The judges of Israel

The Judges of Israel: The Long Ache for a Deliverer

After Joshua died, Israel had no king and no settled leader, and the book of Judges records what followed: a downward spiral in which the people forsook the LORD, were oppressed, cried out in their misery, and were rescued by a judge God raised up, only to fall again when that judge died. The judges were deliverers, not rulers, and they were as flawed as the age was dark. Read in order, their story is one long ache for a true King and a Saviour who would not fail. This engine tells each of them honestly from Scripture, and follows the whole book toward the Deliverer it was longing for, Jesus.

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.Judges 21:25 (KJV)

The cycle of the judges

The same wheel turns through the whole book, and each turn drops lower than the last. Israel does evil and serves other gods. God gives them into the hand of an oppressor. The people cry out to the LORD in their distress. God raises up a judge and grants deliverance. The land has rest for a while. Then the judge dies, and the people sin again, worse than before. No deliverer breaks the cycle, because none of them can change the human heart. By the end of the book the refrain is stark: in those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

The judges, in order

Othniel · The first judge · Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia

Ehud · The left-handed deliverer · Eglon, king of Moab

Shamgar · The deliverer with an ox goad · The Philistines

Deborah and Barak · The prophetess and the captain · Jabin, king of Canaan, and Sisera his captain

Gideon · The fearful hero · Midian

Abimelech · The usurper who was no true judge · Israel itself, from within

Tola · The judge who defended Israel · None named; a season of defence and rest

Jair · The Gileadite judge · None named; a season of quiet rule

Jephthah · The outcast deliverer and his tragic vow · The children of Ammon

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon · Three minor judges · None named; years of quiet judging

Samson · The strong man who broke every vow but the last · The Philistines

Eli and Samuel · The last judges, and the road to a king · The Philistines, and Israel's own restless heart

The Deliverer they longed for

Every judge points past himself to the one true and final Deliverer, the King who does not fail and the Saviour who does not die again. His name is Jesus. Come and know him, read the Word, and gather with the family of God on The Living Bread. Free, with no ads, for all people.

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