Includes bibliographical references (p. 486-504) and indexes.

Preliminary material / Robert H. O’connell -- Introduction / Robert H. O’connell -- Chapter One: Rhetorical Concerns of Judges’ Tribal-Political and Deuteronomic Schemata / Robert H. O’connell -- Chapter Two: Rhetorical Concerns of Judges as a Literary form / Robert H. O’connell -- Chapter Three: The Rhetorical Stra Tegy of Judges / Robert H. O’connell -- Chapter Four: The Rhetorical Situation Implied by Judges / Robert H. O’connell -- Conclusion / Robert H. O’connell -- Excursus One: Compilation, Redaction and the Rhetoric of Judges / Robert H. O’connell -- Excursus Two: Scribal Developments and the Rhetoric of Judges / Robert H. O’connell -- Appendix: A Compilational Stratigraphy of the Text of Judges / Robert H. O’connell -- Bibliography / Robert H. O’connell -- Index of Biblical References / Robert H. O’connell -- Index of Authors / Robert H. O’connell.

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This volume describes how the rhetorical devices used in Judges inspire its readers to support a divinely appointed Judahite king who endorses the deuteronomic agenda to rid the land of foreigners, to maintain inter-tribal loyalty to YHWH's cult, and to uphold social justice. Matters of rhetorical concern interpreted here include the superimposed cycle-motif and tribal-political schemata, concerns reflected in the plot-layers of each hero story, the force of narrative analogy for characterization, the strategy of entrapment which foreshadows portrayals of Saul and David in 1 Samuel, and the relation between Judges' implied situation of composition and its compiler's intention. In addition to offering new insights into the rhetorical strategy of the Judges compiler, this book illustrates a new method for understanding how plot-layered stories work.

English and Hebrew.