All books  /  History

Judges

The years between Joshua's death and Israel's first king, told as a run of rescue stories. The same cycle repeats: Israel serves other gods, an enemy takes over, the people cry out, and God raises up a leader (Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson and others) who wins them a stretch of peace until that leader dies. The last chapters leave the judges behind for stories of an idol maker, a Levite and his concubine, and a war that nearly wipes out one tribe, closing with the line that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Teaching Judges? What each passage says, claim by claim, for every chapter.