{"collection":"Hypertext Bible","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_bib_web_jdg_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_bib_web_jdg_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_bib_web_jdg_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/web/jdg.htm","summary":"This is the opening chapters of the biblical Book of Judges, a historical-theological narrative from the Hebrew Bible belonging to the Deuteronomistic History tradition. The text covers the period immediately following Joshua's death, when Israelite tribes attempted to complete their conquest of Canaan \u2014 recording which tribes succeeded, which failed, and which settled for coexistence or enslavement of the existing inhabitants rather than expulsion. A central theological argument emerges in chapter 2: Israel's repeated failure to fully drive out the Canaanites and their subsequent worship of Canaanite gods (Baal, Ashtaroth) triggers divine punishment, followed by repentance, followed by God raising up a military-deliverer (\"judge\") \u2014 a cycle the text explicitly names as the defining pattern of the era. Chapters 3 introduces this cycle in action through the first two judges, Othniel and Ehud, the latter depicted with vivid narrative detail as a left-handed assassin who kills the Moabite king Eglon by concealing a double-edged sword on his right thigh. A distinctive theological claim runs throughout: the remaining Canaanite nations were deliberately left by God both as punishment for Israel's disobedience and as an ongoing test of covenant faithfulness. The text is notable for its frank acknowledgment that the conquest was incomplete and messy, and for its morally complex portrayals \u2014 enemy kings who philosophically accept their fate, foreign collaborators spared, and deliverers who operate through deception.","tags":["English Bible Translations","Modern Bible Translations","New Testament"],"text":null,"title":"World English Bible: Judges","tradition":"Hypertext Bible","translated_text":null,"word_count":18824}