IRONY IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES

 

In the New Testament, the apostle John is considered the master of irony (see my post “Irony in John's Gospel”). But as far as the Old Testament is concerned, my vote for that title goes to the author of Judges. Below are some example of his use of this literary technique, both in verbal irony and in the narration of ironic situations.

Prologue

Judges 1:6-7 The Canaanite king Adom-bezek is captured, and the Jews cut off his thumbs and big toes. He acknowledges the irony in the situation since he had done the very same thing to seventy of his enemies.

Ehud

Judges 3:15-30 Due to his desire for complete privacy, Eglon, king of Moab, allows himself to get killed by a single apparently unarmed man right in the middle of his palace even while his guards are standing nearby. Ehud lures him away from his protection by promising to give him a secret message from God, which the king presumes will help him conquer the Israelite army. Instead, Ehud's message is a sword to the belly. And it is the very locked chamber in which they are together that provides the means for Ehud to escape the palace undetected. See my post “A Locked Door Mystery” for how that was accomplished.

Barak

Judges 4-5 This story is filled with ironies. The prophetess Deborah summons Barak to lead the Israelite army against the forces of Canaan led by the general Sisera. He refuses to go unless she goes with him, which she does after warning him that he won't get much glory from the battle. As an example of ironic misdirection, it is assumed that she is talking about the share of the glory she will get during the encounter.

We learn by putting together facts from both chapters that the turning point in the battle is when God totally neutralizes the tactical advantage of the Canaanites, who have been relying on their chariot forces, by causing them to bog down in the rainstorm He sends down. In that manner, their advantage over the Israelites ironically becomes a liability instead.

The mighty general Sisera runs away on foot and feels he has found sanctuary in the tent of a humble woman who belongs to a clan related by treaty to the Canaanites. But even there, he is apparently so frightened that the woman, Jael, must reassure him that he is not in danger. However, he faces more danger there than on the battlefield since she hammers a tent-peg into his head as he is sleeping. So by the time Barak tracks the general there, the woman has already killed him, thus robbing Barak of what little honor he might have gained from the encounter.

Then we, in chapter 5, are given a final ironic touch as we are shown Sisera's mother back at the Canaanite camp wondering where her son is and dreaming of all the plunder he will bring to her – at the very time that he lies dead in Jael's tent.

Gideon

Judges 6-8 We first encounter this famous judge in 6:11 threshing wheat in a wine press in order to hide it from the Midianites. An angel says to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior.” That comment could easily be understood as ironic sarcasm considering Gideon's actions at the time, but more probably it should be considered as a prophecy of future events.

Subsequent events are certainly ironic when God tells Gideon that his 22,000 troops are too large to defeat the Midianites! Instead, God eventually whittles the army down to only 300 men.

After several other victories over Israel's enemies due to God's help, Gideon in a sad piece of irony fashions a gold ephod which “became a snare to Gideon and to his family” (Judges 8:27). This is a complete reversal from Gideon's first act of cutting down his father's sacred pole at the start of his career.

Abimelech

Judges 9 In an ironic contrast to Gideon's pronouncement in 8:22-23 that neither he nor his son would rule over the Israelites, it turns out that his illegitimate son Abimelech maneuvers to do exactly that by killing off all of Gideon's other sons, except Jotham, with the help of the Shechemites. At this point Jotham treats them to a sarcastic fable making fun of them and Abimelech and then ironically tells them to go ahead acting in good faith and chose Abimelech as their leader.

The ambitious Abimelech meets an ironic end when he attempts to use against the Tower of Thebez the same strategy that was successful in killing 1,000 people in the Tower of Shechem earlier. Instead, he is utterly humiliated in defeat when a single woman from on top the tower drops a millstone on him and mortally wounds him.

Jephthah

Judges 11-12 This leader only came to power over the people of Gilead after his half brothers had driven him off because he was the son of a prostitute. But in an ironic twist, Gilead is the first one they all turn to when trouble comes in the form of the Ammonites. But later on Jephthah himself is the victim of yet another bit of irony after he rashly promises to give God as a burnt offering the first thing/person who greets him after victory over an enemy. It turns out to be his own daughter.

Samson

Judges 13-16 Lastly, we come to this most famous (or infamous) judge of all. The story starts on a very high note of expectation as we are told (13:7) that he is to be a nazirite who strictly avoids strong drink and unclean food. Of course, subsequent events will prove that Samson is anything but that sort of person. The final irony in his story is pointed out by the narrator in Judges 16:30 – “So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.”

Epilogue

Judges 17-21 The ironies do not even cease with the stories of the judges themselves. For example, in chapter 19 an unnamed Levite and his concubine are traveling late in the day, but he refuses to spend the night at a Jebusite town because he only trusts his fellow Israelites. Ironically, when they at last reach a Benjamite city and are taken inside by a man who is not a native of that land, the residents there are an exact copy of the men of Sodom and want to rape the men. The concubine is thrown out to the mob instead and they abuse her all night until she dies the next morning.

The subsequent result of that outrageous act is an inter-tribal war in which the tribe of Benjamin is almost wiped out. But in a strange quirk of events, the victorious tribes suddenly get worried that their unity will be destroyed if the tribe of Benjamin is wiped out, and so they decide instead to betray their own people by allowing the remaining Benjamites to capture and rape a group of innocent girls and women from Shiloh during their religious celebration in order to replenish the Benjamite population.

Actually, the whole story of the time of the Judges is a sadly ironic contrast to the glorious victories under God during the time of Joshua.