Unit 6 · The Land, the Judges and the Kings

The book of Joshua is the sixth book of the Bible. It comes right after the five books of the Torah. Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. Joshua begins the very next moment. The people are camped by the Jordan River. The land of Canaan is on the other side. The story says God speaks to Joshua, the helper of Moses. Joshua is now the leader.

The first chapter gives Joshua a job and a rule. The job is to lead the people across the river. The rule is to keep the book of the law and think about it day and night. The text repeats one line three times. Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid. Readers have noticed that the new leader is told to be brave before anything else happens.

Jewish tradition places Joshua in a group of books called the Former Prophets. Christian Bibles call Joshua, Judges, Ruth and the books that follow the Historical Books. Both names tell us something. These books tell a story in order. Many scholars also think the books were written down long after the events they describe.

Jericho was a walled city near the Jordan River. Joshua 2 says two spies went in first. A woman named Rahab hid them on her roof. She asked them to keep her family safe. They agreed. Then Joshua 6 tells the famous part. The people marched around the city once a day for six days. Priests carried the ark and blew trumpets made from rams’ horns.

On the seventh day they marched around seven times. The priests blew the horns. Everyone shouted. The story says the wall fell down flat, and the people took the city. Rahab and her family were kept safe, just as the spies promised. The text says the city itself was destroyed.

This is a hard story, and readers have read it in many ways. Some Jewish and Christian readers take it as history. Many scholars think it was written long after, to teach a lesson about trust. Diggers at the site of Jericho disagree about what they found. They also disagree about when the walls fell. A public-school class can read the story as a story. It can notice what the story wants its readers to feel.

Genesis says Jacob had twelve sons. Their families grew into twelve tribes. A tribe is a very large family group with its own name. The second half of the book of Joshua is mostly a map in words. It says which tribe got which part of the land. Many chapters are lists of towns and borders. They are not exciting to read. But they show how much the land mattered.

Two of the tribes are named for Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. That keeps the number at twelve because one tribe, Levi, got no land of its own. The Levites served as priests and helpers at the place of worship. Joshua 21 says they lived in towns spread among the other tribes. Their job was their share.

The text also names cities of refuge. A person who killed someone by accident could run there and be safe until a fair trial. Jewish readers have studied these rules for many centuries. Christian readers have too. Both groups notice that the land is given with rules about being fair.

The book of Joshua ends with a big meeting. Joshua is old. He gathers all the tribes at a town called Shechem. He tells the whole story again from Abraham to that day. Then he gives the people a choice. Serve the God who brought you out of Egypt, or serve other gods. He says his own choice out loud. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

The people answer that they will serve too. Joshua warns them that it will be hard. They say it again. Then he makes a covenant with them. A covenant is a promise with rules on both sides. He writes it in the book of the law and sets up a large stone as a witness. Then the book says Joshua dies at the age of 110.

Readers have noticed that this scene echoes Mount Sinai. There the story says Moses gave the people the law. Here Joshua asks them to choose it again. Jewish and Christian readers both see a pattern. Each new generation has to say yes for itself. Many scholars think this scene was written to teach that lesson.

The book of Judges comes after Joshua. Its name can confuse readers. A judge in this book is not someone in a courtroom with a robe. A judge is a leader who steps up when the people are in trouble. The text says God raised up these leaders. Some led armies. Some settled arguments. The book names twelve of them.

Judges 2 explains the pattern of the whole book. The people forget the covenant. Enemies attack them. The people cry out for help. A judge rises up and saves them. Then there is peace for a while. Then the people forget again. Readers call this the cycle of Judges, because it goes around and around.

There was no king in this period. The last verse of the book says so. It adds that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Some readers take that as a complaint. Others take it as a plain description. Many scholars think the writer wanted readers to see why a king came next, in the book of Samuel.

Judges 4 introduces Deborah. The text calls her a prophet, a person who speaks a message from God. It also says she judged Israel. People came to her to settle their arguments. She sat under a palm tree in the hill country between two towns. She is the only judge in the book who is described this way, doing the work of a judge in the everyday sense.

A king named Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots. His general was Sisera. The story says Deborah sent for a man named Barak. She told him to take ten thousand men to Mount Tabor. Barak said he would go only if she went too. She agreed, but told him the honor would go to a woman. The chariots got stuck, and Sisera ran away on foot.

Sisera hid in the tent of a woman named Jael. She killed him while he slept. Judges 5 then tells the whole story again as a song. Many scholars think this song is one of the oldest pieces of writing in the Bible. Jewish and Christian readers alike have pointed to Deborah as a leader of unusual strength.

Judges 6 finds Gideon hiding wheat from raiders called the Midianites. The story says a messenger from God calls him a mighty man of valor. Gideon does not feel mighty. He asks for signs. He puts out a sheep’s fleece and asks for dew on it but not the ground. Then he asks for the opposite. The text says both happen. Gideon is a leader who needs to be sure.

Judges 7 is the famous part. Gideon gathers a big army. The story says God tells him it is too big. If they win, they will say they did it themselves. Everyone who is afraid may go home. Most leave. Then the men drink at a stream. Only those who lap water with their hands are kept. Three hundred remain.

That night the three hundred surround the enemy camp with trumpets, jars and torches. They break the jars, wave the torches and shout. The camp panics. Readers have drawn different lessons. Some see a story about trust. Some see a story about a small group beating a large one. Many scholars think the shrinking numbers are the storyteller’s main point.

Judges 13 to 16 tell about Samson. Before he is born, a messenger tells his mother he will be a Nazirite. That is a person set apart by a vow. A Nazirite does not drink wine, touch a dead body or cut his hair. The story says Samson’s strength is tied to that vow. He fights the Philistines, a people who lived along the coast.

Samson does amazing things in the story. He tears a lion apart. He carries off a city gate. He breaks every rope that ties him. But he also breaks his own rules again and again. He tells his secret to a woman named Delilah. She has his hair cut while he sleeps. The Philistines capture him and blind him.

At the end, his hair grows back. In a great hall, he pushes the pillars apart and the roof falls on everyone, himself too. Readers have never agreed about Samson. Some see a hero. Some see a warning. Jewish tradition and Christian tradition both list him among the judges. Many scholars think his story shows the cycle of Judges winding down toward a need for something new.

The book of Ruth says it takes place in the days when the judges ruled. Naomi is from Bethlehem. She loses her husband and both sons in Moab, a country east of the Dead Sea. Her daughter-in-law Ruth is a Moabite. In other parts of the Bible, Moab is an enemy. That makes Ruth’s story surprising from the first page.

Naomi tells Ruth to go home. Ruth refuses. Her speech in Ruth 1:16 has been read at weddings and funerals for centuries. She promises to go where Naomi goes and to make Naomi’s people and God her own. The two women arrive in Bethlehem at the start of the barley harvest. Naomi says she left full and came back empty.

The book is short and quiet. Nobody fights a battle. God does not speak out loud. Instead, people are kind to each other. The Hebrew word for this kindness is hesed. Jewish readers often say the whole book is about hesed. Christian readers have said the same thing in their own words.

Ruth goes out to find food. She gathers leftover grain behind the harvest workers. This is called gleaning. The Torah, in Leviticus 19, says farmers must leave the edges of the field and the dropped grain for the poor and the stranger. Ruth is both. The field belongs to a kind man named Boaz. He tells his workers to leave extra for her.

Boaz is a relative of Naomi’s husband. Naomi sees a chance. In the book’s rules, a close relative can marry a widow and keep the family’s land in the family. Boaz agrees, in front of the town leaders at the gate. He and Ruth marry. They have a son named Obed. The women of the town say a son has been born to Naomi.

The last lines of the book are a family list. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David. So the foreigner from Moab is the great-grandmother of Israel’s most famous king. Jewish readers read the book each year at Shavuot, the harvest festival. The Gospel of Matthew, in the New Testament, also names Ruth in the family line of Jesus.

The books of Samuel are named for a man, but they begin with his mother. Hannah has no children. She goes to the place of worship at Shiloh and prays so hard that the priest, Eli, thinks she is drunk. She promises that if she has a son, she will give him back to serve God. The story says her prayer is answered. She names the boy Samuel.

When Samuel is still small, Hannah brings him to Shiloh to live with Eli. One night, the text says, a voice calls his name. Three times Samuel runs to Eli. Three times Eli says he did not call. Then Eli understands. He tells the boy to answer, Speak, for your servant is listening. Samuel grows up to be a prophet, a judge and the leader of the people.

In the Hebrew Bible, Samuel is one book. Christian Bibles split it into 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel because of its length. The same is true of Kings. Hannah’s song of thanks in 1 Samuel 2 is about God lifting up the poor and bringing down the proud. Jewish readers read it in the synagogue on the New Year. Christian readers have noticed how much Mary’s song in Luke sounds like it.

Samuel grows old. His sons are judges, but they take bribes. The leaders of the people come to Samuel with a request. Give us a king to rule us, like all the other nations. The text says Samuel is unhappy. He prays. The story says God tells him the people are not rejecting Samuel but rejecting God as their king. Still, Samuel is told to give them what they ask.

First he warns them. A king will take your sons for his army and his chariots. He will take your daughters to cook and bake. He will take the best of your fields and a tenth of your grain. You will cry out, and it will be too late. The people listen and say it anyway. We want a king. Samuel sends them home.

The Torah had already given rules for a king in Deuteronomy 17. A king must not gather many horses or many wives. He must not pile up silver and gold. He must write his own copy of the law and read it every day. Jewish and Christian readers both use these rules to measure the kings who follow. Many scholars think the books of Samuel and Kings were written to do exactly that.

The first king is a young man named Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. 1 Samuel 9 says he was taller than anyone else in the land. He was out looking for his father’s lost donkeys when he met Samuel. Samuel poured oil on his head. This is called anointing, and it marked him as the chosen one. Later Samuel showed him to all the people, and they shouted, Long live the king.

Saul wins battles against the Ammonites and the Philistines. His son Jonathan is a brave fighter too. But the story tells of two times when Saul does not do what Samuel tells him. Once he offers a sacrifice himself instead of waiting for Samuel. Once he does not carry out an order fully after a battle. Samuel tells him that God has rejected him as king.

After this, the text says, Saul’s mood grows dark. He becomes jealous and afraid. Readers have felt sorry for Saul for a long time. He did not ask to be king. Some Jewish and Christian readers see a tragic figure. Others see a warning about obeying. The text lets readers hold both.

1 Samuel 16 sends Samuel to Bethlehem, the town of Ruth and Boaz. He is to find a new king among the sons of a man named Jesse. Jesse brings out his oldest son. He is tall and handsome. Samuel thinks this must be the one. The story says God tells him no. People look at the outside. God looks at the heart.

Seven sons pass by. None is chosen. Samuel asks if there are any more. Jesse says the youngest is out with the sheep. They send for him. He is a boy named David. The text says he had a healthy glow and beautiful eyes. Samuel anoints him in front of his brothers. Then David goes back to the sheep.

Later in the same chapter, King Saul is troubled and cannot rest. His servants suggest music. Someone knows a shepherd from Bethlehem who plays the harp well. David comes to the palace and plays for the king. Saul feels better. Jewish tradition connects David with the book of Psalms, and 73 psalms carry his name in their titles. Christian readers sing those psalms too.

1 Samuel 17 is one of the best-known stories in the Bible. The Philistine army camps on one hill. Saul’s army camps on another. In the valley between them, a huge soldier named Goliath from the city of Gath steps out every day. He wears bronze armor and carries a heavy spear. He shouts for one man to come and fight him. For forty days no one does.

David’s father sends him to bring food to his brothers. David hears the shout and asks why no one answers. His oldest brother is angry. Saul says David is only a boy. David answers that he has fought a lion and a bear to protect his sheep. Saul lets him go. David tries on Saul’s armor and takes it off. He picks five smooth stones from the stream and walks out with his sling.

Goliath laughs at him. David says he comes in the name of God, not with a sword. He whirls the sling. The stone strikes Goliath’s forehead, and he falls. The Philistines run. Readers of every kind have used this story as a picture of the small against the large. Jewish readers, Christian readers and many with no religion all say a David and Goliath contest.

After Goliath, David becomes a hero. Women sing that Saul has killed thousands and David tens of thousands. Saul hears the song and grows jealous. The story says he throws a spear at David twice while David plays the harp. But Saul’s own son Jonathan loves David like himself. The text says the two make a covenant of friendship. Jonathan gives David his robe, his sword and his bow.

1 Samuel 20 tells how Jonathan finds out that his father means to kill David. The two friends meet in a field. Jonathan shoots arrows as a secret signal. Then they weep together. Jonathan sends David away to save his life. David spends years hiding in caves and the wilderness. Twice he could have killed Saul and did not.

Saul and Jonathan both die in a battle against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. 2 Samuel 1 gives David’s song of grief for them. He says Jonathan’s love was wonderful to him. Jewish and Christian readers have called this one of the closest friendships in the Bible. Many scholars add one more point. The covenant between them explains why David later cares for Jonathan’s son.

After Saul’s death, 2 Samuel says David is made king at Hebron by his own tribe, Judah. Seven years later the other tribes ask him to rule them too. The text says he reigned forty years in all. David needed a capital that belonged to no tribe. He captured a hill city called Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Many scholars date this to about 1000 BCE.

David brings the ark to Jerusalem with music and dancing. 2 Samuel 6 says he danced so hard that his wife Michal was embarrassed for him. He wants to build a house for the ark. The prophet Nathan brings him a message in 2 Samuel 7. David will not build the house. Instead, the text says, God will build David a house, meaning a family line that lasts.

Jewish tradition reads this promise as the start of a hope. One day a king from David’s line will come. Christian tradition reads the Gospels as saying that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, is that king. Both readings begin from the same chapter. A public-school class can hold both side by side. Each one grows out of the text.

2 Samuel 11 tells a story the Bible could have left out. David sees a woman named Bathsheba bathing on a roof. He sends for her, though she is married to a soldier named Uriah. When she becomes pregnant, David tries to cover it up. Then he sends Uriah to the front of a battle, where he is killed. David marries Bathsheba. The text ends the chapter by saying that what David had done displeased God.

The prophet Nathan comes to the king. He tells a story. A rich man had many sheep. A poor man had one little lamb that he loved like a daughter. A traveler came to the rich man. The rich man would not use his own sheep. He took the poor man’s lamb and cooked it. David is furious. That man deserves to die, he says.

Nathan answers with four words. You are the man. David sees it. He does not argue. He says, I have sinned. Jewish tradition connects Psalm 51, a prayer for a clean heart, to this moment. Christian readers do the same. Many scholars say this story shows what a parable can do. It lets a listener judge before he knows he is judging himself.

David grows old, and his son Solomon becomes king. 1 Kings 3 says Solomon goes to a high place called Gibeon to worship. That night he has a dream. The story says God asks him what he wants. Solomon does not ask for a long life or riches or the death of his enemies. He asks for an understanding heart to judge the people and to know good from bad.

The text says the answer pleases God. Solomon gets wisdom, and riches and honor besides. The very next story is the case of the two mothers and one baby. Solomon calls for a sword, and the real mother gives up her claim to save the child. The book says all Israel heard about it and saw that the king could judge.

1 Kings 4 says Solomon spoke three thousand proverbs and more than a thousand songs. A proverb is a short wise saying. Jewish tradition connects him with the book of Proverbs, and its first verse carries his name. Christian readers do too. Many scholars think the book grew over centuries, gathering sayings from many hands, and was placed under the name of the wise king.

David had wanted to build a house for the ark. The text says his son did it. 1 Kings 6 describes the Temple in detail. It was built of cut stone and lined with cedar wood from Lebanon, sent by King Hiram of Tyre. The inside was covered with gold. The innermost room held the ark. The book says the building took seven years.

The Temple was not a place where people sat in rows. Priests offered sacrifices in the courtyard outside. The people gathered there for festivals. 1 Kings 8 gives Solomon’s long prayer on the day the Temple opened. He says that even the heavens cannot hold God, so how could this house. He asks that prayers said toward this place be heard, even from far away.

This building is called the First Temple. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BCE, a story told later in this course. A Second Temple was built after the exile and stood until the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE. Jewish tradition still turns toward Jerusalem in prayer. Christian and Muslim traditions also hold the city sacred. Nothing of Solomon’s building can be seen today, and scholars debate its exact size and date.

1 Kings 11 says Solomon’s later years were troubled. He married many foreign wives, built places for their gods and taxed the people hard. Readers who remember Deuteronomy 17 notice that he broke its rules for a king. When he dies, his son Rehoboam goes to Shechem to be made king. The people ask him to make their load lighter.

Rehoboam asks the old advisors. They say, serve the people today and they will serve you forever. He asks his young friends instead. They tell him to say, my father made your load heavy and I will make it heavier. He says it. Ten tribes walk away and make a man named Jeroboam their king. Only Judah and Benjamin stay with Rehoboam. Many scholars date this split to about 930 BCE.

From now on there are two kingdoms. Israel in the north has its capital at Samaria in time. Judah in the south keeps Jerusalem and the Temple. The books of Kings follow both, ruler by ruler. Each king gets a short report card. Did he keep the covenant or not? Jewish and Christian readers both take this as the books’ way of saying what a king was for.