Hebrew Bible

The Book of Judges (the meaning of the title is the same in English and Hebrew) continues on from the Book of Joshua’s events, but the depiction of the Israelites’ situation during that time is different than what the reader might expect given the rather optimistic picture that Joshua painted of the conquest. Many powerful adversaries remain, both inside Canaan and across its borders. These groups exercise power even within Israelite territory such that the Israelites are mostly living in small villages in the hinterlands, without much power or unity among themselves. In this precarious condition, G-d raises up judges for the people of Israel, officers appointed to exercise authority for the accomplishment of certain tasks, like leading a military campaign against an enemy. Some of these judges, like Gideon, are successful in their initial attacks. Gideon leads an army of Israelite recruits against a much larger army of Midianites, who had been raiding Israelite settlements and causing great damage. Gideon and his army are encouraged to put their trust in G-d rather than in their own strength, so Gideon sends the greater portion of his soldiers home and routs the Midianite camp with just a small group of men (Judges 6-8). 

The book tells tales of 12 judges in all, including Othniel, Deborah, Jephthah, and Samson. Samson is characterized by his supernaturally endowed strength, and despite the shortcomings of his character, G-d uses him to check the advance of a new and dangerous group, the Philistines, in the coastal plains of Canaan. By the end of Judges, the situation has not improved much: Israel is still repeatedly subject to oppression by other groups, and the Israelites are guided by their own inclinations rather than by the law of G-d. This is summed up by a repeated saying in the Book of Judges, which stands as a judgment against the moral ambiguity of the time: “Every man did as he pleased” (Judges 17.6; 21.25).

The Book of 1 Samuel picks up the story roughly where the Book of Judges left off. The reader is introduced to Samuel (in Hebrew, Shmuel), who is born through an act of divine intervention in answer to his mother’s prayer. The priests of the tabernacle raise Samuel, dedicating him to a life of service to G-d. As he grows up, he becomes a prophet and judge for Israel, adjudicating people’s disputes and speaking the word of G-d. During this period, the Philistines are a rising threat to the scattered Israelite settlements, so the people clamor for a king to help them exercise a more organized defense. This would be a significant change in Israelite society, but G-d permits it, so Samuel anoints a young man named Saul to be the first king of the united people of Israel. Saul at first exercises his kingship with an eye toward following the commands of G-d, but he eventually shows himself to be too headstrong and disobedient, so G-d rejects him as king. Although Saul continues to hold the office until his death, G-d has already selected the next king of Israel: a boy named David, from the town of Bethlehem. David rises to prominence through his military prowess, most famously shown in his victory over the Philistine giant Goliath using only a sling and some stones. As David’s influence grows, Saul comes to see David as a threat to his own power, even though David makes no outward claim to the kingship. Saul pursues David and his followers across the country, consigning David to a life on the run. Eventually, Saul dies in the aftermath of a battle against the Philistines, which opens the way for David to rise to the kingship.

The Book of 2 Samuel continues the narrative of David’s rise. Whereas 1 Samuel was concerned with the establishment of the monarchy, 2 Samuel is concerned entirely with David’s rule. In the beginning, after Saul’s fall, the kingship is contested. David’s own tribe, Judah, anoints him as king, but some of the other Israelites coalesce under the leadership of one of Saul’s sons, Ish-bosheth. David and Ish-bosheth struggle for power, and David emerges triumphant. David then rules over all of Israel, reigning from his new capital, Jerusalem, a Jebusite stronghold he has captured. David conducts campaigns against the people groups around Israel, expanding Israelite territory and solidifying their position in the geopolitics of the wider region. 

Although David is G-d’s chosen king, he still makes several grievous mistakes. The greatest of these is his affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of David’s greatest soldiers. David sees Bathsheba and is entranced by her beauty. Not only does he have sex with her, but he also arranges to have Uriah killed in battle. The affair results in a pregnancy, but because of David’s sin, G-d sends the prophet Nathan to announce that the baby will not survive. David repents of his sin and reconciles himself to G-d’s judgment. Even after that crisis, David’s family life continues to be marked by significant difficulties. As the story progresses, his son Absalom raises a coup d’état against him. David flees from Jerusalem, and only later is his army able to defeat Absalom and regain control of the country. In the process, however, Absalom is killed. David is grief-stricken by the death of his son, but he continues to rule over Israel for the rest of his days. He desires to build a permanent place of worship for G-d in Jerusalem, replacing the temporary tent structure of the tabernacle, but G-d tells him that that duty will fall to the son who succeeds him.

The Book of 1 Kings continues the narrative from 1 and 2 Samuel. It opens with the death of King David and a brief power struggle between David’s sons, from which Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, emerges victorious. The first section of 1 Kings is a narrative of Solomon’s consolidation of power and his construction of the temple. Solomon reigns over Israel at the height of its power in the region, building a reputation for his own wisdom and his kingdom’s prestige. He manages to maintain stable relations with the powers around him, partly through the use of political marriages. By the end of his life, Solomon has some 300 wives and 700 concubines, many of whom represent alliances with neighboring states and tribes (see 1 Kings 11.3). 

After Solomon’s reign, 1 Kings narrates the succession of monarchs who follow. Rather than remaining united after David and Solomon, the kingdom splits into two parts: the northern part, representing the majority of the tribes, and the southern part, representing a minority of tribes but including the most populous one, the tribe of Judah. The northern kingdom is henceforward called Israel, and the southern kingdom is called Judah. The split happens under Solomon’s son Rehoboam, who, in contrast to Solomon’s storied wisdom, is an unwise king and is brutal in his method of government. The northern tribes break off under a leader named Jeroboam. The northern kingdom of Israel does not maintain its worship of G-d as faithfully as Judah does, partly because Judah has the temple in Jerusalem, while Israel has no officially sanctioned place of worship. Some of the kings attempt to remedy this by creating cult sites within their own territory, a move that earns the prophets’ rebukes. No prophet features more prominently in 1 Kings than Elijah, who minsters during the reign of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, the latter of whom is intent on turning the people of Israel to the worship of the Canaanite god Baal. Elijah resists this change in Israel’s religion, even winning a challenge against the priests of Baal in which his prayer draws down fire from heaven, thus proving to the people that the G-d of Israel is the one true G-d.

Elijah finishes his service as prophet by crossing over the Jordan River with his protégé, Elisha. There, Elisha witnesses Elijah being taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire. Elisha then takes up his own prophetic ministry in Israel, not only as a messenger of G-d’s words but also as a bearer of G-d’s miraculous power. Several miracles are attributed to Elisha, including raising a boy from the dead and making a single jar of oil continue to pour far beyond its own capacity, thus producing enough oil to save a family in danger of debt-slavery. Elisha’s period of ministry comes to an end, but it is not the end of the prophets, many more of whom are active in both Israel and Judah. Both kingdoms, however, suffer a string of unfaithful monarchs who are inclined to seek their own power and permit the worship of pagan gods. As such, they lose the protective power that would follow from being faithful to G-d’s covenant, and Israel falls to the invading power of the Assyrian empire in the eighth century BCE. Judah persists for a while longer, surviving the Assyrian invasion through the intervention of several faithful kings, like Hezekiah and Josiah. In the end, though, the unfaithfulness of most of their monarchs leads to their downfall. Instead of heeding the call of the prophets to turn their hearts back to the worship of G-d, they resist and trust in their own strength. In 605 BCE, the Babylonian empire launches several waves of invasions that strip Judah of its sovereignty, capture political prisoners to take back as exiles, and ultimately, in 586 BCE, destroy the city of Jerusalem itself, together with the temple.