Our idea of a judge is someone who wears a black robe, sits behind a huge paneled desk, adjudicates disputes and bangs a gavel to control a courtroom. If we project the concept back into Old Testament times, we picture elders sitting on stone benches at the city gate, listening to and resolving conflicts. In the Old Testament account of the “judges” of Israel, however, only one judge—Deborah—in only one reference, judges in a legal sense: “She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons […]
