The Oxford History of the Biblical World (31 page)

——. “Reuben, First-Born of Jacob.”
Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
100, Supplement (1988): 46-65.
Chapter 3
in
From Epic to Canon: Essays in the History and Literature of Ancient Israel.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. A brilliant synthesis of textual and archaeological data relating to Midianites and early Israelites.

Dever, William G. “Archaeology and the Israelite ’Conquest.’ “ In
Anchor Bible Dictionary,
ed. David Noel Freedman, 3.545-58. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Up-to-date, authoritative assessment of the archaeological evidence relating to the early Israelite settlement.

Finkelstein, Israel.
The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement.
Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1988. The most comprehensive presentation and analysis of archaeological survey data relating to the Israelite settlement.

Gottwald, Norman K. “Israel, Social and Economic Development of.” In
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: Supplementary Volume,
ed. Keith Crim, 465-68. Nashville: Abingdon, 1976. Condensed account of the author’s “peasants’ revolt” hypothesis. For the complete version, see his
The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050
B.C.E
.
(Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1979).

Khoury, Philip S., and Joseph Kostiner, eds.
Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. A splendid collection of essays dealing with the relationship between tribe and state.

Machinist, Peter. “Outsiders or Insiders: The Biblical View of Emergent Israel and Its Contexts.” In
The Other in Jewish Thought and History: Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity,
eds. Laurence J. Silberstein and Robert L. Cohn, 35-60. New York: New York University Press, 1994. An illuminating study of Israelite historiography with focus on the relationship of the community to the land.

Mendenhall, George. “The Hebrew Conquest of Palestine.”
Biblical Archaeologist
25 (1962): 66-87. The original account of the “peasants’ revolt” hypothesis, which stimulated a generation of creative biblical and theological research.

Na’aman, Nadav. “The ’Conquest of Canaan’ in the Book of Joshua and in History.” In
From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel,
ed. Israel Finkelstein and Nadav Na’aman, 218-81. Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1994. Detailed analysis of the sources used by the Deuteronomic Historian to construct his account of the Israelite “conquest.”

Parr, Peter. “Qurayya.” In
Anchor Bible Dictionary,
ed. David Noel Freedman, 5.594-96. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Brief, authoritative overview of the archaeology of Midian, with an essential bibliography. Parr’s archaeological survey of that region has contributed to the revival and revision of the Midianite hypothesis.

Sandars, N. K.
The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean 1250-1150
B.C
.
Rev. ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1985. An engaging account of the Sea Peoples for scholars and nonspecialists alike.

Schloen, J. David. “Caravans, Kenites, and
Casus Belli:
Enmity and Alliance in the Song of Deborah.”
Catholic Biblical Quarterly
55 (1993): 18-38. An imaginative and convincing interpretation of Judges 5, according to which disruption of the Midianite trade in aromatics leads to war.

Stager, Lawrence E. “The Archaeology of the Family in Ancient Israel.”
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
260 (1985): 1-35. Influential synthesis that combines archaeological and textual data to reconstruct early Israelite society.

——. “Israelite Settlement in Canaan.” In
Biblical Archaeology Today,
ed. Janet Amitai, 83-87. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1985. First formulation of the “ruralization” hypothesis and an attempt to separate the process of Iron Age I settlement from the problem of Israelite origins.

——. “Archaeology, Ecology, and Social History: Background Themes to the Song of Deborah.”
Supplements to Vetus Testamentum
40 (1988): 221-34. A study that highlights the intersection of event (the battle of Kishon) and
la longue durée
(tribal economy and ecology).

——. “The Impact of the Sea Peoples (1185-1050
BCE
).” In
The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land,
ed. Thomas E. Levy, 332-48. New York: Facts on File, 1995. Up-to-date synthesis of texts and archaeology relating to the Sea Peoples, especially the Philistines, and their interaction with other groups in the Levant.

Voegelin, Eric.
The Ecumenic Age.
Vol. 4 of
Order and History.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974. The most profound study ever written of the symbols of order in the biblical and classical worlds. See also vol. 1,
Israel and Revelation
(1956).

Weber, Max.
Economy and Society.
Vol. 2. Ed. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. Classic exposition of the theory of patrimonial authority.

Yurco, Frank J. “3,200-Year-Old Picture of Israelites Found in Egypt.”
Biblical Archaeology Review
16, no. 5 (September-October 1990): 20-38. Popularized version of the author’s extraordinary discovery linking the victory hymn of the Israel Stela to Merneptah’s wall reliefs at Karnak.

The Era of the Judges

JO ANN HACKETT

T
he period in Israel’s history that extends for most of the twelfth and eleventh centuries
BCE
is the era of the judges, which archaeologists call Iron Age I. As the era begins, the group called Israel emerges in the central highlands west of the Jordan River. Over the course of the period, that early group expands to encompass the boundaries of later Israel and Judah, the familiar territories of the twelve tribes—an expansion that brings tension as early Israel conquers territory from the Canaanites in the valleys. Eventually, Israel’s expansion is stopped by similar Philistine expansion eastward from the southern coast. These are the centuries before the establishment of a monarchy, a time when “there was no king in Israel” (Judg. 17.6; 18.1; 19.1; 21.25).

What do we know of this formative period in Israel’s history, and how do we know it? The first question will concern us throughout this chapter; there are several answers to the second. Our most familiar sources of information for the time of the judges are the biblical books of Judges and 1 Samuel, and the book of Ruth may supply additional information. Furthermore, several poems in the Bible dated early in the Iron Age depict Israel’s self-conception and beliefs during that era. Another, and fast-growing, source for the period is archaeology. Archaeologists and those who compare excavated remains with tribal societies the world over have expanded our understanding of Iron Age I society in Israel, and with each season of fieldwork they continue to provide new data to think about and integrate. A few written records from the era of the judges have also been recovered, which set in context also provide information. Finally, ancient sources and, again, archaeology inform us about the neighbors of ancient Israel during the early Iron Age, especially the Philistines, the
Transjordanian peoples (the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites), and some of the Phoenician cities.

We know only the rough chronology of the period. As we shall see, the ordering of stories in the book of Judges is artificial, and the kind of information archaeology offers can give only a broad outline of the times. Consequently, the discussion that follows is arranged topically rather than chronologically, with consideration of the sources as its organizing principle.

Let us turn first to the biblical book of Judges and especially to the deliverer stories in chapters 1–16. The book is named for the heroes whose stories dominate its literature, but their title is misleading. Few of the “judges” of this period seem
to
have any judicial function, so that the modern idea of a judge cannot fully define them. Rather, the biblical judges were generally military heroes; they could be administrative or governing leaders as well, but they need not have operated in any strictly judicial capacity. As we will see, there is ample evidence both from the Bible and from other ancient Near Eastern sources to show that “judging” was more than simply judicial.

The judges’ stories themselves are not uniformly presented. Those whose exploits are told in some detail are often called the “major” judges, while the five who are simply listed along with their region and term in office (and sometimes another item or two of information) are called “minor” judges. The minor judges’ names occur in two lists: Tola and Jair in Judges 10.2-5, and Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon in 12.8-15.

Much of the book of Judges, as well as the early chapters of 1 Samuel, seems to originate in the premonarchical period, even though there is an obvious layer (or layers) of editing. Some editing extends throughout the Former Prophets (from the books of Joshua and Judges through 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings) and is usually attributed to a Deuteronomic Historian(s) (DH), who selected and edited older materials according to a theological understanding of Israel’s history. DH also composed some new material, especially speeches for central characters and a judgmental explanatory narrative that gives a theological framework to much of the work. DH’s understanding of Israel’s history was based on the covenant between Yahweh and Israel laid out in the core of the book of Deuteronomy (hence the title
Deuteronomic),
and in particular that Israel’s national prosperity depends on its strict adherence to that covenant. For example, Judges 2.11-23, a Deuteronomic composition, tells in summary fashion a theme that will be repeated over and over in the stories of the judges: the people of Israel sin and fall away from worship of Yahweh; Yahweh sells them into the hand of oppressors; the people cry out, and Yahweh sends a deliverer, a “judge,” to rescue them; there is peace in the days of the deliverer; the deliverer dies, and the people sin again; and so forth. The first judge’s story in 3.7-11 is a good illustration of the pattern, with the whole process starting over again in verse 12:

The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the L
ORD
, forgetting the L
ORD
their God, and worshiping the Baals and the Asherahs. Therefore the anger of the L
ORD
was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim; and the Israelites served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. But
when the Israelites cried out to the L
ORD
, the L
ORD
raised up a deliverer for the Israelites, who delivered them, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. The spirit of the L
ORD
came upon him, and he judged Israel; he went out to war, and the L
ORD
gave King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the L
ORD
; and the L
ORD
strengthened King Eglon of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the L
ORD
.

The systematic way the judges’ stories are laid out in the book of Judges suggests that this later editor took stories from the premonarchic era in Israel’s history, mostly stories of war heroes, and superimposed upon them a formulaic beginning and ending. This is history as a series of champions’ lives and actions, which as we will see is typical of tribal societies. The all-Israel context is also part of the secondary, editorial structure: the core stories themselves concern the exploits of one person within the context of his or her own tribe or region, and do not usually involve a larger association of tribes pledged to defend each other. By way of exception, the old poem in Judges 5, one of the earliest witnesses to this era in Israel, congratulates the tribes that came to the battle and castigates those that did not, as if at least by the time of Deborah in the twelfth century
BCE
such an understanding existed among a number of the components of the people Israel. The notion that Israel’s political health depended on its adherence to its covenant with Yahweh, and especially on the exclusive worship of Yahweh, pervades the Deuteronomic History, and this means that in its final form the book of Judges has been shaped by the Deuteronomist(s).