What Goes Around

Judges Chapter 2, the Strange and the Spectacular

Verses: 23

Is It Read At Synagogue?: No.

Famous Quotes/Phrases: When describing how the generation after Joshua “לֹא יָדְעוּ אֶת-ה׳” (lo yad-u et Adonai), “had not experienced [the deliverance of] Adonai,” it’s an eerie echo to Exodus 1, in which an identical phrase introduces the new Pharaoh by saying he “knew not Joseph.” And as in Exodus 1, it means that tough times lie ahead.

Basic Plot: This chapter reads as an overture for the entire book of Judges. It starts with a brief scene: An angel speaks to the Israelites, claiming that they hadn’t followed the covenant, and as punishment, the foreign peoples remaining in the land now stand poised to conquer and oppress the Israelites. This news alarms the people, who wail and offer sacrifices to God. The narrative takes a step back and informs us that while the people behave themselves during Joshua’s lifetime, they turn to idolatry after his death.

The text then describes the defining characteristic of the entire book: the repeating cycle of sin, punishment, repentance, and redemption. Whenever the Israelites turn away from worshiping God, God sends a foreign army to conquer them. Then the Israelites beg for forgiveness, prompting God to choose a leader to vanquish their conquerors. After the leader dies, the cycle starts all over again.

What’s Strange: Marvin A. Sweeney has a bold take on the start of this chapter, as he writes in Tanak: A Theological and Critical Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: “[This chapter] raises some troubling theological problems in the portrayal of YHWH. In Joshua, YHWH defeated Israel’s enemies; in Judges, Israel is unable to do so on its own and gets no support from YHWH. Such a scenario points to at least some degree of failure on YHWH’s part [emphasis mine]; rather than act decisively on behalf of Israel as in the book of Joshua, YHWH chooses instead to place the blame on Israel for its own weakness and vulnerability while YHWH does nothing to help.”

What do you think of Sweeney’s opinion? Does God share responsibility for the peoples’ descent into idolatry? If so, how much?

What’s Spectacular: I couldn’t help but think about cycles today while watching parts of the final home game of the Oakland Athletics. In case you don’t know, the A’s are planning to play the next three baseball seasons in Sacramento, CA, and then move to a new stadium in Las Vegas. This is just the latest example of a baseball team owner moving a team because he was unable to secure funding for a new stadium in the previous city. Today’s sellout crowd at The Coliseum in Oakland cheered on their team with bittersweet tears, as they said goodbye to 57 years of A’s baseball in their hometown. It’s hard not to feel bad for the fans.

Still, I wonder whether this goodbye will be permanent. A baseball team is only as competitive as its owner chooses to be, and while John Fisher has decided to take the Athletics elsewhere, there are other wealthy baseball fans who might bring a Major League team back to the area. Many cities have lost their team but later gained another; to name just three examples, Milwaukee lost the Braves but then got the Brewers, Seattle lost the Pilots but then got the Mariners, and Washington, D.C. had two different Senators teams before inheriting the Nationals. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oakland gets another team one day — in fact, I hope it will.

In other words, these things tend to be cyclical. I recognize that this thought would provide little solace to a broken-hearted A’s fan today, but just like the many ups and downs in the Book of Judges, the way things are rarely stays the same. We just have to hope that our low moments are few and far between.

Shabbat Shalom!