Gender Roles in the Book of Judges

The book of Judges is very unique among the Old Testament books because of its portrayal of gender roles. During biblical times, women were not considered to be equals of men; in fact, a common question discussed by rabbis was whether women had souls or not. This belief of inequality can be seen at several points throughout the book, but surprisingly, in a few stories women are the main characters and are shown as dominating over men.

This unusual motif can be seen right from the beginning of the book, starting in Judges 1:14. This verse states that Achsah "dismounted from her donkey" when she came to meet her husband. In biblical times, donkeys were very expensive; in fact, they were the usual mounts of kings during peacetime. The fact that a woman was allowed to ride one shows that she was extremely well thought of. Judges 4 and 5 tell of the time when Deborah judged Israel. The amount of power that Deborah had can be seen immediately in the way that she "sent and summoned" Barak, the future general of Israel (Judges 4:6). Not only did she command him, but Barak himself said that he would go to war if she would, but he would not if she would not. Deborah was so well thought of that Barak believed that she needed to be nearby for the Israelite army to win. Because of his lack of faith, Deborah told him that a woman would receive the glory for conquering Sisera, thus setting the stage for Jael. When Sisera came to Jael's tent and fell asleep, she killed him with a tent peg to the temple. This transformed her into the one that pierces and him into the pierced. This switch of gender roles is emphasized in Deborah's song, in verse 26. Though the English translation of this verse says that Sisera sank "at her feet," the original Hebrew states that he fell "between her legs," increasing the sexual connotations.

Women are not always shown as equal to men in Judges, however. Later in Deborah's song, Sisera's mother was told that her son was so late because he was dividing up the spoil, some of which was "a girl or two for every man" (Judges 5:30). The fact that the women said this to comfort Sisera's mother speaks volumes about the way that women were thought of by both men and women in that time period. In chapter 11, Jephthah was required by oath to sacrifice his daughter after his war victory. She asked for and was granted two months to mourn that she was a virgin, as to die childless was the greatest disgrace that a woman of that time period could know. In Judges 19:25, a Levite protected himself from rape by offering his concubine in his place. He apparently did not think of her again until the next morning, when he discovered her dead or dying on the doorstep. For the second time in Judges, a woman is seen on a donkey, but the concubine's placement there is a sick parody of Achsah's position of honor in chapter 1. Once he returned home, the Levite cut up the concubine's body and sent the pieces off to the various tribes, along with a message meant to hint at his innocence in the matter. In response to this evil, many of the Benjaminites were killed; yet because the rest of Israel did not want to see Benjamin completely die out, they agreed to find wives for the remaining men. In the end, they decided that the men should kidnap the women that were dancing at Shiloh. In effect, the story of the raping of the concubine ended with more raping.

Many of the stories in Judges show how little worth women were believed to have. However, other stories show that women could and did prove that they were just as capable as men. Despite the fact that women were sometimes seen as little more than "things," men looked up to women who were called by the Lord or who conquered men. The book of Judges certainly cannot be used as a guide on how women and men should interact, but some of its stories were unique and forward thinking for their time.