Judges of Israel

Before Israel had kings, there was no permanent ruler sitting on a throne. When Israel was oppressed by a neighboring people, God would raise up a judge, a military leader and deliverer, to rescue them. But the book of Judges is not a simple succession of rulers. Different judges led different regions, sometimes at the same time, as Israel repeatedly fell into oppression, cried out, and was delivered.

That overlap helps explain one of the book's biggest chronological puzzles. Add up each judge's stated years of oppression and rule, and the total runs far beyond the roughly 300 years available for this period in the Old Testament's chronology. The usual explanation is that many of these events were regional and overlapping rather than one long sequence of national rulers.

Explore the judges and their oppressors below to see where these stories fit, and where their timelines overlap. Click an oppressor to filter the page.

Overlap timeline

Where the threats came from

The deliverance cycle

The book of Judges does not give every judge the same role. Six receive full stories of Israel's rebellion, oppression, and deliverance; the others are recorded in short notices that give little more than their name, territory, and years of leadership.

Othniel

Aram-Naharaim (Mesopotamia)

Sin

Oppression

Cry

Deliverer

Peace

Ehud

Moab

Sin

Oppression

Cry

Deliverer

Peace

Deborah & Barak

Canaan (Hazor)

Sin

Oppression

Cry

Deliverer

Peace

Gideon

Midian

Sin

Oppression

Cry

Deliverer

Peace

Jephthah

Ammon

Sin

Oppression

Cry

Deliverer

Peace

Samson

Philistines

Sin

Oppression

Cry

Deliverer

Peace

All 13 judges

Othniel Aram-Naharaim (Mesopotamia)

Judah · 8 years under Aram-Naharaim (Mesopotamia), 40 years as judge

Caleb's younger kinsman, first of the judges. Israel serves Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-Naharaim eight years before Othniel delivers them, and the land rests forty (Judg 3:8-11).

Ehud Moab

Benjamin · 18 years under Moab, 80 years as judge

A left-handed Benjamite who hides a short sword under his clothes to reach Eglon of Moab alone, then kills him in his own chamber. The rest that follows, eighty years, is the longest of any judge (Judg 3:15-30).

Shamgar Philistines

tribe not specified · no years given

Gets one verse: he kills six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. No years, no tribe, no cycle of sin and cry, just the deed (Judg 3:31).

Deborah Canaan (Hazor)

Ephraim · 20 years under Canaan (Hazor), 40 years as judge

A prophetess already judging Israel when she summons Barak to face Sisera's nine hundred iron chariots. Twenty years under Jabin of Hazor end at Mount Tabor (Judg 4-5).

Barak Canaan (Hazor)

Naphtali · 20 years under Canaan (Hazor), 40 years as judge

Won't march on Sisera without Deborah beside him, so she tells him the honor of the kill will go to a woman instead. It does: Jael drives a tent peg through Sisera's skull (Judg 4:8-9, 21).

Gideon Midian

Manasseh · 7 years under Midian, 40 years as judge

Threshes wheat in a winepress, hiding from Midianite raiders, when an angel calls him a mighty man of valor. Whittles his army from 32,000 to 300 and routs Midian by night (Judg 6-8).

Tola

Issachar · 23 years as judge

Rises after Abimelech's brief, bloody kingship to judge Israel twenty-three years from Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. No oppression, no enemy named, just the years (Judg 10:1-2).

Jair

Manasseh (Gilead) · 22 years as judge

Judges Israel twenty-two years; his thirty sons ride thirty donkeys and hold thirty towns in Gilead. Buried at Kamon (Judg 10:3-5).

Jephthah Ammon

Manasseh (Gilead) · 18 years under Ammon, 6 years as judge

A commander's son driven out by his own half-brothers, recalled by Gilead's elders when Ammon presses in. Wins the war, then keeps a rash vow that costs him his only daughter (Judg 11).

Ibzan

tribe not specified · 7 years as judge

Judges Israel seven years from Bethlehem, marrying off thirty sons and thirty daughters outside his own clan. The text doesn't say which Bethlehem (Judg 12:8-10).

Elon

Zebulun · 10 years as judge

Ten years as judge, then buried in Aijalon in his own tribe's territory. That's the whole record (Judg 12:11-12).

Abdon

Ephraim · 8 years as judge

Forty sons and thirty grandsons, each riding his own donkey. Eight years from Pirathon, the last judge before Samson (Judg 12:13-15).

Samson Philistines

Dan · 40 years under Philistines, 20 years as judge

A Nazirite from birth, strong enough to kill a lion bare-handed and carry off a city gate, undone by one haircut. Judges Israel twenty years under a forty-year Philistine oppression that outlasts him (Judg 13-16).