Abstract
The books of Joshua and Judges pose a serious challenge to modern theological sensibilities. Violence is plentiful in these books, much of it divinely sanctioned, and even when that is not the case we are left with the problem of divine silence in the face of horrific bloodshed. This commentary by Joanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos, professor of Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, engages this challenge with two goals in mind: first, to draw readers into a close reading of Joshua and Judges, and second, to reveal the multiplicity of voices that comprise the books. By attending to these voices and the tensions among them, W.-B. invites readers “to enter into the text with our questions and, in our very questioning, tentatively find a way forward, drawing closer to the presence of the Most Holy” (xiii). W.-B. meets these goals by situating Joshua and Judges in their various ancient contexts, attending to their literary features, and occasionally offering strategies for modern readers to make meaning of their content.
The commentary’s introduction offers a valuable overview of the ancient backgrounds of Joshua and Judges. Acknowledging the presence of older sources within the books, W.-B. emphasizes the post-exilic setting of their final composition and argues that their historiography serves as identity formation for a traumatized people. In this discussion W.-B. not only illuminates the aims of the books’ authors/editors but also draws compelling parallels to more recent examples of displaced peoples and national catastrophes, including her own experience growing up in the Netherlands after the Second World War. Other key topics covered in the introduction include land, peoplehood, gender, heroes, and remembrance.
The rest of the commentary divides Joshua and Judges into Acts and Scenes, with occasional excerpts of biblical text and with an epigraph (or two) from various scholars at the beginning of each section. The arrangement is user-friendly, the excerpts are well chosen, and the epigraphs mirror the multivocality that W.-B. highlights in Joshua and Judges. Indeed, her attention to the diversity of voices in the text is one of the strongest features of this commentary. With numerous examples, W.-B. shows that the tensions created by this diversity are integral to the biblical narrative. Just as the editors of Joshua and Judges let these tensions stand rather than harmonize them, we are invited to hold their various perspectives in tension as well.
Another strength of this commentary is W.-B.’s skill at teasing out subtleties of the biblical narrative. Not presuming readers’ knowledge of Hebrew, she explicates nuances of key words, draws connections to parallel language in related biblical texts, and even draws our attention to syntactic details and their effect on a story. W.-B. is also strong at highlighting depictions of women in Joshua and Judges and feminist interpretation of these characters. Major figures, such as Rahab and Deborah, get the attention they deserve, as so do lesser-known characters, like the daughters of Zelofhad (Josh 17:3–4) and Achsa (Judg 1:13–15).
The most significant weakness of this commentary is its dearth of theological discussion. W.-B. mentions YHWH’s action in the narrative and offers some reflections, but they are too few for a commentary whose goal is to get readers “to enter into the text with our questions.” Sometimes W.-B. sidesteps thorny theological problems with historical explanations. For example, she tries to soften the horror of ḥērem warfare (the devotion-through-destruction of captives and spoils of war as an offering to YHWH) by arguing that in its ancient setting “the practice exhibits a certain respect for the other party” and that “to leave no survivors … may not have been the worst fate to inflict” (46–47). Such an explanation does little to address the theological and ethical difficulty of ḥērem for readers today. A much richer reflection follows the story of Deborah; here W.-B. combines exegesis, personal memoir, theology, and feminist criticism to give readers a well-rounded view of the text.
This commentary will make you a more careful and perceptive reader of Joshua and Judges. It is highly recommended for anyone seeking a deeper and multifaceted engagement with these books.