In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes: All or part of this verse has occurred in earlier texts. See verse 17.6; verse 18.1a; verse 19.1a. The book of Judges ends on this very sad note. It is clear that these statements were placed at the end of the book on purpose to underline the fact that at the end of this particular time period, Israel was in a state of total chaos. There were no more heroes. Worse, a supposed religious leader, a Levite, led the whole country into a civil war.

The final part of Judges known as “the appendices” (chapters 17–21) describes the final degradation of the social structures in Israel. Idolatry reigns, civil war erupts, and Israelite women are raped, murdered, and carried off as spoils of war. These incidents are almost without parallel in the Old Testament and are recounted, with the exception of this verse, almost without comment or condemnation.

Many scholars believe that the author of this book had an agenda, that is, these accounts were written to show in hindsight that Israel was in great need of a king and more unified form of government. The system of kingship set in place following this period eventually did centralize and regularize worship, establish an ultimate authority for judgment, and retain some appearance of law and order in the land. Thus in our biblical canon the books of Samuel and Kings (once unified as one text) flow naturally from the book of Judges, which supplies the background and the reasons for the historical developments described there.

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .