The pattern that defined Israel for centuries started here: sin, oppression, repentance, deliverance. Then sin again. Josephus traces this brutal cycle through the first judges with the unflinching eye of a historian who has watched his own nation repeat every mistake.
It began with the tribe of Dan. The Canaanites pushed the Danites off the fertile plains and into the mountains, leaving them without enough land to survive. Five scouts traveled north to find new territory, reaching the foothills near Mount Lebanon, where they discovered rich, undefended land near the city of Sidon. The entire tribe relocated there and built a city they named Dan, after their ancestor (Judges 18:29).
Meanwhile, the rest of Israel sank. They abandoned God's laws, adopted Canaanite customs, and lost their military edge. Chushan, king of Assyria, conquered them easily. For eight years the Israelites endured crushing tribute and total subjugation. Then a man named Othniel, son of Kenaz, from the tribe of Judah, received a divine command to act. He gathered a small band of men—most were too afraid or too comfortable to join—and destroyed the Assyrian garrison. As more people rallied behind him, he drove the occupiers back across the Euphrates. Othniel judged Israel for forty years before he died.
The peace did not last. Eglon, king of Moab, saw Israel's spiritual decay and attacked. He crushed their army, forced them into submission, and built himself a royal palace at Jericho—right in the heart of Israelite territory. For eighteen years the Moabites drained them dry.
Deliverance came through an assassination. Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite of extraordinary strength, cultivated a friendship with Eglon through gifts and flattery until he became a trusted visitor. One summer afternoon, Ehud arrived with tribute and a dagger strapped to his right thigh—hidden where a right-handed guard would never think to check. He sent his servants away and told the king he had a message from God. Eglon leaped from his throne in excitement. Ehud drove the blade into the king's belly, left it buried there, locked the door behind him, and walked out. By the time Eglon's servants worked up the courage to check on their master, Ehud had already rallied the Israelites. They seized the fords of the Jordan, cut off the Moabite retreat, and killed over ten thousand soldiers. Not one escaped. Ehud governed Israel for eighty years—a remarkable tenure for a man whose rise began with a single, perfectly timed act of violence.