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In Judges 1
● wonder if, because of tribes still fighting to clear their land of outsiders, we are still in Joshua’s book, though Joshua is dead (1),
● notice the grotesque detail of removal of thumbs and big toes of conquered kings (6, 7), surely a sign of complete domination, especially when an extension is added: Those so treated might well end up picking up scraps under the king’s table (7),
● register the pattern that emerges of alien people not being driven out of the allotted lands (19, 21, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
● notice that the people of “the plain” could not be driven out “because they had chariots of iron” (19), as if the Lord of Hosts was daunted or thwarted by machinery,
● see that in the other instances God’s people “did not” drive out the inhabitants,
● reckon with the result of this failure of removal: The inhabitants “lived with” (21) God’s people or “lived among them” (29, 30),
● notice also that a reversal of order appears as it is also reported that God’s people “live among” (32, 33) the inhabitants,
● register the exceptions, too, such as Zephath which Simeon and Judah “devoted … to destruction” (17) and Bethel, the conquest of which sounds a lot like Jericho because, once more, “the Lord was with them … spies helped … deal kindly … the edge of the sword" (22-25), and
● ponder the implications, despite the assurances that the inhabitants are kept firmly in their places (28, 30, 33, 35), of the Amorites still having a border (36) in God’s promised land.
Thank you,

Randy Tumlinson