Book of Judges

The Book of Judges is so called because it deals with the times when Israel was ruled by judges, at least in so far as the people had any rulers at all. Its authoship has been attributed by tradition to the prophet Samuel and also to King Solomon. The book is in two sections-- the first begins with the death of Joshua and gives an account of the days and deeds of six notable judges: Othniel, Ehud, Deborah with Barak, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson with reference to six other judges of lesser importance. The closing chapters narrate two separate events: the story of the migration of a portion of the tribe of Dan and the tale of the civil war against the tribe of Benjamin.

The Book of Judges is written with the clear purpose of showing the punishment of sin. It seeks to explain why the Israelites were for so many generations denied the complete possession of the Promised Land which had been assured to them. They disobeyed God, they made friends with the idolatrous Canaanites, forgot their Creater, and lapsed in the debased religion of their neighbors. Consequently, they were punished by foreign invasion, by civil war among themselves, and by attacks of the Canaanites.

This series of images from the Book of Judges are from my collection of antique Bible books. Feel free to use these pictures from the Book of Judges in your artwork. Click on the Book of Judges illustrations below to see more details about saving a free Book of Judges image or about purchasing the images from the Book of Judges at a higher resolution.