Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (Westminster Bible Companion | WeBC)
Overview
Who is God? How does God act in our lives? How are we to act as God's faithful people? Joshua, Judges, and Ruth represent a chorus of voices reflecting on Israel's earliest days in its land. In Joshua, God empowers an obedient Israel to conquer the Promised Land. In Judges, Israel's faithlessness and God's wrath lead to a downward spiral of sin, subjugation, and social disintegration. Ruth narrates a story of divine blessing worked out through human loyalty.
In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
Save more when you purchase this book as part of the Westminster Bible Companion Series.
- Explores Ruth as a story of divine blessing worked out through human loyalty
- Discusses the sin, subjugation, and social disintegration found in Judges
- Examines the obedience of Israel in the book of Joshua
- Setting the Stage
- The Outsider’s Faith
- Miracles and Memory: Crossing the Jordan
- Rites of Passage
- And the Walls Came Tumblin’ Down
- The Battle of Ai: A Cautionary Tale
- Joshua’s Altar
- The Gibeonite Ruse
- The Promise Fulfilled
- Possessing the Land
- For the Sake of Justice
- Priestly Presence
- Tension and Unity
- Joshua’s Farewell
- Covenant and Final Note
- Othniel, Ehud, and Eglon
- Deborah and Barak
- Gideon
- Abimelech: A(nother) Cautionary Tale
- The “Minor” Judges
- Jephthah
- Samson
- Thieves, Thugs, and Idol Worshipers
- The Body Severed
- Loss and Loyalty
- A Provisional Resolution
- Scandalous Valor
- Negotiations and Blessings
Top Highlights
“The verb is most frequently found in the context of marriage, such as the famous words from the garden scene in Genesis 2:24. ‘Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.’ Ruth clings to her mother-in-law as a man clings to his wife.” (Page 271)
“In any case, there do not appear to have been strictures on a man having sex with a woman, so long as he does not violate another man’s rights in the process. Moreover, his response to Ruth’s advances (v. 10) is hardly that of a man who has been entrapped. Ruth risks exploitation.” (Page 287)
“We tend to consider prostitution as a moral issue. Then as now, prostitution is far more a matter of economics. In a majority of cases, poverty and a lack of any other means of survival force women to sell their bodies.” (Page 24)
“In the ancient Near East, hospitality to strangers was a sacred obligation, but none of the Gibeonites offer it. Their lack of hospitality comes across as loutish (v. 15). Only an Ephraimite, himself an alien in Gibeah, opens his home to the Levite and his party. That the host is Ephraimite may explain his sympathy for the Levite, who is from Ephraim. His resident alien status also suggests the host’s vulnerability; he has no family network to protect himself or his guests from hostile neighbors.” (Page 242)
“Walter Harrelson brilliantly argues that contemporary Christians’ issue with the first commandment may be whether we acknowledge and worship God at all. Do we recognize God as a vivid reality who claims our wholehearted allegiance (Harrelson, 1980, 54–61)? Perhaps we do not limp between Yahweh and other deities so much as we limp between God and apathy or autonomy.” (Page 122)
- Title: Joshua, Judges, and Ruth
- Author: Carolyn Pressler
- Series: Westminster Bible Companion
- Publisher: Westminster John Knox
- Print Publication Date: 2002
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Pages: 312
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. O.T. Joshua › Commentaries; Bible. O.T. Judges › Commentaries; Bible. O.T. Ruth › Commentaries
- Resource ID: LLS:WBCS06JOS
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-08T01:14:02Z
