The people of Israel entered a series of great failures because they forgot the True God and began to worship false “gods” of Canaan. God created the leaders and called them "judges."
| Author | Unknown author |
| For whom it was written | To the Israelites. |
| Chapter amount | 21 |
| Verse amount | 618 |
| Judge Deborah | Judge Deborah (Hebr. Bee). |
| Judge Gideon | Defeated the Midianites with 300 men. |
| Judge Samson | A very strong man who, among various other feats, struck a thousand Philistines with a donkey's jawbone. |
| Judge Samuel | The last of the judges and the founder of the monarchy in Israel. |
| 1, 2 | God had commanded the people to expel the wicked nations. The people prefer to coexist with these nations and the people of God begin to worship the Canaanite idols. God becomes angry. |
| 3 | The Israelites begin to worship idols, then God allows their enemies to defeat them. When they pray to God for help, God sends Othniel to deliver them. The people disobey again and are made slaves once more. When they pray again, God sends Ehud to deliver them. |
| 4, 5 | The people sin again and are punished by the army of Sisera. Soon after, Sisera and his army are destroyed under the command of Deborah and Barak. |
| 6 - 8 | The Israelite people are defeated by the Midianites. God chooses Gideon to take control of the army. Gideon asks for several proofs of God's faithfulness. God gives victory to Gideon. |
| 9 | Abimelech murders the sons of Gideon and rules over Israel. When he tries to conquer the city of Thebes, he is punished with death. |
| 10 - 12 | God continues to send leaders to help the people of Israel. Jephthah leads the Israelites victoriously in battle against the Ammonites. |
| 13 - 16 | These chapters tell us the story of Samson, a man blessed by God with super-natural strength. Samson uses his strength to defeat the Philistines several times, but he is deceived by Delilah and ends up losing his strength and becoming a slave to his enemies. God restores his strength and Samson dies destroying the building where he is imprisoned, taking his enemies with him. |
| 17, 18 | Micah worships an idol stolen by the men of the tribe of Dan. |
| 19 - 21 | The bad behavior of the tribe of Benjamin causes a dispute between them and the rest of the Israelites. |