In contrast to Joshua, which spans only about 35 years, Judges covers a much longer period of Israel's history.
The book opens shortly after the death of Joshua (1:1). God did not give us sufficient information to enable us to fix the date of Joshua's death. Leon Wood figured that he died about 1390 B.C.3Eugene Merrill calculated his death at about 1366 B.C.4The latest event the writer of Judges recorded is probably the death of Samson (16:30-31). Wood believed Samson died about 1055 B.C.5Merrill wrote that he died near 1084 B.C.6Consequently the Book of Judges records about 300 years of Israel's history (cf. 11:26).7The period of rule by the judges, however, extended beyond the events the Book of Judges records to Saul's coronation in 1050 or 1051 B.C.8According to Wood's chronology this was five years beyond the end of Judges and according to Merrill's it was 33 years beyond.
The judgeships of some of the individual judges apparently overlapped. Some ruled in one area of Israel while one or more others ruled elsewhere in some cases.9
The Book of Judges does not record the ministries of all Israel's judges. Eli and Samuel were also judges whose work the writer of 1 Samuel recorded. Only the judges whom the divine Author selected for inclusion appear in this book.
