Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is about judges as indicated by the name of the book. Up until this point, God was the Israelites' judge. Now humans will become judges over their land.
These were no ordinary judges. Today, they would not be accepted because there was something odd about many of them
-- Othniel was the first judge, and he served for 40 years. (Judges 3:7-11)
-- Ehud served for 80 years. He was a left-handed judge.
-- Shamgar's time serving was not recorded. He slaughtered 600 of the invaders with one ox goad.
-- Deborah only female judge mentioned in the Bible. (Judges, Chapter 4)
-- Gideon was the fearful judge who put out a fleece twice to get a sign from God. (Judges, Chapter 6)
-- Tola (Judges 10:1-2). He judged Israel for 23 years. Of all the biblical judges, the least is written
--Jair (Judges 10:3–5) judged Israel for 22 years. He had thirty sons.
--Jephtha (Judges 12:7) was a judge for only 6 years. He made a stupid vow he had to keep. Jephthah led the Israelites in battle against Ammon and, in exchange for defeating the Ammonites, made a vow to sacrifice whatever would come out of the door of his house first. When his daughter was the first to come out of the house, he immediately regretted the vow, but he was obligated to keep it.
--Ibzan (12:8-10) Very little is said about him except he judged Israel for seven years and he had 30 sons and 30 daughters.
-- Elon was a judge, but very little is said about him.
-- Abon was a judge for eight years. (Judges 12:13-15). He had forty sons and thirty grandsons.
-- Samson was the last of the judges, and more is recorded about him than any of the others. (Chapters 13 to 16) Most people know the story about him and Deliah who got him to tell her the secret of his strength. Samson was betrayed by his lover Delilah, who ordered a servant to cut his hair while he was sleeping and turned him over to his Philistine enemies, who gouged out his eyes and forced him to grind grain in a mill at Gaza and became a laughing stock for entertainment.
The Philistines didn't notice that Samson's hair was growing back. When Samson was strong enough, he pushed against the columns in the temple, killing himself and all the Philistines with him.
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