Biblical judges: Ancient Israel’s chiefs.

When the Septuagint translated the Old Testament into Greek, it translated the Hebrew word שֹׁפֵט֙/šofét, “decision-maker,” into δικαστής/dikastís, “judge.” From there the Vulgate turned it into judex, “judge”; John Wycliffe turned it into juge, “judge”; and the Geneva Bible made it “judge,” and that’s what we have in our bibles today.

But yeah, it’d be better translated “decision-maker” or “decider.” Judges nowadays are quite different civic leaders than the biblical judges. Thanks to the separation of powers, which most governments have adopted to a certain degree, judges handle criminal and civic court cases. They don’t run the country—unless they either leave the bench and run for office, or lead a coup and take over the country. And once they become the country’s chief executive, they leave the judging to other, full-time judges—again, unless they’re dictators who decide they’ll take over the powers of the country’s supreme court, and maybe hear cases themselves.

Biblical judges, in contrast, were ancient Israel’s chief executives. They ruled the country. Although there are some commentators who aren’t sure all of ’em ruled the whole country; some judges might only have led their tribe. But the judges of the book of Judges are all described as judging “Israel,” not individual tribes. They all appear to be national leaders. Or, in some cases, comtemporary leaders—judges whose lifespans overlapped, who briefly led Israel alongside fellow judges.

And no, these weren’t kings. More like dictators. They took power, then ruled for life. Their kids usually didn’t succeed them.

A list? Sure, I’ll make a list. No, I have no exact dates; no one does. We have rough dates.

1. Moses ben Amram, Levite, circa 1440s BC. Ex-Dt
2. Joshua ben Nun, Ephraimite, ca. 1400 BC. Js
3. Othniel ben Kenaz, Judahite, ca. 1350 BC. Jg 3.7-11
4. Ehud ben Gera, Benjamite, ca. 1300 BC. Jg 3.12-30
5. Shamgar ben Anath, ca. 1220 BC. Jg 3.31
6. Deborah wife of Lappidoth, Ephraimite, ca. 1200 BC. Jg 4-5
7. Gideon Jerubbaal ben Joash, Manassite, ca. 1190 BC. Jg 6-8
8. Tola ben Puah, Issacharite, ca. 1140 BC. Jg 10.1-2
9. Jair ben Segub, ca. 1110 BC. Jg 10.3-5
10. Jephthah of Gilead, Manassite, ca. 1110 BC. Jg 10.6-12.7
11. Ibzan of Bethlehem, Judahite, ca. 1090 BC. Jg 12.8-10
12. Elon the Zebulunite, ca. 1080 BC. Jg 12.11-12
13. Abdon ben Hillel, Ephraimite, ca. 1070 BC. Jg 12.13-15
14. Samson ben Manoah, Judahite, ca. 1110 BC. Jg 13-16
15. Eli the head priest, Levite, ca. 1120 BC. 1Sa 1-4
16. Samuel ben Elkanah, Ephraimite, ca. 1060 BC. 1Sa 7-12, 15-16

Most lists only include the judges named in the book of Judges—Othniel through Samson. Hence no Moses nor Joshua, no Eli nor Samuel. Nothing against those guys, but the list-makers only wanna include the judges in that one book. That way you get 12 judges, and hey, God loves the number 12—maybe that means something! But nah.

Some lists include Abimelech ben Gideon, Jg 9 but not legitimately. More about him in a minute.

Samuel makes reference to a rescueer of Israel named Bedan. 1Sa 12.11 We don’t know who that is. There’s a Bedan ben Ulam of Manasseh, 1Ch 7.17 KJV but we’ve no idea if that’s him. The Septuagint changes him to Barak, so some translations do too. 1Sa 12.11 ESV And some lists include Barak ben Abinoam, Deborah’s general, as one of the judges. But that’s mainly because the lists are written by sexists who despise the iea of a woman judge, and wanna mitigate Deborah’s existence by saying she co-judged along with Barak. But the bible never calls Barak a judge. (To be fair, it actually doesn’t call Ehud or Gideon judges either.) Yes Barak rescued Israel; yes he’s a hero of faith. He 11.32 Nothing against him! But elevating him to judgeship is for the Holy Spirit, not these guys who think testicles grant them innate authority.

And sometimes people don’t include Moses and Joshua in this list because they’re only counting people who became judge as part of the cycle.

Judges and the cycle.

By “the cycle” I mean the cycle of repentance—the part of Israeli history which kept repeating itself, in which Israel would stop following the LORD, sin themselves sticky, and God’s response would be to withdraw his hedge of protection and let Israel’s enemies have at ’em. Eventually Israel would respond by calling out to the LORD in repentance, and the LORD would respond by raising up a judge. And later, devout kings.

As seen multiple times throughout the Deuteronomistic history.

Moses didn’t arise as judge as part of the cycle: Israel wasn’t enslaved by Egypt because they broke covenant and defied the Law, ’cause there was no Law yet! But God absolutely raised up Moses as a judge Ex 18.13 to free Israel from Egypt. And God likewise raised up Joshua to lead Israel into Canaan.

Some folks also don’t include Moses because he appointed judges. Ex 18.21-26 Somehow that gives him a different rank from a “mere” judge. I don’t accept their reasoning as to how that works; he’s still on my list. In either case, some of the way these lesser judges governed, is likely the basis for the sort of judges we find in the book of Judges.

Some judges really don’t appear to have done any actual governing. In Judges we see they only reigned during the time it took to drive out Israel’s enemies—then, like George Washington, they stepped down and went home as civilians. But likely, just like Washington, people kept calling upon them for their wisdom and advice, to make decisions for the city, tribe, or country. So they did sorta “judge Israel” till they died; but they didn’t properly rule Israel.

The instability of judges.

Other than Moses, none of the judges designated a successor. Some tried to: Eli and Samuel kinda expected their kids to, but both these guys were lousy fathers, with lousy kids. The LORD and the people rejected their kids as woefully inadequate.

Gideon was offered the title of king, and not only rejected it but specifically said he didn’t want his kids to succeed him:

Judges 8.22 ESV

22Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.”

Nonetheless it looked like Gideon’s hometown of Shechem put his 70 sons in some position of leadership… until his 71st son, Abimelech, killed all but one and got Shechem to declare him their king. He eventually got killed trying to add other Israeli cities to his kingdom. God had nothing to do with his rise to power, and the rest of Israel didn’t recognize his kingship, so I wouldn’t include him on any list of judges. Others have, but he’s merely a power-mad local tyrant who rescued Israel from nobody; Israel had to be rescued from him.

Judges were clearly an unstable form of leadership—the cycle kept right on cycling! Which is why the Israelis eventually demanded the last judge, Samuel, appoint an actual king as his successor. Not that earthly kings are any better, as Samuel warned them 1Sa 8.10-18 —stability has a price, and heredity, rather than good character, is hardly a proper qualification for leadership. Even so, once Israel became a monarchy, the kings took over all the functions of judge, and “judged” Israel thereafter. 1Sa 8.5

After the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans set aside the monarchy, other systems of leadership replaced the kings: Zerubbabel and Nehemiah were governors sent by the Persians, Pontius Pilate and other such procurators were governors sent by the Romans, the Maccabees were members of the head priest’s family, and members of the Judean senate were selected from Israel’s most prominent (and politically connected) oligarchs, same as the Roman senate. Ad hoc leadership is only necessary when there are no leadership structures in place, but having learned their lesson from the days when Israel had no king, Jg 17.6, 21.25 the people of Israel intentionally set up leaders ever since. And therefore have needed biblical “judges” no longer.