Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [73]
The book recounts the history of Israel from the death of Joshua to the time just before the birth of the Hebrew prophet Samuel, roughly a two-hundred-year span stretching from the end of the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the “Promised Land,” to the beginning of the monarchy around 1000 BCE. This creates a slight chronological problem because the book of Judges seems to cover four hundred years of history. The book combines a series of tales of the exploits of various tribal leaders. Although called “judges,” they didn’t sit around in black robes and decide legal cases. These “judges” have been described as “warrior-rulers,” but even that description doesn’t quite fit them all. The most notorious “star” of Judges is Samson, among the most famous yet least understood of these Israelite “heroes,” whose behavior makes the term very questionable.
Traditionally ascribed to the prophet Samuel, the book is now considered part of a large historical work that ran from Deuteronomy to the time of the Exile under the Babylonians (538 BCE). Although some sections of Judges, such as the “Song of Deborah,” are believed to be among the oldest preserved Hebrew writings, other parts of the book are considered additions made after the Babylonian Captivity.
BIBLICAL VOICES
Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and worshipped the Baals; and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord, and worshipped Baal and the Astartes. (Judges 2:11-13)
Who was Deborah?
One thing is clear right away in Judges. The Children of Israel weren’t very good at following God’s requests. Joshua’s body wasn’t cold before the Israelites “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” The Children of Israel obviously found the Canaanite gods, Baal, Astarte, and Asherah, far more appealing than Yahweh. Asherah was associated with the sacred tree of life and she was often depicted with a tree springing from her public area. In The Bible and the Ancient Near East, Cyrus Gordon and Gary Rendsburg point out that the Torah laws relating to sexual practices were a response to Canaanite sexual practices. “In the Canaanite fertility cult, the relationship of Baal to the earth was compared to that of a human couple having intercourse…. In a type of ritual drama…temple prostitutes would perform the very act that Baal was to perform.” (pp. 161-162)
Since the Israelites wrote very specific laws condemning incest, bestiality, transvestitism, and temple prostitution, it is safe to assume that these were all Canaanite practices. Is it any wonder that the Children of Israel had such a hard time sticking with Yahweh, who wasn’t a party kind of god? Even more intriguing is the discovery, made in the 1980s, of an inscription that mentioned “Yahweh and his Asherah.” Without more evidence, the inscription invites the question: Did God date? Perhaps some ancient Israelites combined their Yahweh with the Canaanite Asherah. This certainly would have counted as “evil in the sight of God.”
Many more times, according to Judges, the Israelites “did what was evil in the sight of God,” only to be punished. Each time, a tribal leader, or “judge,” rose up to rescue Israel, and each time the people slid backward soon after. When the Israelites once again found themselves in trouble, Deborah, described as a prophetess and the only woman judge, emerged