Deborah Deborah the prophet was one of the early judges of Israel, a woman of integrity and devotion to the Lord. As a prophet, she received divine revelation; as a judge, she arbitrated legal disputes. She could aptly be characterized as “a mother for Israel” (see Judg 5:7). The time period in which Deborah lived was one of increasing moral depravity, spiritual blindness, and political fragmentation. Israel was doing “evil in the Lord’s sight” (Judg 4:1), so God once again turned Israel over to an oppressor, Jabin of Canaan. And once again, Israel “cried out to the Lord for help” (4:3). Through Deborah, God called Barak to fight against Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army. But Barak did not receive God’s call with enthusiasm and courage. Instead, he set a condition: Deborah must go with him. Deborah agreed, but with a cost: The glory for the victory would not go to Barak but to a woman. And so it happened: Barak defeated Sisera and his army, but the glory went to Jael, the woman who killed Sisera and fulfilled Deborah’s prophecy. Barak’s lack of courage and leadership contrasts with the courage and leadership of these two women. Deborah’s actions resulted in a forty-yea...

Social Chaos in Judges While the book of Judges celebrates divine rescue through heroes, it also chronicles the inadequacy of the status quo. A decline in individual piety throughout the period was accompanied by a rise in social dysfunction, powerfully expressed in chapter 5 (e.g., 5:6-8). Three features of the times stand out: First, the tribes had little ability to function in unison, even when faced by a common enemy (see, e.g., the Gideon and Jephthah stories; chs 8, 12). The civil strife within and between tribes reflects covenant disobedience. Second, the breakdown of civil society is also evidenced throughout the book. Abimelech’s murder of Gideon’s sons, Jephthah’s apparent sacrifice of his daughter, and Samson’s acts of revenge toward the Philistines highlight the depravity and lack of civility that characterized this period. Third, religious apostasy was widespread in those days. The “evil in the Lord’s sight” committed by the Israelites was repeatedly connected to idolatry (Judg 2:11-13; 3:7; 10:6). The altar to Baal and the Asherah pole in Gideon’s town of Ophrah (6:25-30) indicate flagrant abandonment of the Lord, as do the worship of the golden ephod made by...