality. This was reflected in the moral and spiritual

weakness of the time in which lying, stealing, adultery, and murder were often condoned.

BACKGROUND

The events recorded in the book of Judges occurred during one of the most turbulent and

transitional times in the history of the ancient Near East. In Egypt the confusion of the

Amarna period followed the conquest and settlement of Canaan. Assuming the early date for

the Exodus, the first judges were contemporary with the powerful pharaohs of the nineteenth

dynasty while the later judges were contemporary with the period of confusion which

followed. Meanwhile, to the north, the kingdom of Mitanni fell to the Hittites circa 1370 BC.

Further west, the great Minaon and Mycenean empires also collapsed; and a period of mass

migrations (people movements) followed, ultimately bringing the Bronze Age culture to an

end and introducing the Iron Age. The Israelite disadvantage in regard to iron weapons and

chariots is mentioned several times throughout the book of Judges.

Both the Canaanites and the Israelites were pressured by the invasion of the Sea Peoples

(Philistines) who gained firm control of the coastal area of southern Canaan. Throughout

Judges and the early chapters of 1–2 Samuel, the Philistines were the major threat to Israel’s

survival. To the south and east, the nomadic tribes had begun to settle into the Transjordanian

kingdoms of Moab, Ammon, and Edom. This discordant milieu is the setting of the book of

Judges. Thus, God had ample sources to draw upon as a means to discipline the sins of Israel.

However, the sovereign hand of God, and not just political chaos, ruled over the events of

men during this time.

A. First Cycle: Othniel Versus Cushan (Judges 3:1–11)

The author introduces this section listing those nations that continued to harass Israel,

culminating by the invasion of Cushan-rishathaim (“Cushan the doubly wicked”) from Aram

Naharaim (KJV, “Mesopotamia”), the area of northeastern Syria. After an eight-year

oppression, the Lord raised up Othniel of the tribe of Judah to defeat him because the “Spirit

of the LORD” came upon him. The description of the Spirit-empowered judges is repeated

seven times emphasizing the real source of their power (3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6,19;

15:14). Othniel’s victory was followed by 40 years of peaceful rest (3:11).

B. Second Cycle: Ehud Versus Eglon (Judges 3:12–31)

The second recorded invasion was led by Eglon the king of Moab and a confederacy of

Moabites, Ammonites, and Amalekites (3:13). They recaptured a rebuilt Jericho, the “City of

Palms,” and used it as a base against Israel for 18 years (3:14). Eventually, God “raised up”

Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite, who assassinated Eglon with a dagger hidden on his right hip and led an attack that drove the Moabites back across the Jordan River (3:26–30). The

chapter ends with a brief reference to Shamgar, son of Anath, who slew 600 Philistines

(probably a lifetime total) with an ox goad (3:31).

C. Third Cycle: Deborah and Barak Versus the Canaanites (Judges 4:1–5:31)

By the third cycle of the judges, Israel had lost control of the northern region to the

Canaanites at Hazor. Sisera was the commander of a Canaanite army that included 900 iron

chariots, and he used it to oppress the Israelites in that area for 20 years.5 God spoke to

Deborah, who was serving as a judge at that time, to summon Barak to challenge the northern

tribes to confront the Canaanites at Wadi Kishon in the Jezreel Valley. When Barak refused to

go unless Deborah accompanied him, she told him that the credit for the victory would go to

a woman (4:9).

Barak’s troops took the high ground at Mount Tabor and attacked the Canaanites in the

valley below. Deborah and Barak’s victory song indicates the “river Kishon swept them

away” (5:21), implying a flash flood that bogged the chariots in the swampy ground and

caused Sisera to abandon his chariot and flee to the tent of a woman named Jael. She killed

the unsuspecting commander with a tent peg and a mallet (4:21) thus fulfilling Deborah’s

earlier prediction. The entire account emphasizes the lack of male leadership in Israel at that

time.

D. Fourth Cycle: Gideon Versus the Midianites (Judges 6:1–10:5)

The story of Israel’s leadership crisis continued with the raiding attack of the Midianites

and their Arab Bedouin allies. Things were so bad the Israelites hid in the mountain clefts

while swarms of armed desert bandits pillaged the land for seven years. At that time the

angel of the Lord called Gideon from the tribe of Manasseh to lead a resistance. Fearful and

reluctant, Gideon went from hiding in a winepress to making excuses and putting out

fleeces. The spiritual weakness of Israel was indicated by the fact that Gideon’s own father

had a Baal altar on the family farm which Gideon finally tore down. After this the Spirit of

the Lord came upon Gideon, so he blew a trumpet (shofar) and rallied 32,000 men to go

against the Midianite and Amalekite raiders.

Fearful himself, Gideon was told to let all those who were afraid go home, and two-thirds

of his “army” of volunteers left. When God thinned his numbers down to only 300 men at the

spring of Harod (“trembling”), Gideon had to be reassured of success by overhearing the

dream of the barley cake (7:9–15). During the night he equipped his men with trumpets,

pitchers, and torches and surprised the unsuspecting raiders. The enemy was thrown into

confusion so the Israelites won an incredible victory by daybreak (7:16–23).6

However, Gideon’s success was followed by the tragic story of Abimelech (“My father is king”), his son by a concubine (8:31). After Gideon’s death

Abimelech rallied his mother’s relatives in an attempt to become a

king at Shechem. Rebuked by Jotham’s parable of the trees (9:7–

15), which depicted him as a bramble bush, Abimelech was

eventually killed when a woman threw a piece of millstone down

on his head while he was attacking the tower at Thebez (9:50–55).

E. Fifth Cycle: Jephthah Versus the Ammonites

(Judges 10:6–12:15)

When the Ammonites in Transjordan attacked the Israelites in

Gilead, the elders in desperation called the outcast Jephthah from

the land of Tob (11:3) to lead Israel in battle. When Jephthah’s

negotiations with the Ammonites failed, he made a vow to the Lord

Yahweh that “whatever” came out of his house to greet him upon

his return from battle “will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it as

a burnt offering” (11:31). When his daughter, not an animal, came out first, he was

devastated. Scholars have long debated whether he actually sacrificed his own daughter or

dedicated her to a lifetime of virginity, never to marry and carry on his family line (11:34–

40).7 Either way she bewailed her “virginity,” and he grieved that he would have no

descendants.

F. Sixth Cycle: Samson Versus the Philistines (Judges 13:1–16:31)

The final cycle involved Samson from the tribe of Dan. By this time the tribe of Dan had

already abandoned their God-given territory in the land of the Philistines, leaving Samson’s

family and a few others in a displaced persons “camp” (13:25). The uniqueness of Samson

was the Nazirite vow which was imposed on him from birth (13:5; cf. Num 6:2–12).

Tragically, Samson ultimately violated all three stipulations of the vow, touching the

“unclean” dead lion (14:8–9), participating in a “drinking feast” (Hb. mishteh, 14:10), and

finally having his head shaved (16:19). Even his initial victory over 1,000 Philistines was

accomplished with an “unclean” jawbone of a dead animal (15:15).

Samson’s life story revolved around three women, presumably all Philistines: (1) the

woman of Timnah, whom he attempted to marry (14:1–15:6); (2) the prostitute at Gaza

(16:1–3); and (3) Delilah of the Valley of Sorek (16:4–20). Despite his gift of physical

strength given by the power of the Spirit, Samson’s inability to conquer his own passions

ultimately led to his demise. The deadly lover’s game he played with Delilah eventually

caused him to reveal the truth about the Nazirite vow (16:17). She immediately exposed his

secret to the five lords (seren) of the Philistines who each paid her 1,100 pieces of silver

(16:5). Captured and blinded, Samson was imprisoned at Gaza (16:21). Despite his hair

beginning to grow, his power did not return until he finally “called out” to the Lord, who

empowered him one last time to pull down the pillars of the pagan temple and kill more

Philistines by his death than in his life (16:30). Regardless, the final cycle of the judges ends

with Samson crushed beneath the rubble and Israel still without a leader.III. Ruin of the Judges (Judges 17–21)

The final chapters of Judges (chaps. 17–21) are actually an appendix added to the end of

the book to emphasize just how bad things really were in Israel in the time of the Judges.

They are not in chronological order. Religious compromise led to moral corruption that

ultimately resulted in a civil war. These closing chapters reveal that morality was “upside

down” during the era of the judges. Throughout this section the author emphasizes “there

was no king in Israel” and chaos reigned because “everyone did whatever he wanted” (17:6;

18:1; 19:1; 21:25).

A. Idolatry (Judges 17–18)

Micah was an Israelite from Ephraim who maintained a shrine of various “household

idols” (17:5) so he bribed a Levite from Bethlehem to be his own personal priest (17:13). In

the meantime the tribe of Dan was migrating north, fleeing from the Philistines, when they

happened upon Micah’s house, stole his idols, and talked the Levite into going with them.

The apostate tribe of Dan not only abandoned its God-given inheritance but forsook the

Lord as well.9 The Danites attacked the city of Laish and renamed it Dan (18:28–31),

making it not only Israel’s most northern city but also a place infamous for its pagan

practices (1 Kgs 11:29).

B. Immorality (Judges 19–21)

The closing chapters of Judges tell the sad story of immorality, moral confusion, and a

civil war between the tribes of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. The story is about a Levite

traveling with his concubine from Bethlehem to Gibeah in Benjamin. During an overnight

stay at Gibeah, the concubine was raped and killed by the men of the town so the Levite dismembered her corpse in an attempt to arouse the other tribes against the Benjamites who

refused to deal with the evil men of Gibeah. The end result was a brutal civil war that

annihilated all but 600 men of Benjamin. Had the tribe of Benjamin been exterminated, there

never would have been a King Saul, Esther, Mordecai, or the apostle Paul. The book of

Judges ends leaving the reader realizing again that “there was no king in Israel” (21:25).

Thus, the stage of divine revelation was set for the books that follow. Despite the dark days

of the judges, a ray of hope was about to shine.

THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

By routinely attributing Israel’s depravity to the lack of a king (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25),

the author showed that Israel could never fulfill her divinely intended design as long as she

lived under judges. The book demonstrates that the Israelites were incapable of adhering to

the law of Moses since “everyone did whatever he wanted” (21:25, author’s translation).

Because a judge could only partially and imperfectly administer Torah (legislative function),

execute justice (executive function), and condemn lawbreakers (judicial function), a king was

needed who could more effectively fulfill all three roles. The stories in Judges also show that

not just any king could effectively govern the nation but rather a king who honored God’s

covenant. By tracing the various cycles of bondage and deliverance, the author shows that

Israel’s external condition was inextricably linked to her spiritual condition. The moral and

civil disasters Israel experienced were a direct result of her spiritual disobedience. Yet, even

then, when the people repented, God graciously judged the intent of their hearts and “raised

up judges” to deliver them (2:16).

The book of Ruth is one of the great love stories of all time. It is a romantic drama of a

destitute young Moabite widow who marries a wealthy and compassionate Israelite named

Boaz. Like the book of Esther, it is named for the woman who is the main character.

Historically, Ruth is the "lynchpin of the covenant" and provides an essential key to the

transition from the judges to the kings of Israel.1 Theologically, the story of Ruth and Boaz

illustrates the biblical concept of redemption.

In spite of her humble origin, Ruth plays an important role in the history of the Old

Testament as the great grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:18) and an ancestress in the line

of Jesus of Nazareth. Set in the dark days of the judges (1:1), Ruth is a ray of light and hope

for Israel's future. As a Gentile who marries a Hebrew from Bethlehem, she pictures the love

of God for both Hebrews and Gentiles. God's promise to Abraham that He would bless all

nations begins to come to fruition through Boaz and Ruth, and it will eventually result in the

birth of the Messiah. Indeed, the Christmas story has its beginning in Ruth's journey to

Bethlehem where her personal and spiritual destiny was fulfilled.

BACKGROUND

The Hebrew title of the book is a possible Moabite modification of the Hebrew word reuit,

meaning "friendship." Although the book is anonymous, Jewish tradition claims that Samuel

was the author. Also, Dyer and Merrill suggest, "The attachment of the Book of Ruth to the

Book of Judges in the twenty-two-book arrangement of the Hebrew Bible implies common

authorship or compilation of the two books."2 Others contend that the writer could not be

Samuel since the book mentions David (4:17,22) and Samuel died (1 Sam 25:1) before

David's inauguration (2 Samuel 2; 5). E. J. Young believes the absence of Solomon or later

Judean kings in the closing genealogy indicates that the book was written no later than the

time of David.3 However, the story itself definitely occurred much earlier and reflects

archaic forms of rustic Hebrew poetry and morphology.

Many argue that the book was written in the Solomonic era since the Jewish custom

regarding the exchanging of the sandals had to be explained (4:7).4 However, because

Solomon is not mentioned in the concluding genealogy, it seems better to conclude that the

book was written in the early part of the kingdom era before Solomon's rise to power. The

main story was likely written in the period of the judges or the earliest part of the kingdom

era while Saul was still ruling. If this was the case, the genealogy (4:18–22) was probably

appended to the book by another inspired writer in the time of David.

The reader must grasp at least four elements in order to understand fully the message of

the book of Ruth. First, the Moabites were the descendants of Lot (Gen 19:30–38) who

lived northeast of the Dead Sea. Because they worshipped Chemosh and opposed Israel's

entrance into Canaan (Numbers 22–25), they were banned from entrance into Israel's public

worship assembly (Deut 23:3–6). The Moabites engaged in numerous battles with Israel

throughout biblical history (Judg 3:12–30; 1 Sam 14:47; 2 Sam 8:11–12; 2 Kgs 3:4–27) so

the relationship was not friendly.

Second, the right of redemption (Lev 25:25–28) gave the next of kin (Hb., go'el) the

responsibility of buying back property that was sold because of foreclosure due to poverty.

The logic of this provision was to keep the property within the family. Because of Naomi's

impoverished condition upon returning from Moab, she was powerless to regain her lost

Bethlehem property unless she had help from a kinsman redeemer.

Third, under the principle of Levirate marriage (Deut 25:5–10), the next of kin of a

deceased man was to marry his widow and produce an offspring in order to prevent the

deceased man's lineage and name from dying out.5 Because Naomi was too old to reproduce

a child, her daughter-in-law Ruth continued the family name by marrying the kinsman

redeemer Boaz and giving birth to a son Obed.

Fourth, according to Deut 23:3, a Moabite, or any of his descendants up to the tenth generation, could not gain entrance into Israel's public assembly. How then could Ruth

become a Jewish proselyte (1:16–17) since she was from Moab? One possible resolution is

by noting that Ruth was a Moabite woman (1:22) so some hypothesize that the prohibition of

Deut 23:3 applied only to Moabite men. What is more evident in the 10-generation

genealogy is the affirmation of David's right to rule as king as a descendant of the illegitimate

birth of Perez 10 generations earlier (cf. Deut 23:2; Gen 38:1–30).

Outline6

I. Love's Resolve: Ruth's Determination (Ruth 1)

II. Love's Response: Ruth's Devotion (Ruth 2)

III. Love's Request: Boaz's Decision (Ruth 3)

IV. Love's Reward: Family's Destiny (Ruth 4)

MESSAGE

The book of Ruth reads like a four-act play. An announcer sets the stage by explaining the

background of the story. A Jewish family left Bethlehem for Moab where everything went

wrong. As the curtain rises on the drama, three men have died, and three desperate women

are widowed. Each chapter of the book is set in a different location: (1) the plains of Moab,

(2) the fields of Bethlehem, (3) the threshing floor, (4) the city gate of Bethlehem. The drama

reaches its climax with Ruth's bold proposal and Boaz's clever response to redeem the

Gentile bride into the family of Israel.

In times of national infidelity, God sovereignly used the faithfulness of an unlikely

candidate named Ruth to change the course of history. She was a female, Gentile, pagan,

poverty stricken, widowed, and a Moabitess. Ruth broke with her own pagan background

(Gen 19:30–38; Deut 23:3–6) to embrace the people of Israel and their God. But in spite of

this, God used her to perpetuate the Davidic and messianic lineage. As a result of God's

covenant promise to bless obedience (Deut 28:1–14) as well as bless all who bless Israel

(Gen 12:3), God blessed Ruth by giving her a new husband, a son, and a privileged

genealogical position.

I. Love's Resolve: Ruth's Determination (Ruth 1)

As the curtain rises on the drama, the first chapter describes the journey of Elimelech's

family to Moab, which sets the stage for the rest of the story. It explains how Naomi became

an impoverished widow and how Ruth attached herself to Naomi. The fact that this story

took place during the era of the judges and the nation was experiencing a famine due to the

pouring out of the covenant curses (1:1) reveals this general pattern of covenant

unfaithfulness. This pattern is also seen in how Elimelech's family journeyed to Moab, which had a notorious background (Gen 19:30–38) and was a known oppressor of Israel (Numbers

22–25). The marriages of Mahlon and Chilion to Moabite women represented a blatant

rejection of the covenant (Deut 23:3). Also, the sudden deaths of Elimelech, Mahlon ("sick"),

and Chilion ("pining") may be the outworking of covenant curses imposed for disobedience

(Deut 28:15–68). In other words, a Jewish reader would be shocked at the family's decision

to abandon their God-given inheritance by moving to a Gentile nation. However, against this negative backdrop of covenant infidelity (1:1–5) and Naomi's dire

circumstances (1:6–14), the writer inserts a note of optimism and hope. He records Ruth's

positive example of not wanting to leave Naomi's side (1:15–18). Ruth's willingness to break

with her own pagan background in order to embrace the people of Israel and their God is

highlighted at this point because it explains God's willingness both to use and to reward her.

The positive example of Ruth ("friendship") is contrasted with the decision of Orpah ("neck,

stubbornness") to return to her Moabite home and gods.

Despite receiving a warm welcome from her fellow countrymen upon returning to

Bethlehem of Judah from Moab, Naomi ("pleasantness") asks that they call her Mara

("bitterness"). Not yet comprehending God's plan, she sees her situation as bleak since God

has deprived her of her husband, sons, and property, plus her family line is on the verge of

extinction. This information is included to reveal Naomi's desperate need for a kinsman

redeemer.

Hebrew Highlight

Redeemer. Hebrew גּאל (go'el). The notion of go'el or redemption is replete throughout this book. Various forms of the Hebrew words ga'al ("redeem") and its derivatives are used 20 times in the book. The word go'el ("one who redeems" or "close relative") is found 13 times in the book, mostly in reference to Boaz, whose temporal work of redemption can be compared to Christ's eternal work of redemption. Boaz redeemed or purchased Ruth and Naomi from poverty and eradication of the family lineage, while Christ's sacrificial work on our behalf purchases us from the bondage of sin. Ruth had to trust in the work of her redeemer Boaz in order to experience blessing, and so we too must trust in Christ's redemptive work on the cross in order to experience the blessing of redemption and liberation from the consequences of sin.

II. Love's Response: Ruth's Devotion (Ruth 2)

Ruth's devotion to Naomi and her decision to forsake Moab for the people of Israel and

their God allowed God to use Ruth strategically in order to further His covenant purposes.

The second chapter records Ruth's providential meeting with her future husband and

kinsman redeemer Boaz ("in him is strength"). Ruth's commitment to Naomi is seen in her

desire to glean from among the grain (Lev 19:9–10) on behalf of her mother-in-law (2:1–7).

"Gleaning" meant picking up the scraps as one followed the "reapers" in the harvest. The

sovereign guidance of God in guiding Ruth to the field of Boaz is found in the statement "and

she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz" (2:3 NASB).

Upon learning of Ruth's identity as the Moabite who clung to Naomi, Boaz did everything

within his power to assist her. For example, he instructs Ruth to remain on his property

during the harvest and even blesses her with special privileges (2:8–17). By protecting and

providing for Ruth, Boaz already sensed his special responsibility to his relative Naomi.

When Ruth told Naomi of the day's happenings, Naomi recognized Boaz's identity as their

redeemer and told her daughter-in-law to continue to glean from his field throughout the

remainder of the barley season (2:18–23). In sum, the events of chap. 2 are included to

explain how God used the commitment of Ruth to the people and faith of Israel to

sovereignly guide her to a kinsman redeemer who was a Davidic ancestor.

III. Love's Request: Boaz's Decision (Ruth 3)

Chapter 3 records the steps leading to the eventual marital union between Boaz and Ruth.

Naomi recognized that while she was too poor to buy back her Bethlehem property and too

old to have children to perpetuate her family's name, Boaz as the kinsman redeemer could

rectify both of these situations by marrying her daughter-in-law Ruth. Because Boaz took no

further steps in this regard, Naomi hatched a plan whereby Ruth would propose marriage.

This plan involved Ruth's sleeping at Boaz's feet and uncovering them, thereby symbolically

communicating her interest in marriage (3:1–5).7

Ruth's devotion to Naomi is further verified through her willingness to execute this plan

(3:6–13). This series of events gives the writer further opportunity to highlight Ruth's

spirituality by recording Boaz's comments extolling Ruth's virtuous character (3:10–11).

The author wants the reader to understand that because of Ruth's decision to embrace the

people of Israel and their God, He will use Ruth not only for the short-term purpose of

bringing fullness to Naomi's life but also for the long-term purpose of completing the Davidic

and messianic lineage. The revelation of a nearer kinsman having a first right of refusal and

Boaz's age (perhaps 20 years her senior) may explain his initial hesitation. But he expressed

his joy at her request ("May the LORD bless you, my daughter" (3:10) and signified his intent

by giving grain to Ruth to take back to her mother-in-law. Upon returning to Naomi, she counseled her daughter-in-law to have patience as she waited to see if Boaz would act as her

kinsman redeemer (3:14–18). Older and wiser, Naomi assured Ruth that Boaz "won't rest

unless he resolves this today" (3:18).

IV. Love's Reward: Family's Destiny (Ruth 4)

The marriage between Boaz and Ruth is finalized in the book's fourth chapter. The chapter

begins with the nearest kinsman's decision not to marry Ruth (4:1–7). Boaz invited the

kinsman to sit with him and the other elders in the city gate to transact business. Upon

recognizing that his responsibility would include not only buying back Naomi's property but

also marrying Naomi's foreign daughter-in-law Ruth, the nearest kinsman declined to

exercise his rights and duties as kinsman redeemer. He was concerned that taking on this new

responsibility would somehow jeopardize his own family inheritance. The nearest kinsman's

decision to relinquish his claim over Naomi's estate and Ruth was then finalized through the

symbolic gesture of the removal of his sandal (4:6–7).

The nearest kinsman's decision not to exercise his rights freed Boaz to become Ruth's

husband. This marriage reversed the prior emptiness Ruth had experienced due to the death

of her husband Mahlon. The fact that this marriage would be significant for purposes of

perpetuating an important lineage is alluded to through the witnesses' utterance of a blessing

upon the new couple. Here they prayed that the newlyweds would be prolific like Rachel and

Leah who begat Israel's tribes. Obed's birth reversed Naomi's prior emptiness and bitterness

as she was given the fulfilling position of acting as the child's nurse. Through Ruth and Boaz

Elimelech's lineage was perpetuated. According to 4:17, Obed's birth also preserved the line

that led to David. Since Ruth had replaced Naomi's bitterness and emptiness with fullness,

Naomi's neighbors appropriately proclaimed that Ruth was worth more to Naomi than seven

sons.

Since Boaz was not only the kinsman redeemer but also the one carrying the Davidic

lineage, Ruth's marriage to Boaz permanently enshrined her in both David's and the

Messiah's genealogy. As a female, Gentile, pagan, poverty stricken, and formerly widowed

Moabitess, Ruth was unqualified for such a position, but God's grace (Hb. hen) brought her

into the family of Israel. Interestingly, Ruth is not the only unqualified person mentioned in

this genealogy. Perez (4:18) was also the product of the incestuous union between Judah and

Tamar (Gen 38:1–30). Salmon, the son of Rahab the harlot (Matt 1:5), is also mentioned in

the genealogy (4:20). In each case God's grace was extended to a Gentile woman, indicating

His desire to bring the blessing of Abraham to all people—Hebrews and Gentiles alike.

Kinsman Redeemer

Under the requirement of redemption of the land, the closest relative of the deceased was obligated to buy back the deceased's property if it was lost due to poverty or foreclosure so that it could remain within the family (Lev 25:25–28). Under the requirement of Levirate marriage, the closest relative of the deceased was also to marry the deceased's wife so that the name of the deceased would not die out (Deut 25:5–10). This meant the husband's family was responsible for his widowed wife's care. Some of Boaz's actions can be compared to Christ's. The kinsman redeemer was to be the next of kin to qualify to perform the work of redemption (Deut 25:5,7–10; Ruth 2:20). Christ became a member of the human race to qualify to become humanity's redeemer (John 1:1,14; Rom 1:2; Gal 4:4; Phil 2:5–8; 1 Tim 2:15; Heb 2:14,16–17; 10:51). The kinsman redeemer had to have the means to pay the purchase price for the land (Ruth 2:1); Christ also paid the expensive price associated with redeeming lost humanity (1 Cor 6:20; 1 Pet 1:18–19). And just as Boaz was willing to be the redeemer (Ruth 3:11), Christ was similarly willing to redeem humanity (Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 10:15–18; Heb 10:7; 1 John 3:16). Just as Boaz took Ruth as a Gentile bride whom he financially enriched, Christ also took a Gentile bride (the church) that He spiritually enriches.

THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Several important theological themes recur throughout the book of Ruth. One dominant

theme is hesed, which means "loving-kindness" or "covenant loyalty." It is used in regard to

both God (1:8; 2:20) and Ruth (3:10). The book deals with God's faithfulness to His own

covenants. God's faithfulness to the seed of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 15:4–5) is

evidenced through the preservation of the Davidic and messianic lines (4:18–22). God's

promise to bless the Gentiles (Gen 12:3) is seen in His blessing of Ruth the Moabitess. The

curses for disobedience associated with the Mosaic covenant (Deut 28:15–68) are seen in the

famine Israel was experiencing at the time. However, the blessing for obedience associated

with the Mosaic covenant (Deut 28:1–14) is seen in the way God blessed Ruth for honoring

His covenant people.

Second, God's sovereignty is displayed throughout the book (1:6; 2:3,12; 4:6,13). God is

seen working behind the scenes in furtherance of His covenant purposes in the dark era of the

judges. God responds to the prayers of His people. Petitions of blessing are recorded from

Naomi (1:9; 2:19–20), Boaz (2:4; 3:10), and the people of Israel (2:4; 4:11–12,14–15). The

book also demonstrates God's grace as He not only blesses Ruth who was a citizen of Israel's

foreign enemy, but He also allows Boaz to become the kinsman redeemer although he was

not the closest relative (3:12).

One of the unique characteristics of Ruth is the redeemer motif which appears more than

20 times in the book. The redeemer (Hb. Go'el) needed to be a relative who could potentially

redeem (ga'al) a family member from slavery, widowhood, or being orphaned. The story of

redemption in Ruth presents the clearest example of how this concept was carried out in

ancient Hebrew culture. It provides a beautiful picture of God's redeeming a Gentile bride as

an act of love and grace.