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.