(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Judges 1:9–20, “And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley. And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba:) and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. And from thence he went against the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjathsepher: And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjathsepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife. And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife. And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou? And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people. And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah. Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof. And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.”
It seems like Judah was acting as the leading tribe in those days and doing most of the possessing. Their inheritance included some high country and some of the coastal plain as well. They were prepared to fight against giants and other warriors with great reputations like Caleb their relative and they even defeated these giants. There might be some confusion about the repetition of this section but the book of Judges had a different author. It was probably complied by official archivists attached to the leaders during that time period. This was also true of Joshua, although he would have dictated his recollections to his official recorder as he obeyed the Lord during the invasion and the period of possession and then the recorder, or maybe the last of the official recorders, would have completed Joshua’s history by recording his death. (Compare 2 Chron 26: 22, 23, “Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write. So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.”) The official archivist who was acting after Joshua’s death wanted to make sure that his record was complete so he took care to record the history of his time period even though there may have been some overlap in the history. All these records were collected together and written down when the nation was united again under one leader. The histories recorded in the book of Judges were not all records of the activities of the united nation but they all had connections to the Tabernacle and the archives of the period were kept there for safety and to ensure that they were available to anyone who was interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment