Includes bibliographical references (p. [xiii]-xxviii) and index.

Story, characters, and themes : epic implications -- Judges and history -- Redaction history : voices -- Texture : recurring language, orality, verbal art, and registers -- Format -- Text-critical decisions -- Translation -- Commentary -- 1:1-36 : Introduction by means of explicit ambivalence -- 2:1-23 : From "weeping" to the death of Joshua -- 3:1-31 : A covenantal introduction and the judges Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar -- 4:1-24 : Tales of Deborah and Jael, warrior women -- 5:1-31 : The song of Deborah -- 6:1-40 : The call of Gideon -- 7:1-25 : The battle with Midian -- 8:1-35 : Inner-group tensions, the rejection of kingship, and a hero's burial -- 9:1-57 : The rise and fall of Abimelech, the would-be king -- 10:1-18 : The judges Tola and Jair, and Israel's subsequent decline -- 11:1-40 : Jephthah, epic hero -- 12:1-15 : Internecine strife and brief annals of Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon -- 13:1-25 : The birth story of Samson, superhero -- 14:1-15:20 : Samson and marriage with the Philistines -- 16:1-31 : The female "other," Delilah, and death -- 17:1-18:31 : Micah's house shrine and the founding of Dan -- 19:1-30 : The rape and murder of the Levite's concubine -- 20:1-48 : Civil war -- 21:1-25 : The reconciliation of men through "the traffic in women" -- Appendix: A literal translation of Judges.