Judges when was it written

However, the book reflects the perspective of a much later time, after the northern tribes of Israel had been conquered by Assyria around B. This perspective suggests that the author or authors lived long after the time of Samuel. We do not know when the book of Judges was written, but most Bible scholars believe that Judges, along with other historical books in the Old Testament, was compiled in its current form sometime in the late seventh or early sixth century B.

We also do not know where this book was written. Besides the short narrative of the book of Ruth, Judges provides the only biblical account of this time period. The book of Judges describes a cycle that repeated itself multiple times during the reign of the judges.

Because the Israelites failed to remove wicked influences from the promised land, they became entangled in sin and were conquered and afflicted by their enemies. After the Israelites cried unto the Lord for help, He sent judges to deliver them from their enemies. However, the Israelites soon returned to their sins, and this cycle was repeated. See Judges — The book mentions the names of 12 judges who ruled with various degrees of effectiveness.

Judges references that the sons of Jonathan were priests in Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. However, the captivity of the land took place in B. How could this book have been composed during the time of the Judges? Judges helps us somewhat understand Judges , but it is not definitive. The expression "until the time of captivity of the land" may refer to the incident of the Philistines capturing the ark and ruling Israel and not to the later defeat of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians.

However, though there is a lot of evidence in the book of Judges that its original author wrote in Judah during the early period of David's rule at Hebron, there are some other indications that the final form of the book may have come at a later date. In Judges above we observe the false worship in Dan.

This possibly fits into the time after Jeroboam II had established false worship in the northern kingdom B. So, when was it moved from Shiloh? And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

When the ark was sent back to Israel by the Philistines to Ekron and then to Kirjath Jearim, it stayed there temporarily for 20 years. This was 20 years prior to David becoming king of Israel, which is BC.

Judg Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. The Assyrian captivity or the Assyrian exile in BC is the period in the history of Ancient Israel and Judah during which several thousand Israelites of ancient Samaria were resettled as captives by Assyria.

This is one of the many instances of forcible relocations implemented by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Jerusalem was besieged, but not taken.

The tribes forcibly resettled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes. It is not clear who wrote the book of Judges but it seems that it is a collection of several judges by a later scribe after the exile of northern tribes by Assyria in BC. The internal evidence from the Scripture itself shows that the book of Judges must have been written after the Assyria exile in BC while using sources that could be much earlier. After Israel had kings after BC Judg ; In those days there was no king in Israel ; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Judg And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel … It is interesting to note that the author of the book of Judges mentions the lack of king in Israel but contains several events from Judah.