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THREAD: I plan to tweet my way through at least some of Judges in the near future. First up, ch. 1.
Ch. 1 provides both an introduction to and a summary of the book of Judges. It describes some victories, some partial victories, and some situations which persist (from the author’s perspective) ‘to the present day’ (1.21). It has a distinct ring of incompleteness.
1.1. At the outset of the Book, the Israelites are gathered at Jericho (alt. ‘the city of palms’: 1.16). The Israelites inquire (שאל) of YHWH to see who should ‘go up’ against the Canaanites first, per the procedure outlined in Num. 27.21.
Sadly, they will later need to go through exactly the same procedure to determine who should go up against the *Benjaminites*, the answer to which is the same: “Judah” (20.18ff.).
The Judahites are God’s agent of judgment, who fight against enemies both foreign and domestic. That what begins as a conquest of enemy territory ends in civil war is a sad reflection of Judges’ overall trajectory.
1.4. When they enter ‘Canaan proper’, the Judahites are greeted by Adoni-Bezek (at Bezek), whom they defeat and lead away captive.
Just as Adoni-Bezek has cut off the thumbs and toes of seventy of his rivals, so the Judahites do to Adoni-Bezek, who realises the poetic justice entailed in his punishment (כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי כֵּן שִׁלַּם־לִי אֱלֹהִים).
In the process, the Judahites slay 10,000 Canaanites, which is numerically significant.
The first three death-tolls recorded in Judges (which are found in chs. 1-9) are: 10,000 (Judah at Bezek), 10,000 (Ehud vs. the Moabites), and 1,000 (Avi-Melech vs. the Shechemites).
The next recorded death-toll is found in the Book’s account of Jephtah’s judgeship. Civil war breaks out in Israel, and 42,000 Ephraimites are slain. As such, the Israelites slay twice as many of their own kinsmen as they have slain Canaanites.
1.8. After their battle at Bezek, the Judahites take a number of other key cities/strongholds, notably Jerusalem, Hebron, and Debir.
The rest of the chapter’s events then introduce a number of themes which are pursued throughout the rest of the Book. Different tribes go up to their territories, where they enjoy mixed degrees of success. Battles are fought in the valleys and on the plains.
Some tribes allow Canaanites to dwell in their midst, while others dwell in the midst of Canaanites (e.g., cp. 1.29 w. 1.32). And some of the aforementioned rivalries mentioned are said to continue ‘to the present day’ (1.21).
1.19. Part of the reason for Israel’s lack of success concerns *weaponry*. The Judahites are not able to gain victory in the Canaan’s valleys because their inhabitants are armed with ‘iron chariots’, which is an important theme in the book of Judges.
Canaan’s inhabitants are well equipped. Meanwhile, at certain points in Israel’s history, a single shield or spear cannot be found among the Israelites (5.8)--...
...a phrase which presumably involves a certain amount of poetic license, but nevertheless highlights a mismatch in Israel’s and Canaan’s weaponry. YHWH must therefore employ less conventional weaponry. His artillery includes (among other things):
a cattle prod wielded by a worshipper of Anath, a tent peg wielded by a metalworker’s wife, a large number of torches wielded first by 300 soldiers (and later by 300 foxes), and all sorts of other oddities besides--a point to which we will revert later.
YHWH does not defeat his enemies in the same way as most kings do.
Wrapped up in the aforementioned events are a number of allusions to a new start in Israel.
Joseph sends spies to a foreign city. The spies appeal to the help of one of the city’s inhabitants and promise to show him kindness (חֶסֶד) in exchange for his assistance, all of which is reminiscent of Jericho’s conquest (1.22ff.).
Meanwhile, a man named Othniel is assigned a task to take dominion of a foreign territory (1.11ff.). Later, he is granted land, a wife, and a water source to make it fertile, which is suggestive of Eden.
Before we close, we should note a particular focus of our text, namely, metallurgy.
Canaan has been introduced in Scripture as a land from whose hills ‘iron’ and ‘bronze’ can be obtained (Deut. 8.9).
Othniel is said to conquer a city named Kiryat-Sefer (קִרְיַת־סֵפֶר), which may have been located near to a source of ‘bronze’ (cp. Ugar. /spr/, Akk. /siparru/). The name of Othniel’s wife (עַכְסָה) refers to ‘a metal bracelet’ of some kind.
At the time of (or soon after) ch. 1’s events, iron chariots are the revered weapon of the day (1.19), which is consistent with what we know of history. (The employment of iron chariots in warfare is thought to have peaked at c. 1300 BC.)
And the text of 1.16 pays close attention to the movements of the ‘Kenites’ (קֵינִי cf. 1.16), who may have been metalworkers by trade or background (cp. Aram./Syr./Arab. /qyn-/ = ‘smith’, Ugar. /QNY/ = ‘to forge’) and whose role is significant...
...since it forms the backdrop to ch. 4’s narrative, in which Ya’el the Kenite engages in a particular kind of metalwork. (The metalwork in question involves among other things a hammer and a tent peg.)
Other references to metallurgy can also be found later in the Book.
‘Iron chariots’ emerge in ch. 4, which YHWH defeats by means of (poss.) ‘his iron (hand)’. (The term פִּרְזֹנוֹ resonates with both ‘iron’ [in light of Sab. /frzn/ = ‘iron’] and ‘peasantry’, since YHWH makes a ‘peasant army’ into a powerful weapon: 5.11.)
Later, a judge named Ibzan (אִבְצָן) arises in Israel, whose name refers to a softer metal than ‘iron’, viz. ‘tin’ (cp. JAram. /ʾbṣ/) and hence continues the theme of YHWH’s unusual choice of weapons.
And, sadly, the idolatrous work of a ‘silversmith’ (צרף) proves to be a major thorn in Israel’s side at the close of the Book (ch. 17).
Note: YHWH himself is also depicted as a metalworker of sorts insofar as he seeks to test/smelt/purify (צרף) his people (7.4).
Next up hopefully, ch. 2.
