This is a book about a book: it is an in-depth yet reader friendly analysis of the Book of Judges, one of the most dramatic books of the Bible. Against the commonly-held view that this remarkable work is no more than a collection of hero tales stemming from Israel's earliest days in its land-its "Heroic Age," so to speak-this study makes the case that the Book of Judges is a unified composition with a single focused message: that it is the values held by a people and not its politics that determine its fate. Further, Judges contends that there is a direct connection between the kind of values people internalize and the level of violence that racks their society, both inflicted from without and generated from within. And not least, that the presence of violence is a symptom that a society has abandoned the moral values of monotheism for the Machiavellian politics of a pagan worldview that worships power as the ultimate reality. The larger-than-life heroes and heroines-Ehud and Jael, Deborah and Gideon, Jephthah and Samson-who people the pages of Judges serve by their example to illustrate the way this thesis works out in the world.
Abbreviations List of Maps Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Prologue: Setting the Stage Foreword: A Flawed Follow-Up Chapter 1: Getting Our Bearings Chapter 2: The View from Olympus Part I: The First Saviors: Solo Beginnings Chapter 3: A New Age Dawns Chapter 4: The Left Hand of God A Minor Interlude: Shamgar Part II: The Deborah Duet Chapter 5: Canaan's Last Gasp Chapter 6: Sing Muse, How the Enemies of the Lord are Fallen Part III: The Gideon Quartet Chapter 7: The Hewer of Idols Chapter 8: The Day of Midian Chapter 9: Nemesis Chapter 10: The Man Who Would Be King A Second Minor Interlude: Tola And Jair Part IV: The Jephthah Quintet: A Tragedy in Five Installments Chapter 11: A Dialogue Twixt Heaven and Earth Chapter 12: The Man from Tob Chapter 13: Giving Peace a Chance Chapter 14: Triumph and Tragedy Chapter 15: Into the Valley Of Death Final Minor Interlude: Ibzan, Elon and Abdon Part V: The Loose Cannon: The Samson Sextet Chapter 16: Introduction: The Tragedy Of Samson Chapter 17: Prologue: In the Beginning Chapter 18: Timnah Chapter 19: Vengeance Is Mine Chapter 20: The Way to Dusty Death Chapter 21: Unresolved Dissonances Epilogue: Has It Come To This? Chapter 22: Epilogue Part I: A Tale of Stolen Silver Chapter 23: Epilogue Part II (A): Atrocity! Chapter 24: Epilogue Part II (B): Outrage! Chapter 25: Epilogue Part II (C): Restoration Conclusion Chapter 26: Olympus Revisited Appendices Glossary of Terms and Place Names Who's Who in Judges Selected Bibliography Index About the Author
