The Book of JudgesThe Book of Judges, with Introduction and Notes. C. F. Burney

1. Title. The book of Judges takes its name from the titles of the men who governed Israel after the death of Joshua. Moses, in giving directions as to the government of the Israelites after their settlement in Canaan, had ordered, “Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Deut. 16:18). Accordingly, after Moses no longer lived to exercise legislative, nor Joshua, executive functions, judges were appointed, who constituted the highest civil authority in the land. The book of Judges is the history of the period that immediately followed the death of Joshua. In that period the governing authority in Israel was vested in judges. The men after whom this book was named filled a larger office than the civil functions of the judges stipulated in the Mosaic law. They were, in most cases, summoned directly to their great work by divine appointment (ch. 3:15; 4:6; 6:12; etc.), and entered upon it more as deliverers from foreign bondage than as civil rulers. In fact, the very necessity for their call and their great deeds arose from the anarchy that rendered all ordinary procedures unavailing against the prevalent apostasy and oppression. The most illustrious of them were national heroes rather than civil or religious guides. “Generals,” or “chieftains,” would probably be a more accurate title for them inasmuch as their exploits were largely military. However, after each judge “delivered” the people, he ruled over them for the rest of his life. Hence the name Judges seemed most appropriate for the book when it was written. Centuries later in Carthage, where the people were of the same racial and linguistic stock as the Hebrews, a political ruler was