JUDGE

Men raised up by Jehovah to deliver his people prior to the period of Israel’s human kings were known as judges. (Judg. 2:16) Moses, as mediator of the Law covenant and God-appointed leader, judged Israel for forty years. But the period of judges, as usually viewed, began with Joshua and ran through the judgeship of Samuel, extending 356 years from Moses’ death in 1473 B.C.E. to the beginning of King Saul’s reign, 1117 B.C.E.

The judges were selected and appointed by Jehovah from various tribes of Israel. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim and Samuel was a Levite. (Num. 13:8, 16; 1 Sam. 1:1; 1 Chron. 6:16, 33, 34) Between Joshua and Samuel, thirteen judges are named, as follows:

Judge Tribe Judge Tribe

Othniel Judah Jair Manasseh

Ehud Benjamin Jephthah Manasseh

Shamgar (?) Ibzan Zebulun (?)

Barak Naphtali (?) Elon Zebulun

Gideon Manasseh Abdon Ephraim

Tola Issachar Samson Dan

Eli Levi

The exact area over which each of the judges exercised jurisdiction and the dates of their judgeships cannot in every case be determined. Some may have judged contemporaneously in different sections of Israel, and there were periods of oppression intervening.—See CHRONOLOGY; COURT, JUDICIAL; JUDGES, BOOK OF; and judges of Israel under individual names.