50 Fun Facts About Book of Judges

Which password caught fleeing Ephraimites at the Jordan fords because they could not pronounce it?

Shibboleth came out as 'Sibboleth' on Ephraimite tongues, and Jephthah's men of Gilead killed anyone who said it that way. The word still means a telltale test of who belongs.

With what improvised weapon did Samson strike down a thousand Philistines at a place called Lehi?

A donkey's jawbone, lying fresh on the ground, was all Samson had after the two new ropes that bound him fell away like burnt flax. He boasted afterwards that it had left his enemies in heaps.

Which animals did Samson tie tail to tail with burning torches to destroy the Philistines' standing grain?

Foxes were paired off with a torch between each two tails, and the fire took the Philistines' olive groves as well as their wheat. It was Samson's revenge for a marriage gone wrong.

What was hammered through the head of the Canaanite commander Sisera as he slept after fleeing a battle?

A tent peg went through Sisera's temple and into the ground, driven by a woman whose clan was at peace with his king. She had tucked him under a rug as if to hide him.

Gideon's army of 32,000 was whittled down to how many men before the night raid on the Midianite camp?

300 men were all God let Gideon keep, so that Israel could not boast that its own strength had won. The first to go were 22,000 who admitted they were afraid.

Which prophetess, the only woman among the leaders in Judges, held court beneath a palm tree?

Deborah settled disputes under a tree that came to bear her name, between Ramah and Bethel. She also summoned the general who ended twenty years of Canaanite oppression.

What did Samson scoop out of an animal carcass on the way to his wedding and share with his parents?

Honey from a swarm of bees inside the carcass became the secret behind Samson's wedding riddle. He never told his parents where their snack had come from.

What did Gideon leave on a threshing floor overnight, asking that dew fall on it alone as a sign from God?

A wool fleece came up soaked while the ground stayed dry, and Gideon wrung a bowlful of water from it. He then asked for the reverse the next night, and got that too.

Which woman took silver from the rulers of the Philistines to learn the secret of Samson's great strength?

Delilah was promised eleven hundred pieces of silver by each Philistine ruler, and she pressed Samson daily until he gave in. He had fooled her with three false answers first.

After Jephthah's rash vow before battle, who was the first to come out of his house to greet him?

His daughter, an only child, came out dancing with tambourines to celebrate the victory. Jephthah had sworn to offer up whatever first came through his doors.

On the road to arrange his marriage, which wild animal did Samson tear apart with his bare hands?

A lion, a young one that came roaring out of the vineyards, was torn apart as easily as a young goat. Samson told neither of his parents what he had done.

In which town did Samson see the Philistine woman he insisted on marrying despite his parents' protests?

Timnah was where Samson first saw her, and his parents asked why he could not choose a wife from among his own people. He answered only that she pleased him.

What did Samson wager on the riddle he set for the Philistine guests at his seven-day wedding feast?

Thirty sets of clothing, plus as many linen garments, would go to whichever side won. Samson lost, and paid the debt with clothes stripped from men he killed in another town.

What did the Philistine wedding guests threaten to do unless Samson's bride coaxed out his riddle's answer?

Burn her and her family was the threat, so she wept and pressed Samson until he told her on the seventh day of the feast. The same fate caught up with her later anyway.

After Samson stormed home from his wedding feast in anger, what did his father-in-law do with the bride?

Gave her to his companion, a man who had been Samson's friend, on the assumption that Samson now hated her. The father then offered her younger sister instead.

An angel told Samson's mother that her son would be set apart to God from the womb as what?

A Nazirite was someone consecrated by a special vow, and Samson's mother had to give up wine and unclean food herself while she carried him.

Which man of Zorah, the father of Samson, feared he would die after seeing an angel rise in a flame?

Manoah thought that seeing God meant certain death, but his wife reasoned that a God who meant to kill them would never have accepted their offering.

Samson ripped out the gates of which Philistine city, the same place where he later died a prisoner?

Gaza lost its gate doors, posts and bar, which went up a hill on Samson's shoulders while townsmen waited to kill him at dawn. He was later hauled back there in bronze shackles.

What was done to Samson as he slept on a woman's knees that finally drained away his strength?

His hair was shaved off, all seven braids of it, after he admitted that no razor had ever touched his head. He woke expecting to shake himself free as before.

What did the Philistines do to Samson straight after seizing him, before leading him away in bronze shackles?

Blinded him: the Philistines took his sight on the spot, then set him to forced labour in prison. His final prayer asked for one last surge of strength to avenge that loss.

Which parts of a crowded Philistine building did the captive Samson push against to bring it crashing down?

The middle pillars, two of them, held up the whole house, and Samson braced one with each hand. He killed more people in that moment than in the rest of his life.

What forced labour did the Philistines give the captured Samson while he was held in their prison?

Grinding grain at the prison mill was Samson's lot until the Philistines fetched him out to entertain the crowd at a great festival.

The Philistine rulers were offering a great sacrifice to which god when Samson brought the roof down on them?

Dagon got the credit from the Philistines for delivering Samson into their hands, and they were praising their god when they sent for the prisoner to perform.

At the spring of Harod, Gideon kept only the soldiers who drank the water in which way?

Lapping like a dog, hand to mouth, marked out the few who would fight, while everyone who knelt to drink was sent home.

Besides trumpets, what did Gideon's men carry into the night attack to hide their burning torches?

Empty pitchers, or clay jars, hid the flames until every man smashed his at once and blew a trumpet. The Midianite camp panicked, and its soldiers turned their swords on one another.

Where was Gideon secretly threshing wheat, to hide it from Midianite raiders, when an angel appeared?

In a winepress, out of sight of the enemy, Gideon heard himself hailed as a mighty man of valor. He protested that his clan was the poorest in its tribe and he the least in it.

What did Gideon tear down at night with ten servants, leading the men of Ophrah to demand his death?

An altar of Baal belonging to his own father came down, along with the sacred pole beside it. His father saved him by arguing that a real god could fight his own battles.

In a dream Gideon overheard in the Midianite camp, what came tumbling in and flattened a tent?

A barley loaf rolled into camp and knocked the tent flat, and the dreamer's comrade said it could only mean the sword of Gideon. Gideon bowed low in thanks on the spot.

What did Gideon make from the gold earrings of the plunder that became a snare to his own family?

An ephod made from some 1,700 shekels of gold went on show in Gideon's home town of Ophrah, and Israel began to treat it as an idol.

Which Israelite general refused to fight Sisera's army unless the prophetess who summoned him came too?

Barak got his wish, along with a warning that the glory of the victory would not be his. He led ten thousand men down from a mountain camp to rout the enemy.

Which wife of Heber the Kenite killed the fleeing commander Sisera after welcoming him into her home?

Jael is hailed in the victory song of Judges 5 as 'blessed above women' for the killing. She had gone out to meet Sisera and told him not to be afraid.

What drink was the fugitive commander Sisera given when he asked his hostess for a little water?

Milk came from a container she opened for him, and the victory song adds that she served butter in a lordly dish. He was soon fast asleep under a cover.

According to the victory song in Judges 5, what fought from the sky against the Canaanite commander Sisera?

The stars fought from their courses, the song says, while an ancient river swept the enemy away. The poem ends by wishing that all who love God may shine like the rising sun.

Which warrior won his bride from Caleb by capturing a town, then became the first judge to rescue Israel?

Othniel took Kiriath Sepher to win her hand, and later freed Israel from eight years under a king of Mesopotamia. The land then had peace for forty years.

Which left-handed judge hid a short sword on his right thigh and stabbed Eglon, the fat king of Moab?

Ehud drew with his left hand and drove the blade in so deep that the fat closed over the handle. He locked the doors behind him and slipped away.

What did the servants of the murdered King Eglon assume he was doing behind the locked doors of his room?

Relieving himself was their guess, so they waited outside to the point of embarrassment before fetching a key. The delay gave his killer time to escape.

The judge Shamgar is remembered for striking down six hundred Philistines with which farming tool?

An ox goad, a pointed stick for driving cattle, is nearly all we learn of Shamgar: his exploit is told in a single verse.

The Book of Judges opens just after the death of which leader, who had brought Israel into Canaan?

Joshua died at the age of 110, and the generation that grew up after him no longer knew what God had done for Israel. That forgetting sets the whole book in motion.

Which youngest son of Gideon hid from his brothers' massacre and later shouted a fable from Mount Gerizim?

Jotham alone escaped when Abimelech killed seventy of their brothers on a single stone. After shouting his warning to the men of Shechem he ran for his life.

Why did the brothers of Jephthah drive him out of their father's house in Gilead?

His mother was a prostitute, so the sons of his father's wife told him he would inherit nothing. He fled to the land of Tob and gathered a band of outlaws.

What did a woman drop from a tower in Thebez that cracked the skull of Gideon's son Abimelech?

A millstone, the upper half of a hand mill, did the damage. The dying Abimelech begged his armour-bearer to finish him off so that no one could say a woman had killed him.

In the fable of the trees told in Judges 9, which plant accepts the crown after three others turn it down?

The bramble, or thornbush, takes the job that more useful plants were too busy to accept, then threatens to burn down the cedars. It was a jab at Abimelech, newly crowned at Shechem.

The closing line of Judges says that, with no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in what?

His own eyes is the verdict, and the phrase appears twice in the book's grim final chapters. The 'no king' refrain itself turns up four times there.

Which short book, set in the days when the judges ruled, comes straight after Judges in English Bibles?

Ruth was placed after Judges in the ancient Greek translation, an order English Bibles inherited. Jewish Bibles keep it in a different section, among the Writings.

In the cycle that repeats through Judges, what do the Israelites do each time a leader dies?

Worship other gods is the charge every time: the people turn to the idols of their neighbours, an enemy overruns them, they cry out, and a new deliverer is raised up.

After an atrocity in the town of Gibeah, the other tribes of Israel went to war against which tribe?

Benjamin refused to hand over the guilty men and was nearly wiped out. Only six hundred of its soldiers survived, hiding at the rock of Rimmon for four months.

At the start of Judges, which tribe does God name to go up first against the Canaanites?

Judah went first, taking the tribe of Simeon along as an ally. God gives the same answer near the end of the book, when the tribes march against one of their own.

Which tribe of Israel, short of land, sent six hundred armed men north to seize the quiet city of Laish?

Dan burned Laish, rebuilt it under the tribe's own name and set up a stolen idol there. Samson, the tribe's most famous son, came from its first home in the south.

In the final chapter of Judges, survivors of a defeated tribe seize dancers as wives at which town's festival?

Shiloh's vineyards hid the men until the dancers came out, a scheme the elders devised to get round their own oath not to give wives to that tribe.

The Canaanite commander Sisera went to war against Israel with nine hundred iron what?

Chariots of iron made Sisera's army feared on open ground, yet he ended the battle by abandoning his own and running away on foot.