Ethnography in the Book of Judges

 

“Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…” (Jdg 10:6)

The Book of Judges is about a Hebrew population known as the "Israelites." The writer of Judges records the repeated cycles of disobedience, oppression, repentance and deliverance as God raised up rulers, judges and prophets to free the Israelites. The narratives illustrate the consequences of unfaithfulness to God and the need for righteous rulers if the exiles hope to live in peace in the land claimed by their Israelite forefathers.

The Book probably was written closer to the time of the Babylonian Exile (597- 587 BC) than to the time of Samuel (1100- 1001 BC). As such, the author of Judges relied on early ethnographic material to set the stage.

According to Judges 3:5, "The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites."

The Israelites were but one clan of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. They are the Hebrew people associated with Jacob/Yacob who was called Israel/Yisrael. Well before the time of the Judges, there were other Hebrew clans dispersed throughout the Nile Valley, Canaan, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Zagros Mountains. Arishen was a Horite Hebrew who ruled a territory in the central Zagros between 2400-2301 BC.

The term "Canaanite" refers to a mixed population living in Canaan. Some Hebrew people lived among the people living in Canaan. Rahab and her family are an example. 

The Jebusites, such as the priest-king Melchizedek, were also kin to the Hebrew. Melchizedek and Abraham were kinsmen. Before David became King of Israel, the Jebusites controlled Jerusalem and much of the land surrounding the sacred city.

The Hittites claim the Hebrew ruler Heth as an ancestor. That means that the Hittites living in Canaan and Anatolia were kin to the Israelites. Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, and Heth and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. (Gen. 10:15-18 NRSV) The Hittites of Canaan recognized Abraham the Hebrew as a "great prince" among them. 

The Amorites appear to have been a migrating population that dispersed into Mesopotamia and the Orontes River Valley. Amorite was a Northwest Semitic language, like Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. It has striking similarities to Moabite and to the language found in the 14th-century BC Amarna Letters.

The Perizzites were also kin to the Israelites. Perez was a son of Judah who never settled in Egypt.

The term "Hivites" refers to the Horite Hebrew who never left Edom and parts of Canaan. The Bible scholar, E.A. Speiser called attention to Hurrian/Horite personal names associated with Shechem and with other areas whose inhabitants the Bible calls "Hivites." Genesis 34:2 specifies Shechem as a Hivite or Horite settlement. He noted the juxtaposition of the Hurrian Jebusites and the Hivites in various biblical references and he concluded that “Hivite” was a biblical term for Horite/Hurrian. Speiser supported his identification of the Hivites with the Horite/Hurrians by reference to Genesis 36:2 and 36:20, where the terms Hivite and Horite are used interchangeably. In Genesis 36:2, Zibeon is called a Hivite, and in Genesis 36:20 Zibeon is identified as a Horite descendent of Seir. 

Other examples of the interchange of the terms Hivite and Horite may be found by comparing the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint. The Septuagint reads "Horites" for the "Hivite" of the Masoretic Text in Genesis 34:2 and Joshua 9:7.

Related reading: The Genesis 10 Ethnography; Who was Melchizedek?; Abraham and the Hittites; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The Peoples of Canaan