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Course 6 · Lesson 3.1

From the judges to the first kings

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 6 outline

Module 1: Israel in the Ancient Near East

  1. Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan: the world of the Old Testament
  2. What archaeology and ancient texts can and cannot show
  3. Genesis 1 to 3 beside other ancient creation accounts
  4. Ancient cosmology and how Christians and Jews read Genesis

Module 2: Covenant: Abraham and Moses

  1. What a covenant is, and covenant forms in the ancient world
  2. The covenants with Noah and Abraham
  3. The exodus and the covenant at Sinai
  4. The Torah: law, worship and the tabernacle
  5. Covenant in Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed thought

Module 3: Kingship in Israel

  1. From the judges to the first kings
  2. David, Jerusalem and the promise of a lasting house
  3. Solomon, the temple and the divided kingdom
  4. How Samuel and Kings tell the story: sources and purpose

Module 4: The Prophets, Exile and Restoration

  1. What a prophet was in Israel and in the ancient world
  2. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah: justice, loyalty and judgment
  3. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the fall of Jerusalem
  4. The return, Ezra, Nehemiah and the rebuilt temple
  5. How the prophetic books were formed: the debate over Isaiah and others

Module 5: Wisdom and Apocalyptic Writing

  1. Proverbs and the way of the wise
  2. Job and Ecclesiastes: wisdom that questions
  3. What apocalyptic writing is: Daniel and its setting
  4. Reading apocalyptic images responsibly

Module 6: Second Temple Judaism and the Development of Jewish Thought

  1. Persian, Greek and Maccabean periods
  2. Temple, synagogue and the main groups in Jewish life
  3. Development in Jewish thought: angels, resurrection, wisdom and law
  4. Sources: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the deuterocanonical books and Josephus

Module 7: Messianic Expectation and the Shape of the Covenants

  1. Anointed ones in the Old Testament: king, priest, prophet
  2. Messianic texts in the prophets and psalms
  3. How Jews and Christians read the messianic texts
  4. The promise of a new covenant
  5. Mapping the development of covenant across the Old Testament

All courses

Program / Course 6: Old Testament Theology and History / Lesson 3.1

What you will learn

  • Describe the period of the judges and the repeating pattern the book of Judges uses to tell it.
  • Explain why the people asked for a king and how Samuel and God are shown to respond.
  • Summarize the reign of Saul and the reasons the text gives for his rejection.
  • Name the main scholarly models for Israel’s settlement in the land.

The big idea

Before Israel had kings, the book of Judges shows tribes in the land under leaders raised up in crisis. The book repeats a cycle of unfaithfulness, oppression, a cry for help and rescue, and it ends in disorder. In 1 Samuel the people ask for a king like other nations. The text treats this request with deep ambivalence: kingship is permitted and even given, but it is also a warning. Saul, the first king, is anointed, wins victories and then falls.

Key terms

Judge
In the book of Judges, a leader raised up by God to rescue a group of tribes from an enemy. Judges were not only legal officials.
Conquest
The entry into Canaan under Joshua, described in the book of Joshua as a series of campaigns.
Philistines
A people who settled the southern coast of Canaan about 1200 BC and became Israel’s main rival in the time of Samuel and Saul.
Anointing
Pouring or smearing oil on a person to set him apart for a task, especially as king or priest. The Hebrew word is mashiach.
Ark of the covenant
The chest holding the tablets of the law, treated as a symbol of God’s presence.
Deuteronomistic
A term for the outlook and editing in Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, which resemble the themes of Deuteronomy.
Tribal league
A loose association of related tribes without a central government. Some scholars propose that early Israel was one.

Background

After the death of Moses, the book of Joshua describes Israel crossing the Jordan and taking Canaan in a series of campaigns, then dividing the land among the tribes. The book of Judges gives a more fragmented picture, in which many areas remain unconquered and the tribes fight local enemies. The tension between the two books is noticed by readers in all traditions, and various solutions are offered.

Archaeology shows a sudden growth of small villages in the central hill country about 1200 BC, in the early Iron Age. Scholars debate who lived in them. Some propose a military conquest, some a gradual infiltration of herders, and some an internal movement of Canaanites who became Israelites, perhaps with a group from Egypt joining them. The picture of early Israel is therefore uncertain. The biblical writers present a unified Israel under Joshua. The historical question is distinct from the theological one.

The books of Judges and Samuel are part of a longer history running through Kings, written from a viewpoint that judges each generation by its loyalty to the Lord. Knowing that viewpoint helps a reader notice how the stories are shaped.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The cycle in Judges

The book of Judges sets out a pattern in chapter 2. Israel does evil and serves other gods. God gives them into the hands of an enemy. They cry out. God raises up a deliverer, the land has rest, and then the judge dies and the cycle begins again. The judges include Othniel, Ehud, Deborah with Barak, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson. Deborah is a prophet and judge, and the poem in Judges 5 is thought by many scholars to be one of the oldest in the Bible.

The stories become darker as the book proceeds. The later chapters tell of a civil war among the tribes. The refrain is repeated: in those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25). The writer seems to be preparing the reader for monarchy, and also to be asking whether a king can cure Israel’s problems.

Step 2: Samuel and the demand for a king

The opening of 1 Samuel tells of Hannah, who prays for a son, and of Samuel, who grows up in the sanctuary at Shiloh. The Philistines defeat Israel, and the ark of the covenant is captured (1 Samuel 4). It is later returned. Samuel serves as judge and prophet. When he is old and his sons do not follow his ways, the elders ask for a king to judge them like all the nations (1 Samuel 8).

Samuel is displeased. God tells him that the people have not rejected Samuel but have rejected God from being king over them. Samuel warns what a king will take: sons for the army, daughters for the palace, fields and a tenth of the flocks. The people insist. Deuteronomy 17:14 to 20 had already allowed a king, within limits: he must be chosen by God, be an Israelite, not multiply horses, wives or silver, and read the law daily. The text thus both permits and cautions.

Step 3: Saul

Samuel anoints Saul, a Benjaminite, in private, and the people acclaim him at Mizpah. He defeats the Ammonites and gathers an army. The text then shows his failures. In 1 Samuel 13 he offers a sacrifice himself when Samuel is late. In chapter 15 he spares the Amalekite king and the best of the animals against a command, and Samuel tells him that the Lord has rejected him as king. Obedience, says Samuel, is better than sacrifice.

Saul falls into jealous rage against David, whom Samuel has secretly anointed, and pursues him. Saul dies in battle with the Philistines on Mount Gilboa, with his sons (1 Samuel 31). David’s lament over him, in 2 Samuel 1, is among the most moving poems in the Bible and does not hide his grief. The account treats Saul as a tragic figure.

Step 4: What historians add

Historians place Saul in the late eleventh century BC and describe his rule as a chiefdom more than a state, with no capital city of any size. The Philistines are known from Egyptian records and from excavated cities such as Ashkelon and Ekron. Some scholars argue that the tribal peoples of the hill country needed a leader to resist them. The biblical narrative offers a religious reason for the change, and the two explanations can be held together.

  1. What is the pattern of the cycle in Judges, and what does it say about Israel’s faithfulness?
  2. Why does the book of Judges end with the refrain about no king in Israel?
  3. In 1 Samuel 8, what is wrong, and what is right, with the people’s request?
  4. Why does Samuel warn about the cost of kingship?
  5. What does the text give as the reasons for Saul’s rejection?
  6. How do the biblical and historical explanations for the rise of the monarchy relate?

Examples

Deborah

Deborah judges Israel under a palm tree and sends for Barak to lead the army. She goes with him to battle. A woman named Jael kills the enemy commander (Judges 4). The story shows that leadership in this period was not limited by rank or sex, and that the credit is given to God.

Samson

Samson is a strongman who fights the Philistines but lives with little discipline. He is a judge whose gifts are great and whose character is weak. Readers often take him as showing how far the judges had fallen from the ideal.

Saul and the sacrifice

In 1 Samuel 13, Saul, under pressure from the Philistines, offers a burnt offering because Samuel has not come in time. Samuel arrives and declares that Saul acted foolishly. Readers debate whether the offense was usurping a priestly role or failing to wait, and agree that it shows impatience with God’s word.

Different perspectives

Jewish readers

Jewish tradition counts Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings among the Former Prophets and reads them as teaching that Israel’s fortunes depend on faithfulness to the covenant. Rabbinic commentary admires the judges as leaders raised by God, while noting their flaws.

Catholic and Orthodox readers

These traditions read the judges as figures who foreshadow Christ the deliverer, and Hannah’s song as a model for Mary’s Magnificat. The Septuagint’s Greek text of Samuel, which they use, sometimes differs from the Hebrew text.

Protestant readers

Protestants commonly stress God’s sovereignty in the cycle of Judges and the ambivalence of the request for a king. Many read Saul as a warning of a leader who fails to obey, in contrast with David.

Scholarly views

Scholars debate the origin of Israel in the land, with conquest, infiltration and internal-revolt models each having defenders. Many hold that the books were edited long after the events, with older sources inside them.

Why it matters

The shift from judges to kings is a turning point in Israel’s story and in its theology. It raises a question that runs through the Old Testament: how can human authority serve God’s rule without replacing it? The answer shaped Israel’s hopes for a future king and continues in Jewish and Christian ideas about leadership.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Judges were mainly legal officials.

Correction: In the book of Judges they are mostly military deliverers raised in crisis. Only a few, such as Deborah, are said to decide disputes.

Misunderstanding: The Bible is simply against kings.

Correction: The text has mixed voices. 1 Samuel 8 warns against kingship, yet God gives a king, and later texts speak of an ideal king with hope. The Deuteronomy passage allows a king under law.

Misunderstanding: Joshua describes a complete conquest, and Judges contradicts it.

Correction: Joshua uses sweeping language that Judges qualifies. Readers in different traditions explain the tension as the difference between a victory over the main forces and the long work of settling the land.

Knowledge check

Describe the cycle in the book of Judges.

Israel does evil and serves other gods. God gives them into the hand of an oppressor. The people cry out. God raises up a judge who rescues them, and the land has rest for a time. When the judge dies, the people fall back into evil, and the cycle repeats. The pattern shows the writers’ view that Israel’s troubles flow from unfaithfulness.

Why did the elders ask Samuel for a king?

Samuel was old and his sons did not follow his ways. The elders asked for a king to judge them like all the nations. The text also reflects the military threat from the Philistines. God tells Samuel that the people have rejected God as king, while still instructing him to grant the request, after a warning about the costs.

What reasons does 1 Samuel give for Saul’s rejection?

In chapter 13 Saul offers a sacrifice himself instead of waiting for Samuel. In chapter 15 he fails to carry out the command about the Amalekites and keeps the best of the animals. Samuel tells him that obedience is better than sacrifice and that the Lord has rejected him. Readers see a pattern of acting by his own judgment instead of God’s word.

What are the main models of Israel’s settlement in Canaan?

The conquest model follows the book of Joshua and sees a rapid military takeover. The infiltration model sees gradual settlement by herding peoples. The internal-revolt model sees Canaanite peasants becoming Israelites. Many scholars combine parts of these. The evidence is uneven, and the question is still debated.

Think it through

  1. What makes a leader legitimate in the stories of Judges and Samuel?
  2. Why might the writer have chosen to end Judges with a dark refrain?
  3. Do you see a tension between wanting a strong leader and wanting to trust God? How does the text handle it?
  4. How should the historical and the theological explanations of the monarchy relate?

Independent assignment

Reading 1 Samuel 8 to 15

In your own notebook, read 1 Samuel 8 to 15. For each chapter, write a line summarizing what happens and a line on how the text judges it. Then write 250 to 400 words on whether the book is for or against kingship, using at least four verses. Mention one other reading than your own. Keep it for yourself.

Further study