JU10-2: Why It’s So Darn Difficult To Come Up With A Precise Definition Of A Biblical ‘Judge’

“After him arose Ya’ir, from Gil‘ad. He judged Isra’el twenty-two years.  He had thirty sons who rode on thirty young donkeys. They owned thirty cities which are called Havot-Ya’ir to this day; they are in the territory of Gil‘ad.  When Ya’ir died, he was buried in Kamon.”-Judges 10:3-5

Before I talk about Ya’ir, who was a minor judge from Gil’ad, there’s another important thing about Judges Chapter 10 I wanna bring to your attention.

Starting with Genesis Chapter 1, we’ve been going through the Bible chapter-by-chapter and book-by-book in consecutive order so far.

Now here’s the thing.

If we want to make sure we keep our studies in consecutive order, the truth is we should STOP our study of Judges right here and immediately pick up the book of Ruth.

That’s right folks.

The story of Ruth took place during this exact period in Judges,.

We’re not sure if her story began towards the end of Gideon’s life or after Gideon died.

But definitely during this time period.

And definitely BEFORE the strongman Samson arrived on the scene to raise hell for the Philistines.

So if we wanna keep things in order, we should really switch over to the Book of Ruth right now. 

But naw, we ain’t gonna do that.

In order to avoid confusion, we’re gonna stay our course and continue on with the Book of Judges.

But just know the adventures of Ruth were occurring exactly during this time in a different region of the Promised Land.

Okay, so with that interesting tidbit out of the way, let’s get back to our discussion of Ya’ir.

Again, the detail provided is ridiculously limited, but there’s still quite a bit we can glean from the bit of info provided.

We’re told Ya’ir judged his area for 22 years (one year less than Tola who came before him) and that he controlled over 30 cities, each one governed by one of his sons.

Now that’s a lot of boys to feed!

Which means he probably had at least as many daughters.

Which also means like Gideon before him, he had many wives.

So from this description alone, we know that Ya’ir was a man of very high social status and lived like a king.

Actually, we know for sure he lived like royalty because it says Ya’ir’s 30 sons rode on 30 asses.

Asses were considered to be special animals that only royalty rode on.

Therefore, like Gideon who came before him, even though Ya’ir was officially known as a Shophet (Judge) and not a king, his lifestyle and behavior all pointed to a man who had fallen for the trappings of royalty.

And speaking of Gideon, no doubt Ya’ir was greatly influenced by him.

If you recall, Gideon initially received an offer to become king.

He refused but his lifestyle afterwards betrayed his true intentions.

Gideon, who probably had a battered self-esteem because he came from one of the poorest families in Israel, just couldn’t help elevating himself and his lifestyle to obscene levels of prosperity following his stunning victory over the Midianites and Amalekites.

Again, it doesn’t matter one bit that Gideon humbled himself when he refused the offer to become king.

At the end of the day, actions speak louder than words folks.

In Gideon’s case, it was painfully obvious he had fallen for the temptations of riches and royalty without putting up much resistance.

And through such behavior became an ungodly model for Ya’ir to imitate.

Let’s move on to discuss something unique about Ya’ir.

He was the very first Judge to operate in the Trans-Jordan region (the eastern side of the Jordan River outside of the Promised Land).

Recall it was Gad, Reuben and one-half of Manasseh who decided to live in the Trans-jordan.

This is interesting because obviously the size of the Hebrew population on the east side of the Jordan was much smaller than the number of Israelites living in the west side (inside the land).

So for this simple reason of geography, the Trans-Jordanian Israelites would have been way more isolated from the pagan Ba’al temples sprawled throughout the land in Canaan.

Which means they would’ve been exposed to far less temptation to commit idolatry than their brethren living inside the land.

Yet, the fact that God still had to raise up Ya’ir to become a Judge is evidence that the Trans-Jordanian Israelites DID end up falling into idolatry anyway.

And keep in mind, Israel was NOT under oppression from any gentile enemies at this time.

The marauding Midianites passed through the Transjordan but they didn’t stop to take it over or trouble the Hebrews there.

Which means the idolatry Ya’ir had to deal with all took place within the “family” so to speak.

So you can see how each Judge was unique and operated under different conditions.

That’s why it’s so difficult to nail down a precise definition of what exactly a Judge was.

This is especially true of the wild and wacky Samson whose story I’m dying to get to.

But gotta be patient for the time being. 

Alright that does it for today.

See ya all next time.