{"id":56532,"date":"2019-06-01T23:48:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T20:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56532"},"modified":"2022-12-25T08:56:38","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T06:56:38","slug":"when-everyone-does-what-he-pleases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-everyone-does-what-he-pleases\/","title":{"rendered":"When Everyone Does What He Pleases"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[684,835,503,594],"acf":{"old_id":"56532","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":55720,"related_cahpter":"232","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And things seem to work out alright","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chapter, and book, ends with the verse, &#8220;there was no king in Israel; everyone did as he pleases.&#8221; Two questions present themselves here: is this statement in any way connected to the events described in the chapter \u2013 the war between the rest of the tribes and Benjamin? Also, is this necessarily a critique, a rebuke of a nation\u2019s lawlessness in the absence of a monarch?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A closer look at the chapter indicates that the final verse indeed relates to its overall theme. We find the connection in the disjointed presentation of verses in the chapter. These are comprised of simultaneous, and conflicting, voices within the nation: some take an oath against the Benjaminites; others are concerned with the tragic consequences of such a decision; others still are busy with identifying those that did not join the assembly. That is to say there is a lack of focus, the cause of which seems to be an absence of one authority. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we can also see the connection between the decentralized state of the nation and the occurrences of this chapter in the decisions to make two concessions to the tribe of Benjamin, namely, to send the women of Jabesh Gilead to the Benjaminites and the scheme whereby Benjamin would be allowed to take the women who celebrated at Shilo. In both these cases, these ideas would likely not have been permitted by a king, who would presumably take the women as captives of his kingdom, and would deem the concession to Benjamin to be a sign of weakness. Indeed, even the process through which those two decisions were made was decisively democratic. On both occasions, the motivation to make concessions came about by popular sentiment alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By way of contrast, a king\u2019s decision is made either by reference to God\u2019s revealed will, his national objectives, or possibly a personal motivation. In this way, the fact that the other tribes agreed to this scheme, which was not strictly speaking within the letter of the law or in agreement with national interests, was only by virtue of not having a king. Thus, if anything, the final verse puts a positive spin on the state of affairs: it was only because of the absence of the king that national sentiment overcame legal difficulty. <\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56531,"id":56531,"title":"jud21-benjamenites at shiloh","filename":"jud21-benjamenites-at-shiloh.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/jud21-benjamenites-at-shiloh.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-everyone-does-what-he-pleases\/jud21-benjamenites-at-shiloh\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud21-benjamenites-at-shiloh","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56532,"date":"2019-06-01 20:47:20","modified":"2019-06-01 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