Part of the way that the graphic violence in Judges lends versimilitude is that it violates your expectations for a story - just like real life does. For instance, When reading Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft, you can tell it's not real because it is one horrific thing after another, escalating to a climax. But in judges, the gruesome, detailed, violent story of Ehud and Eglon is followed by this:
After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel. (Judges 3:31; ESV)
Killed 600 men with an oxgoad!?!?!?! That is a story worth telling (and worth some gruesome detail), but they gloss over it when the temptation would be to embellish where no details exist. Ehud gets a couple of pages for killing one man and Shamgar gets a footnote for killing 600 - just like real world history! Then we are back to the graphic violence...
...all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left. But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid." So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, "Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say, 'No.'" But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking." So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple. (Judges 4:16-22; ESV)
She hid him in comfort, tranquilized him with warm milk, then knocked a tent peg through his head while he slept!
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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282
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