Chronology of the Book of Judges

Kris Udd

The chronology of the book of Judges has been studied and debated by biblical scholars for many centuries. In my view, the most viable reconstruction so far is that proposed by Andrew Steinmann in his article The Mysterious Numbers of the Judges, named in honor of the groundbreaking book The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, by Edwin Thiele (1951), a book that finally resolved the issue of apparently conflicting data regarding the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Marking the end. The chronology of the book of Judges must fit between the Exodus from Egypt and the united Monarchy (Saul, David, Solomon). Thanks to the work of Thiele, the start of the reign of Solomon can be confidently assigned to 970 BC (give or take a year; some prefer 971). This was preceded by the 40-year reign of David (1 Kgs 2:11), whose reign thus began in 1010 BC. The length of the reign of Saul, the first king, is tricky, because the Hebrew text appears to have a lacuna. As it stands, it reads, “Saul was a year old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years over Israel” (1 Sam 13:1; cf. ESV, “Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned fro two years over Israel . . .”). In Acts 13:21, Paul states that Saul reigned for 40 years. This is in agreement with Josephus, who said that Saul “reigned eighteen years while Samuel was alive, and after his death twenty-two years, and he ended his own life” (Antiquities 6:378). Depending on whether or not inclusive reckoning was used in calculating the reigns of these three kings, the beginning of Saul’s reign would have been about 1050 (or 1048) BC.

Marking the start. Here we have a potential conflict between the numbers given in the Hebrew Bible and those given in the Greek translation (the Septuagint, or LXX). The Hebrew Bible states that Solomon began to build the temple in Jerusalem in his 4th year, which was “the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kgs 6:1); the LXX has 440 years rather than 480. Because the Hebrew Bible is so much more reliable than the LXX in preserving the reign lengths of the kings, it seems preferable to use the numbers from the Hebrew Bible here too. Solomon’s 4th full year would have been 966 BC, which would place the Exodus in 1446 BC. Counting roughly a year for the construction of the tabernacle, and 40 years wandering in the wilderness, the conquest would have begun in about 1405 BC. Joshua seems to indicate that the conquest had mostly wrapped up by about 1400 BC (Josh 14:10).

How much elapsed time? In the book of Judges, Jephthah reprimands the Ammonites for their claim that the Israelites have recently taken over Ammonite land, noting that the Israelites had been living in those cities already for 300 years. This gives an minimum length for the period of the judges. On another hand, if one adds up all the years assigned to the various judges and to the oppressors, the total is 410 years (Steinmann, p. 491). But if one calculates from the end of the conquest (say, 1400 BC) to the start of David’s reign (1010 BC) there are only 390 years, and to this must still be added the reign of Saul and the judgeships of Eli and Samuel, which are not included in the book of Judges. Steinmann’s solution to this is to suggest that the Ammonite and Philistine oppressions overlapped, that Samson overlapped some of the minor judges of the final period, and that Eli and Samuel overlapped the end of the judges period (just as Samuel clearly overlapped the beginning of the reign of Saul).

Chronological chart of the Judges Period, based largely on the dates suggested by Steinmann.

Is Judges laid out chronologically? The first 16 chapters (Joshua through Samson) are laid out in proper chronological sequence (leaving aside twice-mentioned death of Joshua, 1:1; 2:6), while the last 5 chapters are retrospective, and are out of sequence with the rest of the book.

Chapters 1-2 describe the initial settlement phase, c. 1400-1380 BC. Chapters 3-16 present a series of judges in chronological order, covering about 330 years (c. 1380-1050 BC). This is followed by chapters 17-18, which describe the Danite migration. No chronological connections are made between the Danite migration and any other part of the book. Based on archaeological evidence from Tel Dan, which reveals a destruction of the Canaanite city followed by an apparent Israelite habitation, this occurred around 1200 BC. It is probably no coincidence that this is approximately the same time that the Sea Peoples (including the Philistines) appeared on the coast of Canaan, which would have placed great pressure on Dan’s small coastal territory.

The last three chapters of the book, chapters 19-21, recount the Benjamite war. Based on the appearance of Phinehas the grandson of Aaron as the priest in this narrative (Judg 20:28), this war must have occurred in the early part of the Judges period, around 1360 BC.

Transition to kings. It is clear that the end of the period of the judges and the transition to the beginning of the monarchy was a busy and complex time. There are lingering questions regarding some aspects of this transition (e.g. the dates for the judgeship of Samson, or the length of the reign of Saul), but the chart below gives a reasonable version of this transition, and it is interesting to consider the overlap between the lives of some of these figures.

Chronological chart for the transition between the time of the judges and the early stages of the monarchy.

As noted above, it would be premature to claim that the dates presented here for the judges  are as firm as those for the monarchy that follow (and even those have been slightly amended from time to time). However, these numbers appear to provide a reasonable fit for the biblical data.

Unresolved issues. For those who appreciate precision and completeness, there are a number of events in Judges that remain elusive.

1) The death of Joshua. His age is twice given as 110 at the time of his death (Judg 2:8; Josh 24:29), but no link is ever provided that would tie him in directly to a broader timeline. He was a “young man” at the time of the Exodus (Ex 33:11). After the initial stages of the conquest had been completed in the north and the south, but before the division of the land between the tribes, he is called “old and advanced in years” (Josh 13:1), the same phrase that is used to describe him at the time of his farewell address (Josh 23:1-2). In fact, the first chapter in Judges seems to indicate that Joshua died before some of the tribes began to inhabit their individual allotments.

2) The event at Bochim. Judges 2:1-5 records a rebuke of the Israelites by God. Did this happen before or after the death of Joshua? Judges 2:6-10 records the death of Joshua, but so does Judges 1:1.  Additional intrigue comes from the statement that “the angel of Yahweh” went up from Gilgal to Bochim (Bochim is usually associated with Bethel). Gilgal was the initial encampment of the Israelites, with the tabernacle, but the tabernacle was moved to Shiloh while Joshua was still living (Josh 18:1). If the tabernacle was still at Gilgal, this would make sense as the place of origin of the angel of Yahweh; but if the tabernacle was already installed at Shiloh, why does the angel of Yahweh begin at Gilgal? But if Joshua was still the Israelite leader and Israel was still in a stage of faithfulness (cf. Josh 23:5-7), why is Joshua not mentioned and why is Israel accused of national disobedience?

3) The life of Samson. It is clear that Samson was active toward the end of the Judges period, and almost certainly during the time of the Philistine oppression (c. 1088-1049 BC). This would make him a contemporary of men like Eli and Samuel, and it is possible that even Saul was a youth while Samson still lived. However, there are no chronological anchors that would allow Samson to be placed any more precisely on the biblical timeline.