OT 3 – Lesson 7
The Judges
Last week we talked about an Israelite man
named Gideon. (1-Gideon and army at Midianite
camp) Gideon was a good man who trusted God.
God helped Gideon win the battle against the
Midianites. Do you remember what Gideon gave his
soldiers before they went to the Midianite camp?
(torch, trumpet and pitcher) What did the
Midianites do when they heard all the shouting and
the trumpets blowing? (They were so scared, they
started fighting each other and then they ran
away.)
Gideon had many, many sons—70 in all. (2Gideon’s sons with Abimelech in center front) One
of the sons was named Abimelech. Abimelech was
not a good man like his father, Gideon. Abimelech
was very mean. He did not want his brothers to be
rulers over the Israelites. He wanted to be the
ruler all by himself so he did a very wicked thing.
He paid some bad men to kill all of his brothers!
The bad men took the money and went to where
the brothers were and killed them. They thought
they had killed all of them, but the youngest son,
Jotham, hid from the bad men and managed to
escape.
Then the people made Abimelech their king.
(3-Abimelech with crown) He was the 6th judge of
Israel. After a while though, the people began to
realize what a bad ruler Abimelech really was and
they tried to fight against him. They didn’t do
very well, and Abimelech killed many, many people.
Soon afterward, Abimelech attacked the town
of Thebez. (4-Abimelech in Thebez) The people
were very afraid so they ran and hid in a big tower.
Abimelech tried to burn the tower with the people
inside, but his plan did not work. (5-woman
throwing rock from roof) One of the women on
the roof of the tower threw a great stone down
and it hit Abimelech on the head. Abimelech was
hurt really bad and he died soon after.
After Abimelech died, the Israelites had two
more judges. (6-Tola & Jair) Their names were
Tola and Jair. Soon after these two judges, the
Israelites once again started doing something that
was very wrong. Do you know what they did? (7sad Israelites with idol) They stopped obeying God
and started worshipping idols again. So God let
some people called the Philistines and the
Ammonites come in and mistreat the Israelites.
Everytime the Israelites stopped worshipping God,
God would punish them. What do you think the
Israelites did next after God punished them?
They cried to God for help.
So God sent the Israelites a judge named
Jephthah. (8-Jephthah) Jephthah was a good man
and just like God helped Gideon win the battle
against the Midianites, God helped Jephthah win
the battle against the Ammonites.
After Jephthah, the Israelites had 3 more
judges. (9-Ibzan, Elon, & Abdon) Their names
were Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon.
Israel had 17 judges in all. We will learn more
about the other judges later. The 17 judges of
Israel were:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Othniel
Ehud
Shamgar
Deborah
Gideon
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Abimelech
Tola
Jair
Jephthah
Ibzan
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Elon
Abdon
Samson
Eli
Samuel
Joel
Abijah
I will sing of Israel’s judges, Israel’s judges, Israel’s judges.
I will sing of Israel’s judges, there were seventeen in all.
First Othniel, then Ehud, then Shamgar, then Deborah
then Gideon, and Abimelech, whom the people made king.
Then Tola, and Jair, and Jephthah, and Ibzan,
and Elon, and Abdon, and Samson the strong.
And Eli, and Samuel, and Joel, and Abijah—
I will sing of Israel’s judges, there were seventeen in all.