No King in Israel (29)

Today’s instalment takes us to the eleventh of our twelve judges of Israel. We are getting there.

At least eight tribes provided Israel with leadership and deliverance during the period of the judges, and perhaps as many as ten.* The tribal affiliation of at least two judges is questionable, so we cannot confirm precisely which tribes did not receive representation in leadership during the period. We can say with certainty that Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Gad go unmentioned.

II. Twelve Judges in Chronological Order (continued)

The Judges by Tribe

If we may assume the distribution of judges across the tribes was deliberate, Jacob’s prophecy of Genesis 49 may shed some light on the logic behind it. There, the father of the nation stripped Reuben of his birthright and dispersed Simeon and Levi in Israel with a curse. He also mentioned Gad only briefly. Perhaps then, among other insights, the Spirit of God gave Jacob an accurate if indistinct foreknowledge of his future choices of leaders in Israel.

A list of the judges by tribe:

Othniel (Judah)
Ehud (Benjamin)
Shamgar (unknown)
Deborah (possibly Ephraim)
Gideon (West Manasseh)
Tola (Issachar)
Jair (East Manasseh)
Jephthah (East Manasseh)
Ibzan (probably Judah)
Elon (Zebulun)
Abdon (Ephraim)
Samson (Dan)

Manasseh provided the most judges (3), followed by Judah (2) and perhaps Ephraim. No other tribe got more than one. Again, Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons in Genesis 48 made Ephraim and Manasseh especially prominent in Israel, and his prophecy in Genesis 49 notes leadership would be in Judah’s future.

Twenty-Five Years of Peace?

Today’s reading covers a twenty-five year period in which three different judges ruled successively. A mere eight verses are devoted to it.

The text breaks with the established pattern in Judges in a couple of ways: it notes no particular sins of Israel and names no specific enemies during this quarter-century. Perhaps Jephthah’s deliverance of his people rang in a period of relative peace. This does not mean judges were unnecessary. Settling disputes between individuals and tribes would have been more than enough work for one man.

A forty-year period of oppression follows, preceding the rule of the final judge in the book, the notorious Samson. (As my mother would put it, “Was he even saved?”)

Numbering the Offspring

We have commented earlier on the rather precise numbers of children some judges appear to have sired. Two more cases appear here. Possible explanations include:

• Rounded numbers. The writers of OT historical books do this elsewhere.
• The blessing of God. The numbers could be miraculous, a reflection of God’s blessing on those who served him. I think this less likely.
• Human choice. It may be that the fathers deliberately sired representative numbers of children to herald their own significance. Even in the absence of reliable birth control, this might not be as hard as it sounds. The writers of OT history do not generally number bastards with their legitimate half-siblings (see Abimelech).

It’s also apparent most judges of Israel were polygamous. A single wife giving birth to thirty, forty or seventy sons is staggeringly unlikely. Most definitely not God’s preference, polygamous marriages were common among prominent men during the period.

9. Ibzan

Judges 12:8-10 — A Uniter, Not a Fighter?

“After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.”

Ibzan of Bethlehem

I am assuming the Bethlehem from which Ibzan came was the same one in which the Lord Jesus was born. There was a second city named Bethlehem within the tribal boundaries of Zebulun, further north. The argument for making Ibzan a Judean is basically the frequency with which scripture speaks of the city where David was born. In every case but one, a reference to Bethlehem means the Judean city. The northern Bethlehem simply wasn’t terribly memorable. I suspect the writer of Judges would have disambiguated if his subject hailed from the less-well-known city. Cundall makes Ibzan a Zebulunite, arguing that the writers of scripture usually designated the better-known Bethlehem as “Bethlehem-Judah”, but this is only true of Matthew in NT Greek. The Hebrew writers (where we find the vast majority of references) made no such distinction.

Inside and Outside the Clan

Marrying all sixty children outside the clan was probably a matter of forging alliances with other tribes. Perhaps Ibzan learned a lesson from Jephthah’s clash with Ephraim and strove for unity with other factions in Israel. If so, he was a uniter rather than a fighter.

10. Elon

Judges 12:11-12 — One for Zebulun

“After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years. Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.”

About the only thing we can say about Elon is that his tenure was longer than both that of the judge who preceded him and the one who came after him. Efforts to learn more about him from the etymology of his name or numerological analysis of the length of his tenure seem more than a little strained. Unlike the other two judges, if Elon had children, their number was apparently unremarkable.

11. Abdon

Judges 12:13-15 — Leaving a Legacy

“After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.”

Teach Your Children Well

Back to the kids. Abdon had not only a large, very specific number of sons, but also thirty grandsons. Since he only judged Israel eight years, he must have begun accumulating wives and offspring well prior to his recognition as a judge. (The same would have to be true of Ibzan.) The text tells us nothing about how any of these three men came to rule. Perhaps, like Jephthah, men asked them to lead the nation because of their relative wealth and status, the latter being at least partially established by the impressive number of their offspring.

Maybe there is a lesson for us here. The opportunity to serve as an elder in a local church may come about abruptly, and often does, but having your life in order so as to qualify for the responsibility takes years of preparation and consistency. Of course, any status an elder acquires is usually incidental rather than something to which a would-be leader devotes himself. At least, it should be.

Seventy Donkeys

An earlier judge named Jair had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys. (The Hebrew word used indicates the donkeys were all males.) As with the number of offspring, riding donkeys was probably a mark of status at the time, especially with so many in the same family. Deborah and Barak’s song in chapter 5 associates donkey-riding with “rich carpets” or “saddle blankets”. It was definitely a mark of distinction of some sort.

The Hill Country of the Amalekites

Amalek was Israel’s prototypical enemy. They feared neither God nor Israel. A seminomadic people who roved through the peninsula and were the first nation to attack Israel on its way to Canaan, they settled in territory later allotted to Ephraim. Much to that tribe’s frustration, it took years to drive them out. So the place Abdon was buried was simultaneously the “land of Ephraim” and also “the hill country of the Amalekites”.

Some churches are like that today, possessing the blessings and promises of God, but simultaneously freighted with the world’s values and notable for using its techniques.

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* Shamgar’s tribal affiliation is unstated. It’s probable but not 100% certain that Deborah was the first of two Ephraimite judges. The text records the territory in which she judged; however, this does not provide definitive evidence of her tribal affiliation, since she was a woman and could easily have been married to a man from outside her tribe. Deborah’s domestic details are irrelevant to the story, and scripture does not tell us.