History Literature / BookOfJudges

* OneSceneWonder: Some accounts are extremely brief, with Shamgar who killed 600 men with an ox-goad possibly being the shortest description of ''anybody'''s career in the Bible--you just took more time reading this entry than you would've reading the passage describing him.

* AdultFear: 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.

* DidNotThinkThisThrough:
** When Jephthah made a vow unto God that if God would give him the victory over his enemies, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his door to greet him as a burnt offering. He assumed that it was going to be an animal he owned, but as it turned out, it was his only daughter that greeted him at the door.
** Samson never picks up that every time he tells Delilah a false method to depower him, a pack of Philistines appears to attack him right after she tries it on him.
** The Philistines may be even dumber than he. Pragmatically speaking, it would have done them a world of good to kill Samson immediately. Instead, they torture him ForTheEvulz. It's not surprising, then, that Samson [[TheDogBitesBack gets back at them]] [[TakingYouWithMe and kills them all in a self-sacrifice]].

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: When Jephthah made a vow unto God that if God would give him the victory over his enemies, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his door to greet him as a burnt offering. He assumed that it was going to be an animal he owned, but as it turned out, it was his only daughter that greeted him at the door.

** Sisera is lured to sleep by the wife of one of his allies, then stabbed in the head with a tent peg.

* HeroicSeductress: Some [[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jael-wife-of-heber-kenite-midrash-and-aggadah interpretations of the Hebrew word for "cover" portray Yael as one]]; the more innocent interpretation assumes she "covered" [[GeneralRipper Siserah]] [[{{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.

** Also, Yael, who killed the enemy general Siserah using a mallet and a tent peg.

** When Sisera is killed by Yael, a woman, this is regarded both as a humiliation for his side and an embarrassment for Barak, since a woman won the victory.

* 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 is [[IWasBeatenByAGirl killed by a woman]].

* 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 thumb and big toe.

* UnfortunateNames:
** In Judges 9:21, there's a mention of a city called Beer. It didn't mean that in Hebrew, but still...
** Puah, son of Dodo.

** 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 [[RealityEnsues 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.

* WithholdingTheirName: When Samson's parents ask the angel of the LORD what his real name is, the angel refuses to answer, saying instead, “You must not ask for my name; it is unknowable!” (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".

* SplitHair: Judges 20:16, the tribe of Benjamin had "seven hundred chosen men lefthanded", each one being able to [[ImprobableAimingSkills "sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss"]].

* SplitHair: Judges 20:16, the tribe of Benjamin had "seven hundred chosen men lefthanded", each one being able to "sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss".

* CrapsackWorld / HobbesWasRight: With no iron hand to rule them, the Israelites just do as they pleased and become completely vulnerable to oppression by their enemies.

* TheBerserker: When "the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson", massive body counts ensued.

* SonOfAWhore: Jephthah, who was called that by his half-brothers in the Living Bible translation when he was driven from his family, is basically this trope.

* 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".

* CrapsackWorld / HobbesWasRight: Apparently, with no iron hand to rule everyone, they just did as they pleased and became completely vulnerable to oppression by their enemies.

* CrapsackWorld / HobbesWasRight: Turns out, when there is no iron hand to rule everyone, they'll do as they please and become completely vulnerable to oppression by their enemies.

* CrapsackWorld: Turns out, when everyone follows the idea that AnarchyIsChaos, they'll become completely immoral and be very vulnerable to oppression by their enemies.

** 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.

* NoEnding: The book's last lines are the yet another case of "Israel had no king in those days. Everyone did as he pleased."

-->–- '''Judges 2:18-19'''

* FailedASpotCheck: Ehud is first mentioned as being [[TheSouthpaw 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.

* TheSouthpaw: The first and really only extraordinary attribute mentioned about Ehud. [[ChekhovsSkill This becomes important later.]]