The document provides an overview and analysis of the judges in the Book of Judges. It discusses each major judge - Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson - and highlights their accomplishments as well as weaknesses. A key theme is how the judges fall short as leaders and do not secure the land or unity of Israel. This sets the stage for the transition to kingship discussed in the concluding section.

1. HAKIM (SOPHETIM)
SESI 6
ALBERTUS PURNOMO, OFM (SSL)

2. TERMINOLOGI SOPHETIM
• Ibrani: Sophet (sing), Sophetim (pl)
• The judges to whom the title refers were charismatic
leaders who delivered Israel from a succession of
foreign dominations after their conquest of Canaan, the
Promised Land. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Book-of-
Judges.
• Gelar yang menunjuk pada pemimpin karismatis yang
membebaskan Israel dari dominasi kerajaan asing
setelah pendudukan di Kanaan

3. SHOPHETIM
• Bukan dalam arti Yuridis: menjalankan tugas peradilan,
mendengarkan tuduhan atau tuntutan, dan mengambil
keputusan (kecuali debora Hak 4:4-5)
• Pemimpin sosial dan militer, pembebas dari ancaman asing =
pahlawan pembebas
• Shophetim ditentukan secara prerogatif oleh Yahweh untuk
menjalankan misi dari Yahweh: “Maka TUHAN
membangkitkan hakim-hakim, yang menyelamatkan mereka
dari tangan perampok itu” (Hak. 2:16 ITB)

4. PEMIMPIN YANG TIDAK SEMPURNA
• Pemimpin dengan kelemahan tertentu:
• Ehud (kidal),
• Debora (perempuan),
• Gideon (pengecut dan mantan penyembah Baal [nama lainnya
Yerubaal]),
• Samson (mata keranjang dan buta),
• Yefta (anak pelacur)
• Penulis ingin menegaskan: YHWH sendiri adalah Sang
Penyelamat, Hakim adalah instrument-Nya

5. DURASI KEPEMIMPINAN
• Lama hakim memerintah bilangan kelipatan 40,
kecuali Yefta
• 40 tahun sama dengan 1 generasi

6. TINJAUAN SINGKAT PARA HAKIM
An Introduction to the OT, 142

9. OTHNIEL
• Othniel (3:7–11) appears first as the model of
what a judge should be.
• He is raised up by God and invested with his
Spirit; he was an able warrior when Joshua
lived (Josh. 15:13–19), and he leads Israel in
successful warfare as Joshua did.

10. EHUD (3:12–30)
In the case of Ehud (3:12–30), however, several important
items are missing. The author does not tell us that God raised
him up as he had done with Othniel; nor does Ehud enjoy
investiture with the Spirit of God, and he does not “judge”
Israel. We know only that he is “left-handed,” a trait found
among many in Benjamin (20:16; 1 Chron. 12:2), even though
“Benjamin” in Hebrew means “son of my right hand.” Ehud
delivers Israel by deceit and treachery, and the text is silent
about Yahweh’s will and relationship to him

11. DEBORAH (4:1–5:31)
• Deborah (4:1–5:31) was a prophetess as she judged
Israel. But in spite of her accomplishments and those of
Jael, her judgeship raises questions about the failure of
male leadership in Israel. Both Barak and Sisera lose the
glory that should have been theirs to a woman (4:9). Is
Israel unable to produce worthy male champions to lead
in her wars for the land? Victory once again is less a
feat of arms than a product of treachery.

13. JAEL (DEBORAH)
• Jael, who finally destroys Sisera, is neither a judge nor a
prophetess and only half Israelite (vv. 11, 17; 5:24).
Rather than extolling a nation acting in concert and in
faith, Deborah’s song includes curses against other tribes
that did not join the battle (5:15b–18, 23).
• The account anticipates the factionalism and intertribal
disunity that was ultimately to culminate in the final
episodes of the book (chaps. 20–21).

14. GIDEON THE FARMER (6:1–9:56)
• Gideon the farmer (6:1–9:56) is slow to recognize and respond
to God’s call for him to lead Israel; three miracles are required
to convince the reluctant Gideon. And his obedience, when it
does come, is not exactly courageous: he does tear down the
Baal altar and the Asherah pole in his community as God
commanded—he is still a bit of a coward and skeptic—and he
does it at night (6:25–27; Klein 1988, 54).

15. GIDEON THE FARMER (6:1–9:56)
Although Gideon earns the sobriquet Jerub-baal (“Let Baal
contend with him”—6:32), he himself eventually succumbs to
false worship that leads Israel astray (8:22–27). After the great
battle when Gideon’s three hundred prevail over a far greater
number through faithful obedience, Gideon seems to forget the
whole point of the exercise (7:2) and calls up his reserves, an
army of thirty-two thousand (vv. 3, 24). A great victory once
again erupts in factional rivalry and quarreling among the
tribes and clans (8:1–9).

16. GIDEON THE FARMER (6:1–9:56)
• Beyond the victory God had promised and
given, Gideon pursues a personal vendetta
(vv. 10–21). The story had begun with concern
about the seed Israel had sown for her crops
(6:3); Gideon had sown his own seed widely
and had seventy sons, including one by a
concubine from Shechem (8:31)

17. GIDEON THE FARMER (6:1–9:56)
• After Gideon’s death, Israel again does wrong (8:33–35), and one
anticipates the appearance of another judge/deliverer. But not so!
Instead, Abimelek, Gideon’s son by a concubine, attempts to seize
power. God does not raise him up or call him to office. A story that
began with concern about plant life (6:2– 6) turns to Jotham’s fable
about the trees and bushes (9:7–15).
• The intertribal rivalry (8:1–9) during Gideon’s time becomes now
intrafamily strife and murder. In spite of the good that Gideon did for
Israel, his son becomes not a deliverer but an oppressor, not a servant
to the nation but a murderer of Israelites and of his own family

18. JEPHTHAH
Jephthah is the next major figure in the book. The
account portrays some thing of the conflict within God
himself about his relationship with Israel (Webb 1987,
48). They sin and provoke him to anger (10:6–16), so
much so that he swears he will deliver them no more
(v. 13). And yet he has committed himself to Israel
so completely that he becomes vexed and indignant
about their suffering (v. 16). When Jephthah appears
on the scene, Yahweh has retired from the scene.

19. JEPHTHAH
• Full of self-interest, Jephthah negotiates his way to
power from his position as an outcast (11:1–11).
Although God’s Spirit had already come upon him for
the battle with Ammon (v. 29), Jephthah makes a rash
and redundant vow (v. 30), as if more were needed to
secure the victory. The one who had been so calculating
in his self-interest ends up destroying that which he
counted most dear, his only child (11:34–40). Once again
a victory erupts into intertribal squabbling and regional
rivalry (12:1–6).

20. SAMSON
Samson is the last of the major judges. But he is a shadow of
what a judge was supposed to be. He is self-indulgent and
refuses to control his sexual appetite. Samson’s proclivity for
foreign women has become metaphorical for Israel itself,
unwilling to resist going whoring after the enticement of foreign
gods (2:17; 8:27, 33). Although, like Israel, he had been set
apart to God from his birth (13:5), Samson would not fulfill his
potential. Intermarriage with the Canaanites violated the
command to drive them from the land (3:5–6). How could
Samson succeed as the leader of Israel? He was more
successful in death than in life (16:30)

21. EPILOG KITAB HAKIM HAKIM
• Leadership like that of these judges would not secure
the land for Israel.
• Self-interest, self-indulgence, and all the sins that
provoked God’s anger with Israel also characterized
her leaders. The legacy of a unified Israel left by
Joshua has disintegrated into factional and regional
rivalries. Conditions promoting religious and political
chaos call for a different kind of leadership if Israel is
to secure the land.

22. EPILOG KITA HAKIM-HAKIM
Will having kings make the difference (17:6; 18:1;
19:1; 21:25)? Will kingship be a solution for both
the religious (chaps. 17–18) and social (chaps. 19–
21) ills of the nation? The last two stories (Micah’s
idol, and the Levite with a concubine) prepare the
way for a turn to the monarchy in Israel’s ongoing
relationship with her God; the story continues in
Samuel and Kings.

23. PESAN TEOLOGIS
An Introduction to the OT, 142

24. 1. GRACE AND LAW, CONDITIONALITY AND
UNCONDITIONALITY.
Grace and law, conditionality and unconditionality.
Throughout the Deuteronomic History (Joshua–Kings), the
narrator explores and probes the nature of God’s
relationship with Israel. Will God’s holiness and his
demand for obedience to his commands override his
promises to Israel? Or will his irrevocable commitment to
the nation, his gracious promises to the patriarchs, mean
that he will somehow overlook their sin?

25. • As much as theologians may seek to establish the priority of law
over grace or grace over law, the book of Judges will not settle
this question. What Judges gives the reader is not a systematic
theology, but rather the history of a relationship.
• Judges leaves us with a paradox: God’s relationship with Israel
is at once both conditional and unconditional. He will not remove
his favor, but Israel must live in obedience and faith to inherit
the promise. It is this very tension that more than anything else
propels the entire narrative.

26. 2. THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOD’S RULE OVER HIS
PEOPLE.
God was to be Israel’s king and lord (8:23). But how would his
rule over his chosen people be expressed in history? The book
of Judges shows clearly that decentralized rule, even blessed
with periodic divine intervention in the nation’s leadership and
wars, would not produce a holy nation. Moses knew that Israel
would someday have a king (Deut. 17:14–20), and Judges
prepares for the transition to monarchy.