Judges

Double prologue and double epilogue

1. 1Prologue 1: incomplete conquest1:1–2:5
2. 2Prologue 2: Israel's apostasy and the cycle of judges2:6–3:6
3. 3Main body: the judges3:7–16:31
4. 4Epilogue 1: Micah's idolatry and the Danite migration17:1–18:31
5. 5Epilogue 2: the Levite's concubine and the war with Benjamin19:1–21:25

Correspondence of prologue and epilogue (Judges 1:1–3:6; 17:1–21:25)

David A. Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament

1. a
   prologue: Israel's holy war against the Canaanites1:1–2:5evaluation: mostly bad; two all-Israel assemblies, involving the conquest of Canaan; military activity of Israelite tribes in conquest of Canaan; "the Israelites asked Yahweh, 'Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?' and Yahweh said, 'Judah shall go up'" (1:1-2); Israelites weep and sacrifice before Yahweh (2:1-5); Othniel wins his wife by capturing Canaanite town (1:11-15); the Benjaminites fail to drive the Jebusites from Jebus (1:21); Bethel captured from the Canaanites
2. b
   prologue: Israel's cyclical, idolatrous decline, generation after generation, during the period of the judges2:6–3:6evaluation: bad; children are worse than parents (2:10, 17, 19); importance of obedience to law of Moses (3:4); cyclical lapsing into idolatry (2:11-13, 19); Sidonians left in land by Yahweh to test Israel's obedience
3. b′
   epilogue: Israel's permanent idolatrous revolt at Dan, under Moses' own grandson and descendants17:1–18:31evaluation: worse!; parent encourages son to become idolatrous; disobedience to Moses' law supervised by Moses' own grandson and descendants; permanent establishment of idolatry; Sidonians exterminated by wicked, idolatrous Israelites
4. a′
   epilogue: Israel's (unholy) civil war against wicked Benjaminites19:1–21:25evaluation: worse!; several all-Israel assemblies, involving civil war; military activity of Israelite tribes against Benjamin; "the Israelites . . . asked Yahweh, 'Who will go up for us first to battle against the Benjaminites?' and Yahweh said, 'Judah shall go up first'" (20:18); Israelites weep and sacrifice to Yahweh during civil war; men of Gibeah forcibly take and rape Levite's concubine; then Benjaminites, with cooperation of other tribes, forcibly take hundreds of women by slaughtering Israelite inhabitants of the entire town of Jabesh-gilead and by mass kidnapping women at Shiloh; Levite refuses—tragically—to stay overnight with the Jebusites; tribes assemble at Bethel in civil war