Had It Up To Here

Judges Chapter 10, the Strange and the Spectacular

Verses: 18

Is It Read At Synagogue?: No.

Famous Quotes/Phrases: I don’t know if it’s famous, but it should be … in Verse 4, we learn that the judge Jair had 30 sons “who rode 30 burros and owned 30 boroughs” in Gilead. If you think that the English translation was trying to have a little fun with this wordplay, it’s only because the Hebrew translations of those two words are also puns.

If you don’t like puns … I don’t know what to tell you. They’ve been with us since the beginning of time.

Basic Plot: The ensuing 45 years in Israelite history are summarized quickly, as we learn of a judge named Puah who rules for 23 years and a judge named Jair who rules for 22. Other than the anecdote about Jair’s sons, we barely know anything about either of these leaders.

The Israelites return to their familiar bad habits, worshipping seven different types of alien gods. In response, God allows the Philistines and Ammonites to conquer them, making the Israelites miserable for the next 18 years. When the people cry out to God, though, divine forgiveness is not automatic; God recounts all the times the Israelites had been delivered, and refuses to do it again. Calling God’s bluff, the Israelites get rid of their idols and plead more. God apparently has a change of heart, and the people ready themselves for battle with a yet-unnamed leader.

What’s Strange: An inconsistency throughout the Hebrew Bible involves the identities of the nations surrounding the Israelites in the Promised Land. For instance, the seven nations mentioned early in this chapter differ somewhat to similar lists found in Deuteronomy. In other words, there are always threats to the Israelites, but according to Lawrence M. Wills in his book Not God’s People: Insiders & Outsiders in the Biblical World, their identities evolve as the years pass. He writes, “The list in Judges is composed solely of peoples bordering on Israel that still existed at the time of the composition of the Deuteronomistic History; one might say, they are what Canaan had become, real-time equivalents to the mythologized pre-Israelite nations.”

History doesn’t happen in a bubble; just as the Israelites evolve, so too do those around them.

What’s Spectacular: I was struck by the way God responds to the Israelites’ initial pleas in this chapter. God sounds more like an exasperated friend than an almighty being. “When you cried out to Me [previously], I saved you from them,” God says. “Go cry to the gods you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress!” And then, when the people cry out again, God seems to simply back down, as the text tells us that God “could not bear the miseries of Israel.”

To put it bluntly, God sounds downright human in this chapter, not above the inconsistent feelings that mark human behavior. Perhaps this is a shocking thing to say, at least theologically. But it also illustrates our Sages’ contention that God feels linked to Israel, no matter how many times it strays from the commandments. Our rabbis ask us to imitate God in the best ways possible, and perhaps the message here is that if God can get exasperated, so can we — and if God can be moved to forgiveness, so can we as well.

Shabbat Shalom!