Sleep safe, Sisera... Psyche!

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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Surprisingly violent women in Judges

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Judges is also surprising in how it describes great deeds done by women.  Typically, we think of women as second-class citizens in the ancient middle-east (and in much of the modern mid-east).  Doesn't seem like a plain-old history written by mysogynistic patriarchs would have lionized females, but sure enough...

• Judges 9:53 - An anonymous woman saved her people by throwing a millstone down on Abimalech's head.
• Judges 4 - Deborah, a prophetess, was calling the shots as her right-hand man (Barak) was chasing Sisera when...
• Judges 4:9 - Jael (wife of Heber) brought swift, violent justice to Sisera with a tent-peg through the head

These are reminiscent of the Apocryphal story of Judith and Holofernes

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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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Hey Eglon, Surprise!

More surprises in Judges - This is surprising to me because of the graphically violent nature of it.  Makes it apparent that the human authors of the bible did not pull any punches or censor the message...

...the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." And he commanded, "Silence." And all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." And he arose from his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, "Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber." And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor. Ehud escaped while they delayed... (Judges 3:15-26; ESV)

Did you get that, or did you self-censor it as you read it.  The LORD raised up a deliverer in the form of an assassin, who knifed the king with an 18 inch dagger.  The king soiled himself as he died and his servants, smelling it, thought he was toileting, so they left him alone, allowing Ehud to escape.

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The details, though gruesome, give versimilitude to the story and credibility to the scripture.

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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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