Chapter summaries in Judges
Judges 1 - Further conquest by Judah, Simeon, Benjamin, Manasseh and Ephraim; failure to drive all Canaanites out of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan.
Judges 2 - God preserves some Canaanites as a thorn for Israel. After Joshua’s death Israel pursues Baals and Ashtaroth; God sends judges to defeat their enemies but Israel repeatedly forsakes him.
Judges 3 - Othniel saves Israel from slavery to Mesopotamia; Ehud saves Israel from Moab, killing Eglon; Shamgar saves Israel from the Philistines.
Judges 4 - Deborah and Barak save Israel from Jabin and Sisera; Jael kills Sisera.
Judges 5 - Deborah and Barak sing of God’s mighty deliverance; Israel has rest for 40 years.
Judges 6 - Midian oppresses Israel; God calls Gideon; Gideon tears down the altar of Baal and gathers an army; God shows Gideon the signs of the fleece.
Judges 7 - God gives Gideon and his 300 men (once 32,000) victory over Midian.
Judges 8 - Gideon completes his victory, disciplines cities that would not help, makes and worships an ephod. After his death idolatry returns.
Judges 9 - Abimelech the son of Gideon rules with treachery and evil, killing his brothers and many others. After three years God brings his death.
Judges 10 - Tola and Jair judge Israel; God gives Israel into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites.
Judges 11 - Jephthah challenges the Ammonites and defeats them, but makes a foolish vow and must offer his daughter to the Lord.
Judges 12 - Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon judge Israel.
Judges 13 - God gives Israel into the hands of the Philistines; the Lord appears to Manoah and his wife and tells of Samson’s birth; Samson is born.
Judges 14 - Samson pursues a Philistine woman; she betrays him and he kills thirty Philistine men.
Judges 15 - Samson kills a thousand Philistine men, and judges Israel.
Judges 16 - Delilah betrays Samson; Samson kills three thousand Philistines at his death.
Judges 17 - Micah creates an idol and ordains one of his sons and a Levite as priests.
Judges 18 - The tribe of Dan captures land for themselves and takes the idol and the Levite for themselves.
Judges 19 - A Levite and his concubine are assaulted by the men of Gibeah; she is killed and the Levite sends pieces of her body to the twelve tribes.
Judges 20 - Israel defeats the tribe of Benjamin, who refuse to give up the men of Gibeah.
Judges 21 - Israel provides wives for the survivors of the tribe of Benjamin. There was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.