by George F. Moore / Varda Books
From PREFACE
THE interest and importance of the Book of Judges lie chiefly in the knowledge
which it gives us of the state of society and religion in Israel in the early
centuries of its settlement in Palestine, for which Judges and Samuel are our
only sources. In addition to this, parts of the book are of preeminent
historical value: in particular, ch. I, which contains by far the oldest and
most trustworthy account of the invasion of Canaan; and ch. 5,
the Song of Deborah, the only contemporary monument of Israelitish history
before the Kingdom.
In the following commentary matters of history, antiquities, and especially
the social and religious life of the people in this period, are properly given
the largest place; not only for their intrinsic interest, but because the
knowledge of these things is indispensable to any right understanding of the
history of Israel and of its religion. The work of the prophets can only be
comprehended in its relation to the national religion of Israel. But before
there was a national religion, there was a common religion of the Israelite
tribes which was one of the most potent forces in the making of the nation. What
this religion was, which they brought with them into Canaan, and what changes it
underwent in contact with Canaanite civilization and
the religions of the land, we learn in no small part from the Book of Judges;
while here and there, as in the Song of Deborah, we have glimpses of a remoter
past, the adoption of the religion of Yahweh by the tribes at Horeb, the work of
Moses.