Judges 12 is the twelfth chapter of the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom ...

in the Old Testament or the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Samuel,Gilad, Elon
Who Really Wrote the Biblical Books of Kings and the Prophets?
''Haaretz'', June 25, 2015. Summary: The paean to King Josiah and exalted descriptions of the ancient Israelite empires beg the thought that he and his scribes lie behind the Deuteronomistic History. but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans in the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of judges

Jephthah Jephthah (pronounced ; he, יִפְתָּח, ''Yīftāḥ''), appears in the Book of Judges as a judge who presided over Israel for a period of six years (). According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father's name is also given as Gilead, ...

Ibzan Ibzan or Ivtzan ( he, אִבְצָן ''’Īḇṣān''; grc, Ἀβαισσάν; la, Abesan, meaning "illustrious") appears in the Hebrew Bible as the ninth of the Judges of Israel. Biography Little is said of Ibzan apart from this: Many ...

, Elon, and Abdon. belonging to a section comprising Judges 6:1 to 16:31.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. It is divided into 15 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and

Codex Leningradensis The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...

(1008). Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

(originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century) and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century).

Analysis

A linguistic study by Chisholm reveals that the central part in the Book of Judges (Judges 3:7–16:31) can be divided into two panels based on the six refrains that state that the Israelites did evil in Yahweh’s eyes: Panel One : A 3:7 ::And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the (KJV)Judges 3:7 Hebrew Text Analysis
Biblehub :: B 3:12 :::And the children of Israel did evil ''again'' in the sight of the ::B 4:1 :::And the children of Israel did evil ''again'' in the sight of the Panel Two :A 6:1 ::And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the ::B 10:6 :::And the children of Israel did evil ''again'' in the sight of the ::B 13:1 :::And the children of Israel did evil ''again'' in the sight of the Furthermore from the linguistic evidence, the verbs used to describe the Lord’s response to Israel’s sin have chiastic patterns and can be grouped to fit the division above: Panel One :3:8 , “and he sold them,” from the root , :3:12 , “and he strengthened,” from the root , :4:2 , “and he sold them,” from the root , Panel Two :6:1 , “and he gave them,” from the root , :10:7 , “and he sold them,” from the root , :13:1 , “and he gave them,” from the root , This chapter contains the Jephthah's Narrative, which can be divided into 5 episodes, each with a distinct dialogue, as follows:

Jephthah and the Ephraimites (12:1–7)

This section contains the fifth (the final) episode in the Jephthah Narrative. As with Gideon in Judges 8:1–3, the Ephraimites complained that they had not been asked to join in the battle (so they could also enjoy the spoils), but this time it ended in a civil war, which the Gileadites, unified by Jephthah, had upperhand. The Gileadites used the pronunciation of the Hebrew word "''

Shibboleth A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwo ...

''" to distinguish the Ephraimites, so they could kill them.

Ibzan (12:8–10)

Jephthah was succeeded by

as the judge of Israel for seven years. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters, and when he died, he was buried in his native town, "Bethlehem", which is not followed by "Ephratah" or by "Judah" so it could be the

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

in the territory of

Zebulun Zebulun (; also ''Zebulon'', ''Zabulon'', or ''Zaboules'') was, according to the Books of Genesis and Numbers,Genesis 46:14 the last of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's tenth son), and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Zebulun. Som ...

(Joshua 19:15).

Elon (12:11–12)

Ibzan was succeeded by the tenth judge, Elon, who was given very few statistics and with no historical exploits, other than he was from the

tribe of Zebulun According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Zebulun (alternatively rendered as ''Zabulon, Zabulin, Zabulun, Zebulon''; ) was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes in the Bo ...

, succeeded Ibzan to judge Israel for ten years. When he died, he was buried in Aijalon in the territory of Zebulun.

Abdon (12:13–15)

Elon was succeeded by Abdon, the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, of the

tribe of Ephraim According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim ( he, אֶפְרַיִם, ''ʾEp̄rayīm,'' in pausa: אֶפְרָיִם, ''ʾEp̄rāyīm'') was one of the tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim formed the '' House ...

, who had forty sons and thirty grandsons, and judged Israel for eight years, restoring order in the central area of Israel in the aftermath of the civil war involving

and the Gileadites.McCurdy, J. Frederic.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

translations: *
Shoftim - Judges - Chapter 12 (Judaica Press)
Hebrew text and English translation ith_Rashi's_commentary.html"_;"title="Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary">Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentaryat_Chabad.org *_ ith_Rashi's_commentary.html"_;"title="Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary">Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentaryat_Chabad.org *_Christianity">Christian_translations: *
''Online_Bible''_at_GospelHall.org
(ESV,_KJV,_Darby,_American_Standard_Version,_Bible_in_Basic_English) *
Judges_chapter_12._Bible_Gateway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Judges_12 Book_of_Judges_chapters.html" ;"title="Judges_12.html" ;"title="Christianity.html" ;"title="Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary.html" ;"title="Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentary">Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentaryat Chabad.org * Christianity">Christian translations: *
''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
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Judges chapter 12. Bible Gateway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Judges 12 Book of Judges chapters">12