posted by R. Fowler White
Reading and studying through the book of Judges over roughly the last six months has prompted me to think again about those infamous words repeated in Judg 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; and 21:25: in those days there was no king in Israel.
No doubt that refrain contributes to our interpreting the book as a pro-monarchy (pro-David, pro-Judah, anti-Benjamin) apologetic. Still, we know that it is more than mere happenstance that the refrain appears only in the book’s final five chapters, chapters in which the notorious declension of Levites and Benjamites is recounted. That is, isn’t it a bit curious that the refrain about Israel’s kingship is repeated not just in a narrative about civil war among Israel’s tribes (chs. 20–21), but also in narratives that deal with Israel’s priesthood (chs. 17–19)?
My suggestion is that the accounts of Judges 17–21 show us that the author means to present an apologetic not only for a ruler better than the judges, but also for a priest better than the Levites. To put it another way, the author is not only anti-Benjamin/pro-Judah/pro-David (pro-Yahweh!) when it comes to kingship; he is also anti-Levite when it comes to priesthood. In that light, it becomes clearer that the priests as well as the judges of the old covenant were beset with the weaknesses of sinfulness and mortality and thus were thoroughly disabled from bringing the deliverance needed by a likewise disabled people. Taken together, the book’s depiction of the miseries brought upon Israel by their own weaknesses and by those of their officers awakens a longing and hope for the ministry of one who is better than a judge and a Levite, a ministry like that of the king-priest Melchizedek to father Abraham in Gen 14:17-20–a ministry, ultimately, of a better covenant.
David Gadbois
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paigebritton
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Ron Henzel
Green Baggins 