Line #46 Literature/BookOfJudges


1	[[WMG:[[center:[-'''Literature/TheBible'''\
2	'''Old Testament/Tanakh'''\
3	[[Literature/BookOfGenesis Genesis]] \| [[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus]] \| [[Literature/BookOfJoshua Joshua]] \| '''Judges''' \| [[Literature/BookOfRuth Ruth]] \| [[Literature/BooksOfSamuel Samuel]] \| [[Literature/BooksOfKings Kings]] \| [[Literature/BookOfEzra Ezra]] \| [[Literature/BookOfNehemiah Nehemiah]] \| [[Literature/BookOfEsther Esther]] \| [[Literature/BookOfJob Job]] \| [[Literature/BookOfPsalms Psalms]] \| [[Literature/BookOfProverbs Proverbs]] \| [[Literature/BookOfEcclesiastes Ecclesiastes]] \| [[Literature/SongOfSongs Songs]] \| [[Literature/BookOfIsaiah Isaiah]] \| [[Literature/BookOfJeremiah Jeremiah]] \| [[Literature/BookOfEzekiel Ezekiel]] \| [[Literature/BookOfDaniel Daniel]] \| [[Literature/BookOfHosea Hosea]] \| [[Literature/BookOfJoel Joel]] \| [[Literature/BookOfAmos Amos]] \| [[Literature/BookOfObadiah Obadiah]] \| [[Literature/BookOfJonah Jonah]] \| [[Literature/BookOfMicah Micah]] \| [[Literature/BookOfNahum Nahum]] \| [[Literature/BookOfHabakkuk Habakkuk]] \| [[Literature/BookOfZephaniah Zephania]] \| [[Literature/BookOfHaggai Haggai]] \| [[Literature/BookOfZechariah Zechariah]] \| [[Literature/BookOfMalachi Malachi]]\
4	'''Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical'''\
5	[[Literature/BookOfTobit Tobit]] \| [[Literature/BookOfJudith Judith]] \| [[Literature/BooksOfMaccabees Maccabees]]\
6	'''New Testament'''\
7	[[Literature/TheFourGospels Gospels]] \| [[Literature/ActsOfTheApostles Acts]] \| [[Literature/BookOfRomans Romans]] \| [[Literature/BookOfCorinthians Corinthians]] \| [[Literature/BookOfGalatians Galatians]] \| [[Literature/BookOfEphesians Ephesians]] \| [[Literature/BookOfPhilippians Philippians]] \| [[Literature/BookOfColossians Colossians]] \| [[Literature/BooksOfThessalonians Thessalonians]] \| [[Literature/EpistlesToTimothy Timothy]] \| [[Literature/EpistleToTitus Titus]] \| [[Literature/EpistleToPhilemon Philemon]] \| [[Literature/BookOfHebrews Hebrews]] \| [[Literature/EpistleOfJames James]] \| [[Literature/EpistlesOfPeter Peter]] \| [[Literature/EpistlesOfJohn John]] \| [[Literature/EpistleOfJude Jude]] \| [[Literature/BookOfRevelation Revelation]]-]]]]]
8
9	->''Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved by their groaning because of those who afflicted them and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.''
10	-->-- '''Judges 2:18-19'''
11
12	The Book of Judges is the seventh book of Literature/TheBible.
13
14	The Jewish structure holds Judges (in Hebrew, ''Shoftim'') to be the second book of the ''Nevi'im'' (Prophets), the second part of the Tanakh. With Joshua, Samuel and Kings, they form the ''Nevi'im Reshonim'' (First Prophets), in opposition to the ''Nevi'im Acharonim'' (Later Prophets, called the "Minor Prophets" in some circles because there are a lot of them, no one really stands out, and it's easy to get confused).
15
16	Years after the Israelites settled into Canaan, they are still suffering from foreign attacks and inter-tribal conflicts. Whenever Israel is in trouble, God calls a "Judge" to save them. That judge defeats the invaders and then rules the land, establishing a time of peace. But soon they die, [[HereWeGoAgain Israel turns wicked again, the invaders return]]...
17
18	This cycle is explained by Judges 17:6: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." The book ends with 21:25 repeating the same words.
19
20
21	''Judges'' is followed by the Literature/BookOfRuth in the Christian Old Testament and by Literature/BooksOfSamuel in the Jewish Tanakh.
22
23	This book is also best known for the story of Literature/SamsonAndDelilah.
24	-----
25	!!Structure of the book:
26	* The tribes and their military conflicts (Judges 1:1-2:5)
27	* The pattern of Israel's unfaithfulness (Judges 2:6-3:6)
28	* Othniel the judge (Judges 3:7-11)
29	* Ehud the judge (Judges 3:12-30)
30	* Shamgar the judge (Judges 3:31)
31	* Deborah the judge, with Barak and Jael (Judges chapters 4 and 5)
32	* Gideon the judge (Judges chapters 6 to 8)
33	* Abimelech, the failed king (Judges chapter 9)
34	* Tola and Jair the judges (Judges 10:1-5)
35	* Jephthah the judge (Judges 10:6-12:7)
36	* Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon the judges (Judges 12:8-15)
37	* Samson the judge (Judges chapters 13 to 16)
38	* Micah's idols and land for the tribe of Dan (Judges chapters 17 and 18)
39	* Rape of a Levite man's concubine and civil war with Benjamin (Judges chapters 19 to 21)
40
41	-----
42	!!This book contains the following tropes:
43	%%
44	%% Zero Context Examples have been commented out. Please write up a complete example before uncommenting.
45	%%
46	* AbductionIsLove: In Chapter 21, the other Israelite tribes resort to a LoopholeAbuse in their binding oath to never give the men of Benjamin their daughters as wives, by having the same men abduct the young women attending the dance at Shiloh so that they could have wives. The narrative doesn't mention anything about the women complaining about being wives to their abductors, though, given how tenuous the Israelites' grasp of morality was at the time.
47	* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Suggested to have happened to Samson's Philistine bride-to-be when he went to kill a bunch of people to fulfill his promise to the Philistines during his week-long wedding feast, only to find out that his bride-to-be was married off to another person in the interim.
48	* AdiposeRex: King Eglon of Moab; [[AsTheGoodBookSays according to Judges 3:17 (KJV)]]: "Eglon was a very fat man."
49	* AffairBlameTheBastard: Jephthah gets rejected by his stepsiblings all because he is the son of their father and a prostitute.
50	* AnarchyIsChaos: Shown in the events of the book, as summed up by the ArcWords below. When "everyone did as he pleased," the result was rampant amoral behavior.
51	* AntiHero: Most of the Judges have their flaws, in particular Ehud, Jephthah and Samson. They all are used by God deliver Israel, but their grasp on morality is rather tenuous.
52	* ApatheticCitizens: The people of Succoth and Penuel were like this to Gideon when he asked them for assistance when he was chasing after Zebah and Zalmunnah, refusing to give him any help unless he had those men in his hands. Gideon told them that he would repay them for their apathy, and that's just what happened when he caught those two men.
53	* ArcWords: "Israel had no king in those days. [[AnarchyIsChaos Everyone did as he pleased]]."
54	* BackupBluff: Used by Gideon when going into battle against the Midianites. With only 300 men (God made Gideon send the rest home), they snuck up to the camp, then each of them broke a clay jar to reveal a torch, shouted, and blew horns to make the sleeping Midianites think they were only the torch-bearers of a much larger army. The Midianites got so freaked out they started [[FriendOrFoe killing each other]] as they tried to escape.
55	* BadassIsraeli: The whole book is about Jewish leaders who kicked the collective butts of their enemies.
56	* BadassPreacher: The judges themselves were spiritual leaders of their communities, and a few of them (namely Gideon) actually spoke with God Himself.
57	* BadWithTheBone: Samson beats ''a thousand Philistines'' to death with only a donkey's jawbone.
58	* BastardBastard: Abimelech, in Judges 8:29-9:56, was the illegitimate son of Gideon who murdered his 70 legitimate brothers (he had a lot of step-mothers), then conquered his father's kingdom.
59	* {{Blessing}}: God gave Samson great strength, but he lost it when his hair was cut after being badgered by Deliah and revealing the truth to her, where his head was shaved and captured by the Philistines. When he is going to be sacrificed in a Philistine temple, Samson prays to God. He regains his strength when he collapses the whole building with the Philistines inside.
60	* BlindedByTheLight: A tactic used by Gideon and his army against the Midianites was to hide their torches within jars and then break them when the shofar sounded within close proximity to the camp, and also when "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon" was shouted. This sudden burst of light caused the Midianites to end up fighting with each other instead of with the enemy, since this attack took place at night.
61	* BloodyHilarious: The UndignifiedDeath of Eglon, who is [[AdiposeRex so fat]] that when he gets stabbed in the gut, the sword gets swallowed up by the blubber and Ehud has to leave it there.
62	* BondOneLiner: Samson: "With a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them."[[note]]In the original Hebrew, it's more akin to "With a donkey's jawbone I have piled them in heaps", making a pun out of the word "chamor", which can mean donkey or heap. In older English, the line would have been "With an ass's jawbone, I have made asses of them."[[/note]]
63	* TheBerserker: When "the spirit of the LORD gripped Samson", massive body counts ensued.
64	* CallBack: To Genesis, as with the case with the men of Sodom, the men of Gibeah in the land of Benjamin also harass a neighbor to bring out his guest so that they may "know" him. And their abuse also (in this case, almost) dooms the whole tribe of Benjamin to destruction when the men of that tribe refuse to turn over the men responsible for the rape and death of the guest's concubine.
65	* CargoCult: Micah in Judges chapter 17 uses the silver that he took from his mother and then returned to make idols for himself and his family to worship, even getting a Levite to be a priest for him. A band of raiders from the tribe of Dan came in the following chapter to take the idols away along with the priest and began worshiping the idols once they set up their own town over a village they had conquered.
66	* CherryTapping: Samson kills 1,000 '''Philistines''' ''[[BadWithTheBone with a donkey's jaw]]'', and then follows it up with a pun.
67	* ChosenOne: The Judges all receive the CallToAdventure directly from God Himself.
68	* ChronicVillainy: The Israelites lapse in their faith every time after God has saved them. The phrase "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD" occurs no less than seven times. Some Bible students blame Israel's first fall from the Lord on Joshua not setting up a proper successor for himself, as Moses through the Lord had set up Joshua to be for himself, so that Israel could be continually led on the path of righteousness.
69	* CivilWar: Between the tribe of Benjamin and the other tribes of Israel, when the men of Gibeah (a town in Benjamin) gang-raped and murdered a Levite man's concubine and the whole tribe refused to turn over the men responsible. This led to a breach in the tribes of Israel when the tribe of Benjamin is left with so few people in it, and the other tribes had to resort to a LoopholeAbuse in their binding themselves with an oath to not give the men of Benjamin any of their daughters to be wives for them.
70	* ColdIron: 1:19 reads "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." This is never elaborated upon or explained, and has become something of a MemeticMutation / RunningGag in parts of the internet. It doesn't work for Sisera in chapter 4, though.
71	* ComeToGawk: After the Philistines capture Samson and put out his eyes, they decide to have a celebration by putting Samson on display in their dining hall. [[AFeteWorseThanDeath It would be the last party that most of the Philistines would attend,]] as Samson brings the house down upon everybody.
72	* CowardlyLion:
73	** Barak. When he insists on Deborah accompanying him to the battle even though he has already been promised a victory, Deborah tells him that she'll come, but for demanding this he won't be the one to kill Sisera; a civilian woman named Jael will be.
74	** Gideon is introduced hiding from his enemies, and has to be reassured by no less than three miraculous signs before he's convinced that the Lord is actually choosing him.
75	* CurbStompBattle: Samson versus... well, anybody who was stupid enough to try fighting Samson.
76	* {{Curse}}:
77	** When Abimelech conspired with the leaders of Shechem to have Gideon's seventy sons all killed so Abimelech could be made king, the youngest son Jotham escapes and tells the people a parable before calling down a curse on both Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem that they would destroy each other. And eventually that's what ended up happening after three years.
78	** In Judges chapter 17, Micah's mother had called a curse on whoever took the 1,100 pieces of silver from her. When Micah confessed to her that he was the one who took it, Micah's mother blessed him in the name of the Lord to remove the curse on him.
79	** In Judges chapter 21, most of the tribes of Israel bound themselves with an oath that whoever gives their daughters to the sons of Benjamin to be their wives will be cursed. But realizing that this would leave the tribe of Benjamin without any way to keep the tribe from vanishing completely due to a lack of women to bear offspring, they resort to using a LoopholeAbuse and have the men of Benjamin steal the daughters of the other tribes at the dance at Shiloh.
80	* CycleOfRevenge: The CentralTheme of Samson. Samson goes and burns the Philistines' fields because his father-in-law (who was a Philistine) wouldn't let him go sleep with his wife, whom he had already allowed to be given over to another man. The Philistines retaliate by killing Samson's wife and father-in-law, then Samson goes and kills a bunch of Philistines in retaliation, which in turn leads them to having him captured so they could retaliate against him, which in turn leads Samson into killing a bunch of Philistines in retaliation, which again in turn leads them to having him captured so they could retaliate against him, leading Samson into being blinded, shorn of his hair, and working for them as a grinding mill slave, which leads to his final act of revenge, causing their temple to collapse right on top of them and himself.
81	* DeadpanSnarker: The Israelites constantly abandon Yahweh and turn to other gods, causing God to remove His protection and allowing foreign powers to invade them. This causes the Israelites to turn back to Him, and He helps them drive out their oppressors. However, only a generation or so later, the pattern repeats itself. After this happens for the third time, and the Israelites beseech God for help, Yahweh, in an epic snark moment, tells them: "You know, I'm growing tired of having to save you all the time, since you will only turn your back on Me again as soon as everything is back to normal. Turn instead to the new gods that you have chosen; may they save you when you're in trouble!"
82	* DepravedBisexual: Quite possibly the men of Gibeah who ganged around the old man's house to desire "knowing" the Levite man who came to sojourn in that house. Instead, the Levite man gave them his concubine, and they abused and raped her all night, leading to her death.
83	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The men of the valley defeat the men of Judah in battle despite God Himself backing the latter.
84	* DismemberingTheBody: In Judges 19, a gang rape/murder victim is dismembered, and a part of her body is sent to each of the twelve tribes to send a message about the depravity of the crime. The tribes are appropriately outraged.
85	* DisposableSexWorker: The Levite man's concubine, who first runs away from him, then reluctantly goes back home with him, only to be pushed out the door of an old man's house in Gibeah when a bunch of horny men ganged up to rape the old man's guest, was sexually abused all night until she was dead, and then was cut up in pieces by the Levite man and her body parts sent into all the tribes of Israel to incite them into a war against the tribe of Benjamin.
86	* DownTheDrain: In some translations of Judges 3, this is how Ehud escaped after killing King Eglon, who had defeated the Israelites, in a rather unusual manner.
87	* DumbMuscle: Gee, [[Literature/SamsonAndDelilah Samson]], after the first few times Delilah springs the Philistines on you, maybe you'd figure out that she's setting you up and not [[TooDumbToLive tell her the actual secret of your strength]]?
88	* TheEmpire: The Philistines make their first appearance here. They are known for their vast influence and mighty war machine.
89	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Israel is in a period of moral decline, but the gang rape, murder, and dismemberment of a Levite woman outrages everyone. Everyone, that is, except for the tribe of Benjamin, who refused to turn over the men responsible for the gang rape and murder, which leads to a CivilWar between them and the rest of Israel.
90	* ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: After lying to Delilah several times about the source of his power--and getting ambushed by Philistines each time while trussed up exactly as he had described--Samson finally reveals that his power really comes from his long hair. Sure enough, next morning he wakes up with a shaved head and is captured by the Philistines, officially qualifying him as TooDumbToLive.
91	* EyeScream: Samson had his eyes gouged out when he was captured by the Philistines shortly after his TraumaticHaircut. He would pay them back the favor by bringing the temple right down upon them in his self-sacrifice.
92	* FailedASpotCheck: Ehud is first mentioned as being left-handed - which meant that he would commonly carry a sword sheath on his right thigh (which the passage confirms). When Ehud went to Eglon's keep as an envoy to 'pay tribute' (the monetary kind), it's heavily implied that the guards didn't think to check his right thigh. (Most people were right-handed and would therefore carry a weapon on their left thigh.) This allowed Ehud to waltz right into Eglon's throne room and shank him right in the gut, complete with PreAsskickingOneLiner.
93	* FatBastard: Eglon, a corrupt king, is described as so fat that when he is stabbed to death, the cubit-long sword gets swallowed up by all the blubber. For those keeping track at home, that would make him at least four feet wide.
94	* FatalFlaw:
95	** Samson's drunkenness and tendency to fall for "bad" women.
96	** Jephthah's rashness led to the death of his daughter and a breakout of civil war that had previously been defused by Gideon.
97	* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: If you only know the stories from Sunday School lessons, [[{{bowdlerize}} you might be in for some surprises]]. A faithful movie adaptation of the book would easily earn a hard R rating.
98	* FoodEatsYou: In Chapter 7, prior to Gideon's attack on the Midianite camp, he sneaked down to it and overhead somebody telling another person about a dream he had of a barley loaf that rolled down the hill and knocked down one of their tents. The other person said that it could be Gideon coming to attack the camp.
99	* GideonPloy: The TropeNamer through Gideon's attack on the Midianites with only 300 men. Vastly outnumbered, Gideon has his men ambush the Midianite camp at night, using loud noises and lights to make it seem as though they have far more soldiers then they really do. The Midianites are thrown into a panic and slaughter each other. Gideon also has a DivineIntervention psyop on his side, and God specifically instructed him to reduce the number of his soldiers.
100	* GodTest: Gideon has an inversion; he was unsure that he (Gideon) was really TheChosenOne and wanted to make sure before he went off starting a war. He leaves a fleece on the floor overnight; once, having the fleece be wet with dew while the floor is dry, and once vice versa. Both are performed without objection.
101	** Another example comes from Gideon as well; namely any time people used his second name-Jerub-Baal. To explain: Gideon and a few servants chop down and burn the idol his dad had in the middle of the night. The whole town shows up with the torches and pitchforks to 'contend' with the guy who insulted their god. Gideon's dad responds with '''If Baal is a god, let him contend with the guy himself'''. This earned Gideon a nickname that followed him ever after: '''Jerub-Baal''', or "'''Let Baal Contend'''".
102	* HeelFaceDoorSlam: God nearly does this to Israel in Chapter 10 when they sin by turning away from Him to serve other gods, only for Him to deliver them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who brutally oppressed them and got Israel on their knees begging God for deliverance. God tells them, “Did I not deliver you from Egypt, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites when they oppressed you? You cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hands. Yet you have abandoned Me and worshipped other gods. Therefore I will not save you again. Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of distress." To which they respond, “We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good in Your sight. Please, just deliver us today.” When God saw how sincere they were in their repentance by removing the foreign gods among them, He was moved to pity and sent them a deliverer, Jephthah the judge.
103	* HereWeGoAgain: Israel falls into sin and worships false gods. Israel gets oppressed by their enemies. Israel repents and cries out to God for deliverance. God sends a Judge who mops up the enemies and establishes peace in the land. Eventually, the Judge dies. Israel falls back into sin... and the cycle repeats no less than ''seven times'' throughout the book.
104	* HeroicBastard: Jephthah was the son of Gilead and a prostitute, and was exiled by his half-brothers for being a bastard. Later in life, they have to beg him to lead them to victory over the Ammonites. Some would say he's [[BastardBastard the other kind of bastard]] due to the very... confusing situation with his daughter, which is still a HUGE subject of contention among scholars.
105	* HeroicSeductress: Some [[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jael-wife-of-heber-kenite-midrash-and-aggadah interpretations of the Hebrew word for "cover" portray Jael as one]]; the more innocent interpretation assumes she "covered" [[GeneralRipper Sisera]] [[{{Bowdlerise}} with a blanket and tucked him in]] before assassinating him, but many scholars interpret the word to mean she covered him with her ''body''. Read: she had sex with him ''[[SexGoddess (no less than seven times!)]]'' until he was exhausted, then finished him off in his sleep.
106	* HobbesWasRight: With no iron hand to rule them, the Israelites just do as they pleased and become completely vulnerable to oppression by their enemies.
107	* HonorBeforeReason: Jephthah makes a vow to sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his door upon his victorious return from battle-- and feels obligated to keep the vow when unfortunately that thing is [[spoiler: his only daughter]].
108	* HopeSpot: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gibeah The battle of Gibeah]] showed the Israelite tribes can still band together to oppose evil.
109	* HotBlooded: Samson was a Hot-Blooded WorldsStrongestMan who killed a ''thousand'' Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. After a deadly HumiliationConga that involved a certain [[TheVamp seductress]], a TraumaticHaircut ''and'' EyeScream, he [[TakingYouWithMe took down]] ''[[TakingYouWithMe thousands]]'' [[TakingYouWithMe more]] with him by breaking the pillars of a temple.
110	* HumanSacrifice: The tale of Jephthah ends with a human sacrifice due to his HonorBeforeReason rash vow. The text is somewhat ambiguous, though, whether [[spoiler:his daughter]] was killed as a burnt offering or simply "sacrificed" herself by becoming a celibate temple servant [[note]]which would still be a significant blow as it would have meant the end of Jephthah's bloodline[[/note]].
111	* IdiotBall:
112	** Samson finds some bees have made their hive in the corpse of a lion, so he eats some of the honey and gives the rest to his parents. The honey that came from a ''dead lion''. Especially bad since, as a Nazarite, he's not allowed to touch, let alone eat, anything that came from corpses. He also violates the vow by using a donkey's jawbone to kill a thousand Philistines.
113	** Samson could be quite clever, coming up with a BatmanGambit to make sure his escalating war with the Philistines wouldn't end up antagonizing other tribes of Israel, coming up with a good riddle, executing a clever plan for revenge, and testing his Philistine girlfriend before fully trusting her. But the fact that she was his girlfriend was enough to make him trust her anyway, ignoring the fact that she'd failed said test. Three times.
114	* IfIWantedYouDead: Inversion: Manoah and his wife meet an angel, and Manoah says afterwards that they'll both die since they've "[[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen seen a divine being]]." His wife points out that the angel predicted that she would give birth to a son and advised them to make a sacrifice that the Lord accepted, so they're probably safe.
115	* ImprobableAimingSkills: In Judges 20:16, the tribe of Benjamin has "seven hundred chosen men lefthanded", each one being able to "sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss".
116	* ImprobableWeaponUser:
117	** Shamgar used an ox goad and Samson had his... donkey's jaw bone.
118	** Also, Jael, who killed the enemy general Sisera using a mallet and a tent peg.
119	* ImprovisedWeapon:
120	** Samson killed an army with a donkey's jawbone.
121	** Shamgar kills six hundred heavily armed spearmen with an oxgoad (a stick with a nail in it).
122	* IWasBeatenByAGirl:
123	** In Chapter 9, we have the [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+9&version=NIV story of Abimelech]], who was mortally wounded when a woman dropped a millstone on his head. He had one of his men kill him so that people wouldn't say that a woman killed him. This is referenced later on and unfortunately for him, they still say a woman killed him.
124	** When Sisera is killed by Jael, a woman, this is regarded both as a humiliation for his side and an embarrassment for Barak, since a woman won the victory.
125	* JewishMother: Deborah, Judge over Israel, is prevailed upon to lead her people to victory in war when she realises they are figuratively her children, and they are being sore oppressed by the enemies encroaching on all sides. [[MamaBear She rides to war in her mighty chariot]] specifically as a mother defending her children. She also uses their sense of shame and guilt to manipulate them into fighting behind her.
126	* JustAKid: When Gideon finally captures Zebah and Zalmunnah in Chapter 8, he tells his firstborn son Jether to put the two men to death with his sword, but the narrative says Jether wouldn't do it because he was still just a youth. Zebah and Zalmunnah goad Gideon into [[ARealManIsAKiller showing his manliness by him putting them to death himself]], and Gideon obliges.
127	* KarmaHoudini: The unnamed Levite who sparks the civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Israelites. He goes to his father-in-law to take back his wife who is implied to have run away from him in the first place because he [[DomesticAbuse mistreats her]]. Later, while lodging in Gibea, when the male inhabitants of the town come to kill him for unknown reasons, he [[DirtyCoward locks himself in and his wife out]] who consequently gets gang-raped and killed by the Gibeans. Then, after he comes home, he [[DeadGuyOnDisplay cuts her corpse into pieces to send them to the other tribes]] claiming that ''he'' is the one being wronged. ValuesDissonance, obviously, but even so. Subverted as he still had to face God's judgment. No amount of KarmaHoudini will protect you from Elohim.
128	* KarmicRape: Implied to be the case when the narrative tells of a Levite man's concubine who left him to "play the harlot" and go off to live in her father's house. When the Levite man goes to her father's wife to win her back again, as they stop in Gibeah of Benjamin to stay at an old man's house and [[DepravedBisexual the men of Gibeah surround the house, asking for the Levite man so that they could "know" him]], the Levite man instead gives them his concubine, whom they raped and abused until it was morning, when she died.
129	* LetMeGetThisStraight: From the New Living Translation of Judges 11:9:
130	-->''Jephthah said to the elders, “Let me get this straight. If I come with you and if the Lord gives me victory over the Ammonites, will you really make me ruler over all the people?”''
131	* LoadBearingHero: Samson, though it's an inversion since he ''brings down the temple!'' He's still the hero, though. He also pulls up a set of city gates and walks away with them.
132	* LoopholeAbuse: The other tribes had vowed not to give their daughters to the Benjaminates as wives, then regretted that decision because it would have led to the extinction of the tribe. Fortunately (?), they realized the vow didn't say anything about not letting the Benjaminites ''abduct'' their daughters for marriage....
133	* LoveInterestTraitor: The story of Samson and Delilah. Samson, an Israelite who had great strength because of his unshorn hair (a symbol of a vow to God), was betrayed by his lover Delilah, who had a man sent by the Philistines shave his head and handed him over to the Philistines who blinded him and made him a slave.
134	* MadeASlave: The Israelites enslaved the remainder of the Canaanites who had not been destroyed. They became "thorns in Israel's side".
135	* MagicHair: Samson was granted supernatural strength by God in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats, including wrestling and killing a lion with his bare hands, slaying a Philistine army with only a [[BadWithTheBone jawbone of a donkey]], etc. There was a catch though: he couldn't drink any kind of alcohol and he couldn't shave his hair--if he did that, he would lose his super strength. Unfortunately, he told this to his lover Delilah, who then cut his hair and sold him to the Philistines, who stabbed out his eyes with their swords. After being blinded, Samson was brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain. Later, the Philistines leaders and common people gathered in the temple of their god Dagon, for having delivered Samson into their hands. They summon Samson in order to ridicule him, but once inside the temple, Samson asks a guard one question: can he lean on the central pillars? Soon enough the gathered Philistines realized something: hair is known for [[OhCrap growing]] [[TakingYouWithMe back]]...
136	* MalignedMixedMarriage: Samson sees a Philistine woman and tells his parents that he wants to marry her. The parents question Samson's choice of marrying a pagan woman, but the narrative says that God used that for Samson to strike against the Philistines. The marriage initially isn't fully consummated, as Samson ended up having his wife be given to another man, but later on when he tries to have a private moment with her and his father-in-law refuses to let Samson do so, offering his other daughter to him instead, Samson decides to do a little vandalism by having some foxes run through the fields of the Philistines and burn down their standing grain with torches tied to the foxes' tails. This results in the Philistines killing Samson's wife and her father, which in turn results in Samson giving the Philistines a serious beat-down before he hid himself away in the rock of Etam.
137	* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Gideon had seventy sons, thanks to {{polyamory}}.
138	** There are also three other minor Judges, marked mostly for this, if not '''quite''' to the same levels; (No word on how many women were involved in each of these cases, though it seems unlikely the men were monogamous. On the other hand, [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Genesis]] includes a few men who had children pretty old (read over 60) and if they started young and were widowed and remarried, it could be possible...)
139	*** Jair had thirty sons
140	*** Abdon had FORTY sons and thirty grandsons
141	*** And Ibzan who had 30 sons and 30 daughters for a total of SIXTY CHILDREN!
142	* MeaningfulName: The name of Judah means "praise". In two examples in this book, the tribe of Judah is sent first into battle, which Bible students interpret as a message to send praise unto God first before going into a spiritual battle.
143	* MillionToOneChance: Invoked in the story of Gideon. God instructs him to reduce his army to only 300 men and arm them only with torches and pitchers, just so it would be even more obvious that the battle was won thanks to [[DeusExMachina divine intervention]].
144	* MovingTheGoalposts: Done by Gideon when God gives him the requested sign with the fleece the first time.
145	* MusicalEpisode: The story of Deborah the judge includes a song sung by Deborah and Barak giving praise to the Lord for their victory.
146	* MysticalPregnancy: Manoah's wife, who was infertile, was told by the Angel of the Lord that she would have a child in Chapter 13. That child would become Samson the judge.
147	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Jephthah's reckless vow before God to sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his door to greet him upon his return if God gives him the victory over his enemies makes him realize he has to fulfill his end of the vow when he sees that his only daughter is the one who comes out to greet him.
148	* NoEnding: The book's last lines are yet another case of "Israel had no king in those days. Everyone did as he pleased."
149	* NoDeadBodyPoops: {{Averted}} when King Eglon is stabbed in the gut by the left-handed Ehud, causing "the dirt" to come out. The fact that "dirt" is excrement is made even clearer when Eglon's personal guard delays going in to check on him because they believe him to be relieving himself--they can smell it.
150	* OathboundPower: Samson was bound by the Nazirite vow from birth, in return for which he had stupendous power, with which he slaughtered hordes of Philistines. The vow stipulated that he forgo practices such as drinking wine or cutting his hair. When the deceptive Delilah found this out, she had his hair cut and he was captured. Eventually the Philistines set out to sacrifice him to their god, but by then his hair had grown back, and he destroyed their temple in a classic example of TakingYouWithMe.
151	* OfferedTheCrown: The men of Israel offer Gideon kingship for saving them. Gideon refuses, but instead asks for enough gold so that he could make idols for himself.
152	* OffWithHisHead: The heads of Oreb and Zeeb were cut off by Gideon when he struck them down.
153	* OffingTheOffspring: Played with when Jephthah made a promise to God that he would give Him the first thing that came out of his door to greet him as a burnt offering if God would give him the victory over his enemies. And, as it turned out, the first thing that did greet Jephthah when he came home from his victory was his only daughter. "After two months' time, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She had never known a man. So it became a custom in Israel for the maidens of Israel to go every year, for four days in the year, and chant dirges for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite."
154	* OneDrinkWillKillTheBaby: Samson's mother is advised by an angel at the start of her pregnancy not to drink any alcohol, or even to eat (unfermented) grapes or raisins. This, however, didn't have anything to do with concern for the fetus' ''physical'' safety or well-being, but for his ''spiritual'' well-being. (Remember, too, that almost ''everyone'' drank alcohol back then, even during pregnancy, because drinking wine or beer tended to be safer than drinking untreated water.) He was [[BecauseDestinySaysSo destined]] to become a Nazirite. The Nazirites were a group of Jewish ascetics who, among other things, were forbidden from consuming alcohol or even unfermented grapes.
155	* OneManArmy: Samson kills ''one thousand Philistines'' with a donkey's jawbone. Give a medal to those 400 soldiers that thought they'd succeed where 600 of them had failed.
156	* OpenSaysMe: In Chapter 16, when Samson went to Gaza to spend some time with a prostitute, the Philistines thought they could trap Samson inside the city and then wait to kill him when he gets up in the morning. However, Samson gets up in the middle of the night, and uses his strength to rip open the doors of the city gate along with its gate posts, carrying the whole thing straight up to the top of the hill opposite Hebron.
157	* PayEvilUntoEvil: In Chapter 1, Adoni-Bezek admits that he has cut off the thumbs and big toes of seventy kings, whom he had made pick scraps from under the table, and now God has repaid him when the tribe of Judah, fighting against him, caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
158	* PinnedToTheWall: Judges 4:21: "Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent pin and grasped the mallet. When he was fast asleep from exhaustion, she approached him stealthily and drove the pin through his temple till it went down to the ground. Thus he died."
159	* {{Polyamory}}: Jerubbaal/Gideon's wives, through which he sired 70 sons. There's also a bit in the Song of Deborah and Barak, where Sisera's mother, wondering why her son is taking so long in returning, muses to herself that he must be giving every man "a girl or two to love" while dividing the spoils.
160	* PositionOfLiteralPower: The position of "Judge" was not just a judicial title, but also signified a badass military leader--think ancient versions of ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd''. Indeed, it's not clear that "judge" is the best translation. Although deciding cases was an important duty of the judges, and Hebrews of later eras used the word for judicial officers exclusively, the judges of the Book of Judges seem to have had all kinds of other powers, including--as mentioned--commanding Israel's armies. Somewhat significantly, the title of ''shofet'' (that used in Hebrew for the Biblical Judges) was also used in the closely-related Phoenician language, where it signified a kind of non-royal magistrate. The title continued in use in various Phoenician colonies for centuries. The term reappears in a big way with Carthage, where the two elected ''suffetes''--which is to say, ''shofet''s--were the ruling officials of the city and thus the empire, effectively equivalent to the Roman consuls. In fact, one might say that a better translation might be "Book of Consuls", since Roman consuls' powers were broadly similar (they had judicial, executive, and legislative responsibilities, and were responsible for commanding Rome's armies in wartime).
161	* PreAsskickingOneLiner: Ehud to Eglon: "I have a message from God for you."
162	* PreMortemOneLiner: From Judges 3:20-21: "and when Ehud approached him, he was sitting alone in his cool upper chamber. Ehud said, 'I have a message for you from God'; whereupon he rose from his seat. Reaching with his left hand, Ehud drew the dagger from his right side and drove it into [Eglon's] belly."
163	* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: In Judges chapter 7, a Midianite soldier in a tent tells another he has a dream that a barley loaf tumbled down the hill, struck the tent, and caused it to fall down flat. The other soldier tells him that it means that Gideon has come to defeat the Midianite camp. Gideon overhears this and takes it as confirmation that the Lord is with him to help defeat the Midianites.
164	* PunishedForSympathy: In Judges 2:1-4, an angel of the LORD scolds the Israelites for incomplete genocide of the inhabitants of Canaan as well as being friendly with them. To punish them, God allows the Canaanites to be the Israelites' oppressors.
165	* RapeAndRevenge: A Levite man gives his concubine to a bunch of horny townsmen to protect his own ass. They rape her to death, and he hacks up her body and distributes the pieces to his buddies to call them to war with the town of Gibeah.
166	* RashPromise: The Israelite general Jephthah vows, if he defeats the Ammonites, to sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his house when he gets home. It turns out to be his daughter. (Jewish scholars disagree about whether the story implies that he actually kills her.)
167	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: After a HumiliationConga with Samson having his hair shaved off and losing his strength, his eyes are gouged out and he finds himself on the chain gang, working the grain grinder. During this time, his hair grows back and he recovers his strength. When the Philistines are having a victory party, an older and wiser Samson asks a youth to prop him up against the pillars of the temple of Dagon in Gaza, and he prays that God will strengthen him one last time as he pushes against the pillars of Dagon's temple, which collapses and kills Samson along with the Philistines of Gaza.
168	* ReligiousRussianRoulette: The story of Gideon and the fleece (Judges 6:36-40) where Gideon puts God to the test twice. He was trying to divine[[note]]Sorry[[/note]] God's will rather than test His reliability, but the test still seems rather... direct.
169	* RhymesOnADime:
170	** In some translations, Samson proposes his riddle to the Philistines in Judges 14:14 with this: "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet."
171	** Samson's response to the Philistines finding out the answer to the riddle through cheating in Judges 14:18, as rendered in the Holman Christian Standard Bible: "If you hadn’t plowed with my young cow, you wouldn’t know my riddle now!"
172	** Samson's comment after slaying a thousand men with a donkey's jawbone in Judges 15:16 in the New International Version: "With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men."
173	* RiddleMeThis: Samson challenges his wedding guests with a bet on the riddle, "Out of the eater came something to eat / Out of the strong came something sweet." The guests aren't able to guess it, so they resort to cheating by pressuring his wife to extract the answer from him. Samson [[BerserkButton doesn't take this well at all]]. (The answer is that [[spoiler:Samson killed a lion and discovered that bees had made honey in its carcass.]])
174	* RightMakesMight: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. Gideon has an army of 22,000 that God says is too many because then Israel might think they won with their own strength rather than God's support, averting a possible MightMakesRight. There are only 10,000 left, and then God gives them ultimate Hebrew test of righteousness: ritual physical cleanliness. If they lap water from a stream like dogs instead of cupping it with their hands, they go home. There are only 300 men left and they triumph.
175	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Samson doesn't take the death of his wife by the Philistines very well, and ends up killing a bunch of them to get even with them for doing that.
176	* RockBeatsLaser:
177	** Samson slaying 1,000 soldiers with the ''jawbone of an ass''.
178	** Then there's Shamgar in Judges 3:31: "After him came Shamgar son of Anath, who slew six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad."
179	* SacredHospitality: Like Lot in Sodom, the old man in Gibeah who took in the Levite man and his concubine attempted to protect his visitors from [[DepravedBisexual the depraved men who wanted to force sex on the Levite]] by offering his own daughter and the concubine instead, to satisfy their desires. Ultimately the concubine was shoved out the door, and was raped and abused to death.
180	* SaltTheEarth: In Judges 9:45, Abimelech conquered the city of Shechem and sowed it with salt.
181	-->''All that day Abimelech pressed his attack against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he destroyed the city and scattered salt over it.'' (New International Version)
182	* SecretTest: One interpretation, popular among military historians, gives this as the true lesson behind the story of [[BadassIsraeli Gideon]].
183	** Faced with a superior opponent, Gideon starts with a host of 32,000 men. He begins by [[YouCanTurnBack asking for volunteers only]], which drops him down to 10,000 men. (This shouldn't be unusual, seeing as Deuteronomy COMMANDED it as a standard practice for when Israel went to war.)
184	** More significantly, he then puts them through a grueling march across the desert, at the end of which is an oasis. Most of the men put their faces down to the water, but 300 men scoop up the water in their hands so that they can keep watch while they drink. Those 300 are selected as the [[EliteArmy most spirited, most disciplined, and most well-conditioned of all his men]], and with them Gideon conducts the first special forces raid in recorded history: they infiltrate the enemy camp with trumpets and clay jars, surround their sleeping opponents, and proceed to blow their horns and smash their jars. Their opponents are understandably scared to all hell by the utterly weird nature of the attack and rout immediately, where they are slaughtered to a man by a separate blocking force of Israelites. The Bible credits divine inspiration for the whole thing, but whether or not you believe it, it's hard not to see the parallels between Gideon's method and modern special forces selection.
185	* SecretWord: In Judges 12:5–6:
186	--> The Gileadites held the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any fugitive from Ephraim said, "Let me cross," the men of Gilead would ask him, "Are you an Ephraimite?"; if he said "No," they would say to him, "Then say ''shibboleth''"; but he would say "''sibboleth''," not being able to pronounce it correctly. Thereupon they would seize him and slay him by the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell at that time.
187	* SequelHook: "Israel had no king in those days." Guess what the next book is about.
188	* ShamingTheMob: When Gideon pulls down the altar of Baal, an angry mob of Baal-worshipers shows up to execute him. Gideon's father defuses the situation by pointing out that, if Baal is really a god, he should be quite capable of dealing with Gideon on his own. (This earns Gideon the nickname Jerubbaal, "Let Baal deal with him.")
189	* {{Shibboleth}}: The TropeNamer, from a password that gave away whether the speaker had an Ephraimite regional accent. The Ephraimites would pronounce it "Sibboleth," revealing that they were enemy agents, and get killed for their troubles.
190	* ShowingUpChauvinists: The tale of Deborah from the book of Judges has the only female judge in the book, who is contrasted with a cowardly Israelite general. In the same tale, the enemy general Sisera is [[IWasBeatenByAGirl killed by a woman]].
191	* SlainInTheirSleep: What Jael, the woman in the above example, does to Sisera by means of a tent peg driven through his skull with a workman's hammer after luring him to her bed.
192	* SonOfAWhore: Jephthah, who was called that by his half-brothers in the Living Bible translation when he was driven from his family, is this trope.
193	* SouthpawAdvantage: The first and really only extraordinary attribute mentioned about Ehud. [[ChekhovsSkill This becomes important later.]]
194	* SummonEverymanHero: Several of the judges (most notably Gideon) are just ordinary guys who happen to be TheChosenOne. Gideon is incredulous and takes a good deal of convincing that the angel is delivering the message to the right person. It turns out that that's exactly the point: {{God}} is setting up a BatmanGambit to prove that the victory came from [[DeusExMachina divine intervention]] rather than superior fighting ability.
195	* SuperStrength: Samson was given this as part of his lifelong Nazarite vow, which helped him out in various situations, such as when the people of Judah handed him over to the Philistines, and he burst out of his bonds, killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. He later used that strength to break out of a town that the Philistines were planning to trap him in so that they could overpower and kill him. After his Nazarite vow was broken when his hair was cut off by Delilah's men, he prayed to God to give him the strength to avenge himself of the Philistines for his blinded eyes, and he was given the strength to knock down the Philistines' temple, killing thousands of them along with himself in the process.
196	* TakingYouWithMe: How [[spoiler:Samson]] decides to go out, pulling down a temple on top of several thousand Philistines and himself.
197	* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Delilah nagged Samson day after day until he finally got sick of it and told her the true secret of his strength just to shut her up. Whoops.
198	* TheTheocracy: Israel is ostensibly governed as one of these, with the Judges and prophets ruling as God's representatives. Practically, this has rather mixed results.
199	* TimeSkip: One for Samson between chapters 13 (when he was born) and 14 (when he was a young man fighting as a judge for Israel).
200	* TooDumbToLive: Samson tells Delilah his weakness, after she has already tried to betray him multiple times.
201	* TormentByAnnoyance: After Delilah's third failed attempt to find out Samson's weakness, she just resorted to doing this until Samson couldn't tolerate it anymore. Samson fell victim to the same problem years earlier with his Philistine wife; her countrymen threatened her and her family unless she got the answer to Samson's riddle, leading her to weep and mourn the rest of the seven day wedding feast until Samson caved for a little peace.
202	* TraumaticHaircut: Samson, after he tells Delilah about his weakness, which resulted in his easy capture. Fortunately it grows back in order for Samson to deliver the coup-de-grace upon the Philistines for taking out his eyes.
203	* UndignifiedDeath:
204	** When King Eglon is stabbed by Ehud through his bowels, fecal matter spills out from the wound.
205	** Sisera is lured to sleep by the wife of one of his allies, then has a tent peg driven through his temple and his skull with a workman's hammer by said wife.
206	** Abimelech was mortally wounded when a woman dropped a millstone on his head. He immediately told his armor-bearer to finish the job, so that no one would know he had been killed by a woman. It didn't work, as Joab years later would imagine King David would say that to the messenger who brought him back news about the men who sacrificed their lives in their attempt to capture a city.
207	* UnusualEuphemism: In Judges 3:24, when his servants saw that the parlor doors were locked, they said "Surely he covereth his feet in the summer chamber". The Hebrew phrase for "to cover one's feet" is a euphemism for relieving oneself, i.e., taking a bathroom break.
208	* VirginTension: In Chapter 21, when the eleven Israelite tribes exact punishment on Jabesh Gilead for not assembling with them in dealing with the tribe of Benjamin in the matter of not turning over the men who are responsible for raping and abusing a Levite man's concubine to death, they put to death women who have "known a man by lying with him" and spared those that were virgins in order to give the surviving men of Benjamin women that could become their wives so that the whole tribe would not be wiped out. However, the number of surviving virgin women from Jabesh Gilead were too few to satisfy the number of men.
209	* WithholdingTheirName: When Samson's parents ask the angel of the LORD what his real name is, the angel refuses to answer, saying instead, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?” (which some Bible students link to [[IHaveManyNames one of the prophetic names]] of a coming King in [[Literature/BookOfIsaiah Isaiah 9:6]]) Other translations have him say the name is "beyond understanding".
210	* WorldsStrongestMan: Samson was given supernatural strength by God. He could do stuff like beating an army with a donkey's jawbone.
211	* YourMom: Rather being used as a LameComeback, this is more of an addendum. During the "Song of Deborah", Deborah and Barak are celebrating their victory, and they dig that Sisera's mother is poking her head out of her window wondering when he's gonna come home, and she's gonna be wondering for a long time.

Context Literature / BookOfJudges