Responses to the Skeptic's Annotated Bible Cruelty Short List - Judges

Judges:

Judges 1:6 - "Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

Israel undoubtedly killed many during their mission to drive the wicked Canaanites from the land. Adonai-Bezek was one of them. The means by which they dealt with him, however, seems cruel and unusual, until the man himself speaks. Even the tortured man did not claim injustice in Israel’s treatment of him, but admits he did the very same thing to seventy others. God’s punishment is to do to this man as he did to others. God’s judgment without mercy is brought against those who show no mercy. Israel acted in obedience to God.

Judges 4:21 - "But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died.

This passage describes an act of war in which Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army, was killed. As horrifying as war is, it is sometimes necessary, and God used this act to protect his people. Undoubtedly, Sisera was out to kill as many Israelites as possible. God commanded Israel to drive these wicked people from the land. The Canaanites’ resistence to the will of God resulted in their deaths. God, who gives life, may also demand it.

Judges 5:24-26 - "Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be .... She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

This passage describes the same event as Judges 4:21. Please see the response to that passage.

Judges 14:19 - "Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.

Samson is an interesting character whose motives are debated among Christians. Whether his motives were completely self-centered, or whether he walked in obedience to the Lord, God used him to accomplish His purpose. God commanded Israel to drive all of the Canaanites out of Palestine, and to this point they had failed to do so. God can use even selfish men to do His work, however. It was God’s will to punish the Philistines for untold evil, and in this case, He brought about the death of thirty of them specifically. The human occasion for the slayings was merely the tool God used to bring about divine judgment.

Judges 15:4-5 - "Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves.

Unlike other passages about Samson’s feats, this passage does not indicate that God’s Spirit came on Samson. When reading biblical narrative, the reader must understand that the reporting of given events does not necessarily imply the condoning of such events. Indeed, Samson’s actions seem cruel to the foxes, which seem to be innocent. The Philistines were not. Whatever the case, God does not will that any of His creatures should suffer needlessly.

Judges 19:29 - "When he entered his house, he took a knife and laid hold of his concubine and cut her in twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

This verse is most certainly gory, though it is not cruel, since the woman was not living and could feel no pain. The cruelty had already been done to her by those who abusively raped and killed her previously. This woman’s husband cut up her body as a message to Israel. It likely took a lot to shock people in the violent culture of ancient Palestine. This message was effective, however, at rallying Israel against the men who violated this woman, and they received the punishment they deserved for their sin.

Recommended Resource: When Critics Ask by Norm Geisler.

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