The last five chapters of the book of Judges (chs. 17-21) contain some shocking and bizarre stories, and precisely how these stories relate to the rest of the book is a major question in scholarship on the book. Leveraging work from literary studies and hermeneutics, Beldman reexamines Judges 17-21 with the aim of discerning the "strategies of ending" that are at work in these chapters. The author identifies and describes a number of strategies of ending in Judges 17-21, including the strategy of completion, the strategy of circularity, and the strategy of entrapment. The temporal configuration of Judges and especially the nonlinear chronology that chapters 17-21 expose also receive due attention. All of this offers fresh insights into the place and function of Judges 17-21 in the context of the whole book.
| ISBN: | 9781575064963 |
| Publication date: | 8th May 2017 |
| Author: | David J H Beldman |
| Publisher: | Eisenbrauns an imprint of Pennsylvania State University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 176 pages |
| Series: | Siphrut |
| Genres: |
Criticism and exegesis of sacred texts |