Bible Timeline · About 1375 to 1050 BC
The Time of the Judges
After Joshua died, Israel fell into a cycle: they turned to idols, enemies oppressed them, they cried out, and God raised up a judge to rescue them. Then they fell away again. Deborah, Gideon and Samson are the best known judges.
Read it in the Bible: Judges 2:11-23 Judges 4:1-5:31 Judges 6:1-8:35 Judges 13:1-16:31 Judges 21:25 Hebrews 11:32-34
The time of the judges is the stretch of Israel's history between Joshua's death and the rise of King Saul. Israel had no king, and the tribes kept sliding into idol worship. Each time, God let an enemy oppress them, they cried out, and He raised up a leader called a judge to rescue them. Then they fell away again. The early date puts this period at about 1375 to 1050 BC, and the late date at about 1200 to 1050 BC. The best known judges are Deborah, Gideon and Samson. The book ends with a line that sums up the whole era: everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
What Was a Judge in the Bible?
Don't picture a courtroom and a gavel. The Hebrew word shofet means a leader who brings justice, and in this book it mostly means a deliverer. Judges were military rescuers and tribal leaders whom God raised up for a crisis.
Then Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them. Judges 2:16
They did not rule the whole nation at once, and there was not one judge per tribe. Most judges led one region or a few tribes. Some likely served at the same time in different parts of the land. The book names twelve: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon and Samson. Eli and Samuel, in 1 Samuel, also judged Israel.
What Is the Cycle in the Book of Judges?
Judges 2 lays out a pattern that repeats through the whole book.
- Sin. Israel worships the gods of the Canaanites.
- Oppression. God hands them over to an enemy.
- Crying out. The people groan to Yahweh for help.
- Rescue. God raises up a judge who defeats the enemy.
- Rest, then falling away. The land has peace while the judge lives, then the people go back to idols.
It started when a new generation grew up without knowing God.
After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know Yahweh or the works that He had done for Israel. Judges 2:10
Each time around, it got worse.
But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. Judges 2:19
It is less a circle and more a downward spiral.
Who Was Deborah?
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. Judges 4:4
Deborah held court under a palm tree in the hill country of Ephraim, and Israelites came to her to settle disputes. When the Canaanite king Jabin and his general Sisera, with 900 iron chariots, crushed Israel for twenty years, Deborah called Barak to lead the army. Barak said he would only go if she went too. She agreed, but told him the honor would go to a woman.
God threw Sisera's army into panic near the Kishon River, and Sisera ran on foot. He hid in the tent of a woman named Jael, who killed him with a tent peg while he slept. So the woman who got the credit was not even Deborah. Judges 5 is Deborah's victory song, one of the oldest poems in the Bible, and the land had rest forty years.
Who Was Gideon?
The Midianites raided Israel every harvest like locusts. The angel of Yahweh found Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress, hiding from them, and greeted him with a title that must have made him look over his shoulder.
And the angel of Yahweh appeared to Gideon and said, “Yahweh is with you, O mighty man of valor.” Judges 6:12
Gideon was not so sure. His clan was the weakest in Manasseh and he was the youngest in his family, Judges 6:15. He asked God for signs with a wool fleece, wet one night and dry the next. Then God did something strange. Gideon had 32,000 soldiers, and God said it was too many, so Israel could not brag that they won on their own, Judges 7:2. He cut the army to 300.
At night, the 300 surrounded the Midianite camp with rams' horns and torches hidden in clay jars. On the signal they smashed the jars, blew the horns and shouted, “A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!” Judges 7:20. The Midianites panicked and turned on each other. Afterward Israel tried to make Gideon king, and he gave the right answer.
But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. Yahweh shall rule over you.” Judges 8:23
Sadly, he then made a gold ephod that became an idol, and his son Abimelech murdered seventy brothers to seize power. Even the heroes had cracks.
Who Was Samson?
Samson's birth was announced by an angel. He was to be a Nazirite from birth, never cutting his hair, and he would begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines, Judges 13:5. God gave him incredible strength. He tore a lion apart with his bare hands and struck down a thousand Philistines with a donkey's jawbone.
But Samson had a weakness for the wrong women and a habit of doing what was right in his own eyes. Delilah nagged him until he told her the secret of his strength. The Philistines shaved his head, gouged out his eyes and set him grinding grain in prison. At a great Philistine festival, blind and humbled, Samson prayed once more.
Then Samson called out to Yahweh: “O Lord Yahweh, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more, so that with one vengeful blow I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.” Judges 16:28
He pushed on the two central pillars, and the temple of Dagon came down. In his death he killed more Philistines than in his life.
How Long Did the Judges Rule?
Adding up every number in Judges gives about 410 years. That is too long to fit before Saul if they all happened one after another, but many judges likely overlapped in different regions. Jephthah said Israel had lived east of the Jordan for three hundred years, Judges 11:26, which fits the early date. The early date puts the judges from about 1380 to 1050 BC, and the late date from about 1200 to 1050 BC. The Big Question page When Was the Conquest? in Joshua explains both.
Why Does Judges End So Darkly?
The last five chapters are some of the hardest in the Bible. A man named Micah sets up his own idol shrine, the tribe of Dan steals it, and a Levite's concubine is brutally abused and killed in Gibeah, Judges 19. Israel's tribes nearly wipe out the tribe of Benjamin in the civil war that follows. The book does not tell these stories to approve of them. It tells them to show how far a people can fall. Its final line is a verdict.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 21:25
How the Judges Point to Jesus
The judges were real rescuers, and Hebrews 11:32 honors Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah for their faith. But every one of them was flawed, and every rescue was temporary. When the judge died, the people fell back. Judges leaves you longing for a better King, one who would not only rescue His people but change their hearts.
That king would come first in David, from the little town of Bethlehem that appears in these very chapters. And ultimately He came in Jesus, the Son of David. Samson gave his life and brought down a temple full of God's enemies. Jesus gave His life and defeated sin and death itself, and He never dies again. The story of Ruth, which happened during this same dark time, shows how God was already quietly preparing that line.
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Questions People Ask
How many judges were in the Bible?
The book of Judges names twelve: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon and Samson. Eli and Samuel, in 1 Samuel, also judged Israel.
What is the cycle in the book of Judges?
Israel sins by worshiping idols, God lets an enemy oppress them, they cry out, and God raises up a judge to deliver them. After the judge dies, the people fall away again, and the pattern gets worse each time, Judges 2:11 to 19.
What does everyone did what was right in his own eyes mean?
It is the closing line of Judges, 21:25, also found in 17:6. It means Israel had no king and no shared obedience to God's law, so each person followed his own idea of right. The book uses it to explain the chaos of the period.
How long was the period of the judges?
The early date places it from about 1380 to 1050 BC, and the late date from about 1200 to 1050 BC. The numbers in the book add up to about 410 years, but many judges likely served at the same time in different regions.
Was Deborah a judge?
Yes. Judges 4:4 calls Deborah a prophetess who was judging Israel. She settled disputes for the people and called Barak to lead the army that defeated the Canaanite general Sisera.