My plan thus far this semester has been to read complete chapters of the Bible in a seemingly random order. First I read most of Genesis, then all of Revelation, and last night I committed myself to the books of Judges and Ruth. I find that by reading the Bible in this manner I'm able to focus more clearly and really get a lot out of the individual books than if I were to keep reading chronologically. Plus After reading Plotz's chapter on Leviticus I thought it best to skip that one, for now.
Judges contains much warfare and seizing of land, and taking control of slaves. I thought about Plotz's comment that God is like a real-estate king, and it showed in this book. As there were several occasions in which God either rewarded or took land from people. One thing I noticed consistently through out were the lists and the repeated lines. "And the children of Isreal again did evil in the sight of the Lord" and "In those days there was no king in Isreal" start of many books in
Judges. I found a certain rhythm to it almost as if this was the chorus and all the other actions were verses.
Although I'm still very fuzzy about who is in command of what, and who killed who to get it, and the reasons for it all, I did find several little, "Oh shit" instances of literary excitement. Book 3 around verse 20 goes, "And he arose out of his seat. and Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that eh could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out" It reminded me of something you might see while watching an action film, but certainly not the Bible. The other thing that surprised me was the quickness to anger of God, he seemed more like an irritated mother trying to get the kids to behave more than a deity. The story of Samson and Delilah was one of the more interesting parts of this book. Again I found it a little hard to follow but I think that Samson was getting tricked and Delilah was bait, to get a hold of his land, maybe. Anyway I found this line particularly enticing, "And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death." She sounds like an earful. I'm puzzled by the end of this book, considering all the vengeance for wrong doings previously discussed it seems odd that, "In those days there was no king in Isreal: every man did that which was right in his own eyes" should be that line. The word "right" what context does that have after all this death and betrayal?
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