I have discussed Judges in the past, but now I’d like to see you wrestle with some of the key ideas, people, and culture that each book of the Bible has. Let’s start this series of blogs for the Fall 25 semester by looking at Judges.

1. Check chapters 1 and 2. Then go to the end and read 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25. What phrase is repeated? Does that sound familiar for our world today?
2. Take a look at 2:11-23. What is being said about history here?
3. Chapter 5:1-31 includes a very old poem of victory. How is it different from the story of the same event narrated in the previous chapter? What does that say about the differences between poetry and prose?
4. The book attempts to answer the question of why Israel never fully possessed the land promised to them. What is the book’s answer?
5. Do you see the book as cyclical or a downward spiral?
6. The story of Jephthah is like a Greek tragedy. See what the characteristics of a Greek tragedy are and compare them to this story in Judges.
7. Many see Samson as a representative of all that was wrong with Israel. Explain.