Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 180:720 (Oct 2023)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Joseph W. Lee

BSac 180:720 (October-December 2023) p. 470

Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty And Staff Of Dallas Theological Seminary

Joseph W. Lee

Editor

“The Prophet’s Song of Victory: Judges 5 within a Trajectory of Theological Training in the Book of Judges,” Michelle Knight, Bulletin for Biblical Research 33.4 (2023): 441–57.

Knight is an associate professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In this article, Knight reframes the underlying focus of Judges by suggesting “the revelatory work of YHWH is a central thematic trajectory in the book of Judges, of which the Song of Deborah and Barak is an early climax” (442).

The community in Exodus knew God through their experiences at Sinai. With the opening of Judges, “the intimacy of the relationship . . . is but a distant memory” (443). Knight differentiates the community’s initial characteristic: they are “ignorant of him, rather than wicked” (443). This observation is not an attempt to turn a blind eye to the blatant sins of the people, but the focus is “knowledge,” which is “the fundamental cause of the disobedience that marks the generation” (443).

Judges 3 emphasizes that they did not know God, and now they must be taught to know him through war. Knight draws a connection between knowing God and the teaching of war, though she clarifies: “I do not here claim that the collocation למד מלחמה straightforwardly denotes receiving revelation from God” (444n8). The revelatory trajectory of this introduction is summarized by Knight as the elements of testing and teaching. Through the testing and teaching of war, the generation would gain “knowledge of the God of glory” (446).

By reframing the introductory focus, Knight counters common assumptions about Judges; no longer is Judges “merely about the poor leadership of a series of tribal chieftains,” but “the purpose of the events is to evaluate the response of the tribes to YHWH’s covenant faithfulness” (446). “The focus at the beginning of the book is broader” (447) than just the community’s reliance on their leaders. The examples of Othniel and Ehud call attention not to their qualifications as leaders (“his inner life” and “his fealty”) but to the superior strength of their adversaries. This provides the setting by which God’s work takes center stage.

Judges 4 is a common story of a superiorly armed adversary threatening Israel. This story, however, has two unique features: (1) the leader’s commission an...