Before There Were Kings

Elie Assis is Professor of Bible at Bar Ilan University in Israel. He is the author of many books, including Identity in Conflict: The Struggle Between Esau and Jacob, Edom and Israel, also published by Eisenbrauns.

• List of AbbreviationsAcknowledgmentsINTRODUCTIONCHAPTER 1. The First Prologue to the Book of Judges: The Transition from Joshua to Judges (1:1-2:10)CHAPTER 2. The Second Prologue to the Book of Judges: The People’s Sins in Judges (2:11-3:6)CHAPTER 3. The Othniel Narrative (3:7-11)CHAPTER 4. The Ehud Narrative (3:12-30)CHAPTER 5. The Deborah Narrative and Song (4-5)CHAPTER 6. The Gideon Narrative (6-8)CHAPTER 7. The Abimelech Narrative (9)CHAPTER 8. The Jephthah Narrative (10:6 – 12:7)CHAPTER 9. Brief Lists of Five Judges (10:1-5; 12:8-15)CHAPTER 10. The Samson Narrative (13-16)CHAPTER 11. The Closing Narratives: Their Place, Structure, and Meaning (17-21)CHAPTER 12. Micah’s Idol and Dan’s Migration to the North (17-18)CHAPTER 13. The Concubine at Gibeah and Israel’s War Against Benjamin (19-21)BibliographyIndex

“Assis utilizes a close reading of the book of Judges and interacts with the secondary literature while contributing to a reading of the text that explains how the parts produce the whole. Before There Were Kings makes an important contribution, not simply in the method of reading, but in the particular way in which Assis’s perspective contributes to an understanding of the book.”—K. Lawson Younger, Jr., Divinity School, Trinity International University