It began with a key verse that provides boundaries for the period of the judges:
Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. (1KI 6:1)
(Click or tap the images below to expand them.)
While this period may be symbolic (one forty-year generation for each of the twelve tribes), I will treat it as a literal period of time, as do most chronologists.
Start at the End
Rather than start at the earlier end of the timeline, I began by focusing on the latter end. 1 Kings 6:1 tells us the 480 years ended in the fourth year of Solomon's reign; therefore, we can add his reign to the bottom of the chart.
Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. (1KI 6:1)
Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years he reigned in Hebron and thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem. And Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. (1KI 2:10-12)
From this passage, we know that Solomon's reign began at the end of David's 40-year reign (7.5 years in Hebron over Judah and 33 years over all Israel according to 2SA 5:4), so we can add those to the timeline next.
Here's where a critical passage of Scripture (highlighted on the TheBiblicalTimeline.org website) shaped the rest of my timeline in a way that departs from many others.
From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim, the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. (1SA 7:2)
Let's add that to the timeline.
The ark of the covenant was in Kiriath-jearim for twenty years until David had it brought to Jerusalem at the beginning of his reign there (2SA 6:2). It was only after the Philistines returned the ark (1SA 7:2) that the Israelites demanded a king (1SA 8:5) and Samuel anointed Saul as king (1SA 10:1). This constrains the time Saul could have been king to only twelve years. Here is the calculation:
20 years for the ark to be at Kiriath-jearim (1SA 7:2) - 7.5 years of David's reign over Judah in Hebron (2SA 2:11) = 12.5 years.
If we allow half a year for Samuel's sons' dishonesty and bribery (1SA 8:3) to drive the Israelites to clamor for a king, it leaves Saul with only twelve years for his reign. I first noted this approach in my article on the Age and Reign of King Saul.
The title of book six of Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews" is "Containing the Interval of Thirty-Two Years - From the Death of Eli to the Death of Saul" (emphasis mine). If Saul had taken up twelve of those thirty-two years, then Samuel's time as a judge before the reign of Saul would have taken up the remaining twenty. Samuel's remaining time as judge would have overlapped Saul's time as king for ten of Saul's twelve-year reign.
The ark resided at Kiriath-jearim for twenty years. That period followed a brief time when the ark was in Beth-shemesh (1SA 6:13-21) when the Philistines returned it to Israel. The Philistines had held the ark in Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron for seven months (1SA 6:1). This information gives us a time for when the Philistines captured the ark, which also marks the end of Eli's judgeship (1SA 4:17-18).
At the Beginning
If we move to the other end of the timeline, we find that Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years following the Exodus (NUM 32:13).
Following Moses' death outside the Land, Joshua rules Israel. Eliezer Shulman's "The Sequence of Events in the Old Testament" (page 107) quotes the Jewish history "Seder Olam Rabbah", which indicates Joshua was 42 at the time of the Exodus and led the people of Israel for 28 years. In Ant 5.117, Josephus claims Joshua ruled for 25 years after Moses. In Chron 31-34, Eusebius gives 27 years for Joshua's rule. For my timeline, I used Shulman's 28-year period.
The period following Joshua's death until the time of the judges lasted 18 years, according to Josephus (Ant 6.5.4):
And when Samuel had told them that he ought to confirm the kingdom to Saul by a second ordination of him, they all came together to the city of Gilgal, for thither did he command them to come. So the prophet anointed Saul with the holy oil in the sight of the multitude, and declared him to be king the second time. And so the government of the Hebrews was changed into a regal government; for in the days of Moses, and his disciple Joshua, who was their general, they continued under an aristocracy; but after the death of Joshua, for eighteen years in all, the multitude had no settled form of government, but were in an anarchy; after which they returned to their former government, they then permitting themselves to be judged by him who appeared to be the best warrior and most courageous, whence it was that they called this interval of their government the Judges.
Years available for the judges
Let's do some math starting with the total elapsed time from the Exodus to the beginning of the construction of the Temple in the fourth year of Solomon's reign;
Exodus to the Temple: 480 years
minus 4 years of Solomon's reign
minus 40 years of David's reign (7.5 in Hebron and 33 in Jerusalem)
minus 12 years of Saul's reign
equals 424 years after the Exodus when the era of the judges ended.
On the front end of our timeline, we can start with the Exodus and move forward:
The Exodus
plus 40 years in the wilderness
plus 28 years of Joshua's rule
plus 18 years between Joshua and the start of the judges
equals 86 years after the Exodus when the era of the judges began.
This calculation gives us 424 (end) - 86 (start) = 338 years available for the period of the judges.
There is one additional limiting factor for the period of the judges: Jephthah's statement to the king of Ammon:
While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time? (JDG 11:26)
Jephthah's statement adds another piece of the puzzle:
Adding all the years from the oppression by Cushan-rishathaim to the time when Jephthah made his statement, the book of Judges records 320 years:
Oppression by Cushan-rishathaim: 8 years +
Othniel judges: 40 years +
Oppression by Eglon: 18 years +
Ehud judges: 80 years of peace +
Shamgar judges: < 1 year +
Oppression by Jabin: 20 years +
Deborah judges: 40 years of peace +
Oppression by Midian: 7 years +
Gideon judges: 40 years of peace +
Abimelech rules: 3 years +
Tola judges: 23 years +
Jair judges: 22 years +
Oppression by Philistines and Ammonites: 18 years =
320 years
It is impossible to count these events as exclusively sequential (one period begins at the end of the preceding period) because the 320 years they record will not fit into the 254 years available from the year when the time of the judges began to Jephthah's statement. Even if we assume Jephthah's statement is an approximation (about 300 years, plus or minus), there is still not enough time available for an exclusively sequential approach.
How do we solve this challenge? We inject a dose of reality. While scholars like to fit historical events into nice, clean boxes, the reality of those events is rarely so clear-cut. The reality is that there are often simmering hostilities between combatants and an ebb and flow of individual battles and the times between them. In my timeline, that means some events must overlap, and—absent any explicit details about when they overlap—we are left with less accuracy than we might prefer.
Here's the timeline if we fit in the events up through Jephthah:
At this point, we find that the remaining events from Jephthah to Eli (if handled sequentially) require 86 years, which is more time than the 34 years available:
Ibzan judges: 7 years +
Elon judges: 11 years +
Abdon judges: 8 years +
Oppression by the Philistines: 40 years +
Samson judges: 20 years =
86 years
As a result, we must overlap those events to fit within the available time:
The need to overlap events to fit within the available time requires judgment, flexibility, and a degree of comfort with uncertainty. Here is an alternate view with more overlap among the earlier events of Judges:
Whichever way we overlap the events of the judges, there will be imprecision—sometimes decades' worth—in their placement. The only certainty we can have about this timeline now is the beginning and end.
I find that certainty comforting for two reasons. The first is that G-d decides the beginning and the end:
"Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you transgressors.
Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;" (ISA 46:8-10)
The second is that He is the first and the last. To know Him is to know the first and the last, the beginning and the end:
“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
‘I am the first and I am the last,
And there is no God besides Me. (ISA 44:6)
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (REV 22:12-13)
May we see His return soon and in our days. <><
