TOTC Judges & Ruth by Arthur E. Cundall & Leon Morris

Author:Arthur E. Cundall & Leon Morris [Cundall, Arthur E. & Morris, Leon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Old Testament, Old Testament Study, Bible Study, Bible Study & Reference, Christian Books & Bibles, Commentaries, Religion & Spirituality, Bibles, More Translations, Criticism & Interpretation, Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), Judaism, Sacred Writings, Encyclopedias & Subject Guides, Reference, Religion, Religious Studies & Reference
ISBN: 9781783592272
Amazon: B00RXJ76JE
Publisher: IVP
Published: 2008-09-18T22:00:00+00:00

3. APPENDICES (17:1–21:25)

The contents of this final section of the book of the Judges differ in character from the rest of the book. There is no suggestion of foreign domination apart from the inference that the Danite migration (18) is connected with the Philistine oppression, and no judge appears on the scene. The editorial comment, oft repeated in the earlier sections, that the Israelites did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, is missing, to be replaced by the observation that ‘in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes’ (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). Thus the disorders of the time are attributed not so much to a falling away from the Lord but to the absence of a strong central authority, and there is an absence of the religiously motivated comment of the earlier section. This does not necessarily prove that these chapters were added by a different hand after the completion of the first draft of the book.1 The incidents narrated in the appendices make their own vivid contribution to the whole. The original editor may well have included them without comment, allowing them to speak for themselves (cf. the Samson narratives, which have a minimum of editorial comment). But whatever the view of the composition of the book it is agreed that the material in these closing chapters, whilst it makes unedifying reading, is of the utmost importance. We are made vividly aware of the low moral standards, of the debased religious conceptions and of the disordered social structure. The picture must not be overdrawn, however, for the tribal structure itself survived and we see the intertribal organization, the amphictyonic league, at work, albeit imperfectly, dealing with the disorderly situation concerning Benjamin. Even in the horror of a civil war there is the evidence of a compassionate spirit for decimated Benjamin on the part of the other tribes which shows that the sense of solidarity still remained.

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