Judges 13:1 But the sons of Israel again did what was evil in Yahveh’s eyes, so Yahveh gave them over to the Philistines’ hands forty years.
Judges 13:2 There was one man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was unable to conceive and had no children.
Judges 13:3 The agent of Yahveh appeared to the woman and said to her, “I noticed that you are unable to conceive and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son.
Judges 13:4 Now be really careful not to drink wine or beer, or to eat anything unclean;
Judges 13:5 because notice, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to rescue Israel from the power of the Philistines.”
Judges 13:6 Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring agent of God. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.
Judges 13:7 He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.'”
Judges 13:8 Manoah prayed to Yahveh and said, “Excuse me, Lord, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born.”
Judges 13:9 God listened to Manoah, and the agent of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field, and her husband, Manoah, was not with her.
Judges 13:10 The woman dashed to her husband and told him, “The man who came to me the other day has just come back!”
Judges 13:11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” “I am,” he said.
Judges 13:12 Then Manoah asked, “When your words come true, what will be the boy’s judgment and work?”
Judges 13:13 The agent of Yahveh answered Manoah, “Your wife needs to do everything I told her.
Judges 13:14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine or drink wine or beer. And she must not eat anything unclean. Your wife must do everything I have commanded her.”
Judges 13:15 “Please stay here,” Manoah told the agent, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”
Judges 13:16 The agent of Yahveh said to him, “If I stay, I won’t eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to Yahveh.” (Manoah did not know he was the agent of Yahveh.)
Judges 13:17 Then Manoah said to him, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”
Judges 13:18 “Why do you ask my name,” the agent of Yahveh asked him, “since he is miraculous.”
Judges 13:19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to Yahveh, who did some miracle while Manoah and his wife were watching.
Judges 13:20 When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the agent of Yahveh went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell face-down on the ground.
Judges 13:21 The agent of Yahveh did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the agent of Yahveh.
Judges 13:22 “We’re absolutely going to die,” he said to his wife, “because we have seen God!”
Judges 13:23 But his wife said to him, “If Yahveh had intended to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us, and he would not have shown us all these things or spoken to us like this.”
Judges 13:24 So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and Yahveh empowered him.
Judges 13:25 Then the Breath of Yahveh began to stir him in the Camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Judges 13 quotes:
“The Nazirite status of Samson, which emphasizes a God-sent charisma, aligns him with other judges of the tradition. He is not an unusual judge if one realizes that “to judge” in Judges is not to sit soberly at court. Judges make decisions based upon divine inspiration. They command respect as leaders because of the perception that the spirit of God is within them, and their battle prowess sometimes places them on the outer borders of sanity. Samson takes his place among the book’s other “primitive rebels” and “social bandits” who break the laws of the establishment to help the oppressed.”
Niditch Susan. Judges: A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 143.
Judges 12:1 The men of Ephraim were called together and crossed the Jordan to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why have you crossed over to fight against the Ammonites but haven’t called us to go with you? We should burn your house with you in it!”
Judges 12:2 Then Jephthah said to them, “My people and I had a bitter dispute with the Ammonites. So I called for you, but you didn’t rescue me from their power.
Judges 12:3 When I saw that you weren’t going to rescue me, I grasped my throat and crossed over to the Ammonites, and Yahveh handed them over to me. Why, then, have you come today to fight against me?”
Judges 12:4 Then Jephthah gathered all of Gilead’s men. They fought and struck down Ephraim because Ephraim had said, “You Gileadites are Ephraimite fugitives in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh.”
Judges 12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim. Whenever a fugitive from Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadites asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he answered, “No,”
Judges 12:6 they told him, “Please say Shibboleth.” If he said “Sibboleth” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and executed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell.
Judges 12:7 Jephthah judged Israel for six years and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead when he died.
Judges 12:8 Ibzan, who was from Bethlehem, judged Israel after Jephthah
Judges 12:9 and had thirty sons. He gave his thirty daughters in marriage to men outside the tribe and brought back thirty wives for his sons from outside the tribe. Ibzan judged Israel for seven years,
Judges 12:10 and when he died, he was buried in Bethlehem.
Judges 12:11 Elon, who was from Zebulun, judged Israel after Ibzan. He judged Israel for ten years,
Judges 12:12 and when he died, he was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
Judges 12:13 After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel, who was from Pirathon, judged Israel.
Judges 12:14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. Abdon judged Israel for eight years,
Judges 12:15 and when he died, he was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Judges 12 quotes:
“Linguistic variation is a critical marker of difference in the story of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:7—9). Similarly, biblical prophets describe the enemy as people “of obscure speech and difficult language” (Ezek 3:5, 6) or of speaking “a language you do not know” (Jer 5:15). One who is regarded as strange and not to be trusted speaks in “an alien tongue” (Isa 28:11). Judges 12:6 is one of the few places in the Hebrew Bible in which the author consciously distinguishes between accents or dialects. Such differences are of great enthnographic significance and further testify to Israelite awareness concerning the “mixed multitude” that constituted the people. Some of the deepest animus is reserved for fellow Israelites in the book of Judges.’
Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 138.
Judges 11:1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a capable warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.
Judges 11:2 Gilead’s wife bore sons for him, and when they grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will have no inheritance in our father’s family because you are the son of another woman.”
Judges 11:3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Then, some hollow men joined Jephthah and went on raids with him.
Judges 11:4 Some time later, the Ammonites fought against Israel.
Judges 11:5 When the Ammonites waged war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
Judges 11:6 They said to him, “Come, be our commander, and let’s fight the Ammonites.”
Judges 11:7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s family? So why have you come to me now when you’re in trouble?”
Judges 11:8 They answered Jephthah, “That’s true. But now we are turning to you. Come with us, fight the Ammonites, and you will become a leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
Judges 11:9 So Jephthah said to them, “If you are bringing me back to fight the Ammonites and Yahveh gives them to me, I will be your leader.”
Judges 11:10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahveh is our witness if we don’t do as you say.”
Judges 11:11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander, and Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of Yahveh at Mizpah.
Judges 11:12 Jephthah sent agents to the king of the Ammonites, asking, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight me in my land?”
Judges 11:13 The king of the Ammonites said to Jephthah’s agents, “When Israel came from Egypt, they seized my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan. Now restore it peaceably.”
Judges 11:14 Jephthah again sent agents to the king of the Ammonites
Judges 11:15 to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.
Judges 11:16 But when they came from Egypt, Israel traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
Judges 11:17 Israel sent agents to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us travel through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent agents to the king of Moab, but he refused. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.
Judges 11:18 “Then they traveled through the wilderness and around the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon but did not enter into the territory of Moab because the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.
Judges 11:19 “Then Israel sent agents to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, ‘Please let us travel through your land to our country,’
Judges 11:20 but Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sihon gathered all his troops, camped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel.
Judges 11:21 Then Yahveh, God of Israel, handed over Sihon and all his troops to Israel, and they struck them down. So Israel took possession of the entire land of the Amorites who lived in that country.
Judges 11:22 They took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
Judges 11:23 “Yahveh God of Israel has now driven out the Amorites before his people Israel, and will you now force us out?
Judges 11:24 Isn’t it true that you can have whatever your god Chemosh conquers for you, and we can have whatever Yahveh our God conquers for us?
Judges 11:25 Now are you any better than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?
Judges 11:26 While Israel lived three hundred years in Heshbon and Aroer and their surrounding villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, why didn’t you take them back at that time?
Judges 11:27 I have not failed you, but you are doing me wrong by fighting against me. Let Yahveh, who is the judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
Judges 11:28 But the king of the Ammonites would not listen to Jephthah’s message that he sent him.
Judges 11:29 The Breath of Yahveh came on Jephthah, who traveled through Gilead and Manasseh and then through Mizpah of Gilead. He crossed over to the Ammonites from Mizpah of Gilead.
Judges 11:30 Jephthah made this vow to Yahveh: “If you, in fact, hand over the Ammonites to me,
Judges 11:31 whoever comes out the doors of my house to greet me when I return safely from the Ammonites will belong to Yahveh, and I will offer that person as a burnt offering.”
Judges 11:32 Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and Yahveh handed them over to him.
Judges 11:33 He struck down twenty of their cities with a great slaughter from Aroer all the way to the entrance of Minnith and to Abel-keramim. So, the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.
Judges 11:34 When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, he noticed his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter besides her.
Judges 11:35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought great misery on me. I have given my word to Yahveh and cannot take it back.”
Judges 11:36 Then she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to Yahveh. Do to me as you have said, because Yahveh has brought vengeance on your enemies, the Ammonites.”
Judges 11:37 She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”
Judges 11:38 “Go,” he said. And he sent her away for two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity as she wandered through the mountains.
Judges 11:39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he kept the vow he had made about her. And she had never been intimate with a man. Now, it has become a custom in Israel
Judges 11:40 that four days each year, the young women of Israel commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Judges 11 quotes:
“A complex hero-judge, Jephthah is portrayed in this chapter as a social bandit who begins his career as an outcast. He is a politically savvy negotiator who makes a case for a just war, and a tragic hero who loses his daughter because of a war-vowed sacrifice to God. Themes of kinship, gender, leadership, and group unity/disunity inform the tales of Jephthah, a collection that is very much at home in the corpus of Judges and that points to foundational and defining issues in Israelite worldview.”
Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 130.
Judges 10:1 And, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo stood up after Abimelech and began to rescue Israel. He was from Issachar and stayed in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
Judges 10:2 He judged Israel for twenty-three years and, when he died, was buried in Shamir.
Judges 10:3 After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel for twenty-two years.
Judges 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. They had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which are still called Jair’s Tent Villages today.
Judges 10:5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.
Judges 10:6 Then the Israelites did what was evil again in Yahveh’s eyes. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned Yahveh and did not worship him.
Judges 10:7 So Yahveh’s nose burned angrily against Israel, and he sold them to the Philistines and the Ammonites.
Judges 10:8 They shattered and crushed the Israelites that year, and for eighteen years they kept doing it to all the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead.
Judges 10:9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. Israel was greatly oppressed,
Judges 10:10, so they cried out to Yahveh, saying, “We have failed you. We have abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.”
Judges 10:11 Yahveh said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines,
Judges 10:12 Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not rescue you from them?
Judges 10:13 But you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods. So I will not rescue you again.
Judges 10:14 Go and cry out to the gods you have been trying out. Let them rescue you whenever you are oppressed.”
Judges 10:15 But the Israelites said, “We have failed. Deal with us as you see fit; only rescue us today!”
Judges 10:16 So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped Yahveh, and his throat became impatient with Israel’s trouble.
Judges 10:17 The Ammonites were called together, and they camped in Gilead. So, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah.
Judges 10:18 The rulers of Gilead said to one another, “Which man will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
Judges 10 quotes:
“Judges 10 is an interesting and transitional chapter that begins with brief notices about two judges, Tola and Jair, and ends with a segue to the career of Jephthah. Between the opening and closing is a richly Deuteronomic-style rendition of the conventional pattern of apostasy and rehabilitation within the literary form of the lawsuit. Israel again acts in an evil way by worshiping foreign deities; God’s anger follows with Israel’s oppression as punishment. The people complain to God and repent. Rescue is anticipated in the role of a deliverer.”
Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 121.
Judges 9:1 Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal, went to Shechem and spoke to his uncles and all his mother’s clan, and he said this:
Judges 9:2 “Please speak in the hearing of all the landowners of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, govern over you or that one man govern over you? ‘ Remember that I am your flesh and blood.”
Judges 9:3 His mother’s relatives told all these words about him in the hearing of all the landowners of Shechem, and they were favorable to Abimelech because they said, “He is our brother.”
Judges 9:4 So they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-berith. Abimelech used it to hire hollow and violent men, and they followed him.
Judges 9:5 He went to his father’s house in Ophrah and killed his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, on top of a large stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived because he had hidden.
Judges 9:6 Then all the landowners of Shechem and Beth-millo gathered together and proceeded to make Abimelech king at the oak of the pillar in Shechem.
Judges 9:7 When they told Jotham, he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim, raised his voice, and called to them: Listen to me, landowners of Shechem, and may God listen to you:
Judges 9:8 The trees decided to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, “Be king over us.”
Judges 9:9 But the olive tree said to them, “Should I stop giving my oil that people use to honor both God and men and rule over the trees?”
Judges 9:10 Then the trees said to the fig tree, “Come and be king over us.”
Judges 9:11 But the fig tree said to them, “Should I stop giving my sweetness and my good fruit, and rule over trees?”
Judges 9:12 Later, the trees said to the grapevine, “Come and be king over us.”
Judges 9:13 But the grapevine said to them, “Should I stop giving my wine that cheers both God and man and cause disturbance over trees?”
Judges 9:14 Finally, all the trees said to the bramble, “Come and be king over us.”
Judges 9:15 The bramble said to the trees, “If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.”
Judges 9:16 “Now if you have acted faithfully and honestly in making Abimelech king, if you have done well by Jerubbaal and his family, and if you have rewarded him appropriately for what he did –
Judges 9:17 because my father fought for you, risked his throat, and rescued you from Midian,
Judges 9:18 And now you have attacked my father’s family today, killed his seventy sons on top of a large stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his slave woman, king over the landowners of Shechem ‘because he is your brother’ –
Judges 9:19 so if you have acted faithfully and honestly with Jerubbaal and his house this day, rejoice in Abimelech and may he also rejoice in you.
Judges 9:20 But if not, may fire come from Abimelech and consume the landowners of Shechem and Beth-millo, and may fire come from the citizens of Shechem and Beth-millo and consume Abimelech.”
Judges 9:21 Then Jotham fled, escaping to Beer, and lived there because of his brother Abimelech.
Judges 9:22 When Abimelech had ruled over Israel for three years,
Judges 9:23 God sent an evil breath between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem. They treated Abimelech deceitfully,
Judges 9:24 so that the crime against the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come to justice and their blood would be avenged on their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and on the landowners of Shechem, who had helped him kill his brothers.
Judges 9:25 The landowners of Shechem rebelled against him by putting men in ambush on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed everyone who passed by them on the road. So this was reported to Abimelech.
Judges 9:26 Gaal, son of Ebed, came with his brothers and crossed into Shechem, and the landowners of Shechem trusted him.
Judges 9:27 So they went out to the countryside and harvested grapes from their vineyards. They trampled the grapes and held a celebration. Then they went to the house of their god, and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.
Judges 9:28 Gaal, son of Ebed, said, “Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem that we should serve him? Isn’t he the son of Jerubbaal, and isn’t Zebul, his officer? You are to serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem. Why should we serve Abimelech?
Judges 9:29 If only these people were in my power, I would remove Abimelech.” So he said to Abimelech, “Gather your army and come out.”
Judges 9:30 When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal, son of Ebed, his nose burned angrily.
Judges 9:31 So he secretly sent agents to Abimelech, saying, “Notice! Gaal son of Ebed, with his brothers, have come to Shechem and notice they are turning the city against you.
Judges 9:32 Now tonight, you and the troops with you, come and wait in ambush in the countryside.
Judges 9:33 Then get up early and at sunrise attack the city. Notice when he and the troops who are with him come out against you; do to him whatever you can.”
Judges 9:34 So Abimelech and all the troops with him got up at night and waited in ambush for Shechem in four groups.
Judges 9:35 Gaal, son of Ebed, went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate. Then Abimelech and the troops who were with him got up from their ambush.
Judges 9:36 When Gaal saw the troops, he said to Zebul, “Notice, troops are coming down from the mountaintops!” But Zebul said to him, “The shadows of the mountains look like men to you.”
Judges 9:37 Then Gaal spoke again, “Notice, troops are coming down from the central part of the land, and one unit is coming from the direction of the Diviners’ Oak.”
Judges 9:38 Zebul replied, “What do you have to say now? You said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him? ‘ Aren’t these the troops you despised? Now go and fight them!”
Judges 9:39 So Gaal went out leading the landowners of Shechem and fought against Abimelech,
Judges 9:40, but Abimelech chased him, and Gaal fled before him. Numerous bodies were strewn as far as the entrance of the city gate.
Judges 9:41 Abimelech stayed in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers from Shechem.
Judges 9:42 The next day, when the people of Shechem went into the countryside, this was reported to Abimelech.
Judges 9:43 He took the troops, divided them into three companies, and waited in ambush in the countryside. When he looked, he saw the people coming out of the city, so he rose against them and struck them down.
Judges 9:44 Then Abimelech and the units that were with him rushed forward and took their stand at the entrance of the city gate. The other two units rushed against all who were in the countryside and struck them down.
Judges 9:45 So Abimelech fought against the city that entire day, captured it, and killed the people who were in it. Then he tore down the city and sowed it with salt.
Judges 9:46 When all the landowners of the Tower of Shechem heard, they entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith.
Judges 9:47 Then it was reported to Abimelech that all the landowners of the Tower of Shechem had gathered.
Judges 9:48 So Abimelech and all the troops who were with him went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his ax in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees. He picked up the branch, put it on his shoulder, and said to the troops who were with him, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”
Judges 9:49 Each of the troops also cut down his branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches against the inner chamber and set it on fire; about a thousand men and women died, including all the men of the Tower of Shechem.
Judges 9:50 Abimelech went to Thebez, camped against it, and captured it.
Judges 9:51 There was a strong tower inside the city, and all the men, women, and landowners of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower.
Judges 9:52 When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he approached its entrance to set it on fire.
Judges 9:53 But a woman threw the upper portion of a millstone on Abimelech’s head and fractured his skull.
Judges 9:54 He quickly called his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, or they’ll say about me, ‘A woman killed him.'” So his armor-bearer ran him through, and he died.
Judges 9:55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.
Judges 9:56 In this way, God brought back Abimelech’s evil– the evil that Abimelech had done to his father when he killed his seventy brothers.
Judges 9:57 God also brought back to the men of Shechem all their evil. So the curse of Jotham, son of Jerubbaal, came upon them.
Judges 9 quotes:
“The career of Gideon’s son Abimelech is an important lesson in political ethics and provides insight into the ways in which Israelites wrestled with critical issues of leadership and polity. It has often been suggested that the book of Judges projects an image of a period of national failure and political chaos, making necessary the establishment of the monarchy. In this commentary I make the case that Judges provides a more complex, ambivalent, and self-critical portrait of the monarchy and of preceding experiments in statehood. The judges belong to the “old days,” before there were kings in Israel, but these early leaders are portrayed as clever, brave, inspired, charismatic, and flawed. They are heroic, engaging figures, and none of them is a king. Gideon, in fact, rejects kingship outright, declaring that Yhwh is the only king (8:23); and the story of Abimelech’s illegal, murderous coup, undertaken to establish himself as a king, is surely a negative portrayal of Judges’ one experiment in Israelite kingship. Jotham’s parable about the trees, delivered in a traditional literary form, the masal, criticizes monarchy in general while condemning this manifestation of kingship in particular. The curse of Jotham predicts and assures the downfall of the would-be king, whose lack of fealty to the house of Gideon is mirrored in his subjects’ capricious lack of loyalty to him. He subdues the rebels only to be killed by a woman—the ignoble and shameful end to a would-be man of powér, in the bardic, epic-like traditions of Judges.”
Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 121.
jeffersonvann 