" The Book of Judges" has typically been treated either as a historical account of the conquest of Israel and the rise of the monarch, or as an ancient Israelite work of literary fiction. In this new approach, Brettler contends that Judges is essentially a political tract, which argues for the legitimacy of Davidic kingship. He skillfully and accessibly shows the tension between the stories in their original forms, and how they were altered and reused to create a book with a very different meaning. This is important new work for those who are interested in the Old Testament.

Marc Zvi Brettler is Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University. His previous publications include The Creation of History in Ancient Israel, also published by Routledge.

Preface 1. Judges and the Historian 2. Reading Judges as Literature? 3. The Short Story 4. The Samson Cycle 5. Poetry and Prose in Judges 4-5 6. Winding Down: The Concubine of Gibeah 7. A Conclusion that became an Introduction 8. Conclusion: The Center Does Cohere Bibliography