After the children of Israel possessed the land as their inheritance, they did not obey God’s word to utterly drive out and destroy all the seven tribes inhabiting Canaan (Judg. 1:27-36). As a result, the children of Israel dwelled among them, took their daughters to be their wives, gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods, thus doing evil in the sight of the Lord. The children of Israel forsook the Lord God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed the gods of the people that were around them. They bowed themselves down to them, and provoked Jehovah to anger. So God delivered them into the hands of spoilers, and He sold them into the hands of their enemies so that they could no longer stand. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil (2:11-15).
Even though God raised up judges to deliver them out of the hands of those who spoiled them, they would not hearken, but they defiled themselves with other gods and bowed down to them; they turned quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked. They corrupted themselves more than their fathers and did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way (2:16-19).
The age of the judges may be considered the darkest period in the history of Israel. At that time, among the children of Israel there were rebellions against God, idolatry (Judg. 17—18), infighting (Judg. 9), hostility and controversy among the tribes (Judg. 20—21), fornication (Judg. 19), filthiness, brutal killings, and all manner of evil doing. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes (Judg. 17:6; 21:25). It was also a period of tragedy. The unbelief of the children of Israel caused them to wander for forty years so that even their carcasses fell in the wilderness (Heb. 3:7, 19). But their forsaking God and their idolatry after they entered the land issued in a situation of defeat and tragedy that lasted not merely forty years, but ten times forty years.
The children of Israel forsook God repeatedly, followed the nations’ customs, and bowed themselves down to other gods, but as soon as they repented, God listened to their cries, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies through the judges. In God’s grace and faithfulness the children of Israel needed only to repent from their hearts and to cry to God; then God would listen to their prayers and deliver them. As many as seven times, they rebelled, were enslaved, repented, and were delivered.
Some of the judges raised up by God were born of poor and humble families, such as Gideon, who was poor in Manasseh and the least in his father’s house (Judg. 6:15). Some were women, such as Deborah (Judg. 4:4). Some were like Jephthah, the son of a harlot (Judg. 11:1). Some were like Samson, who was a voluntarily consecrated Nazarite (Judg. 13:3-5). However, because Jehovah’s Spirit had come upon them (Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14), they could prevail against their strong enemies and could be deliverers to the children of Israel. As it is said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6).
God raised up judges for the sake of the children of Israel, and God was with the judges. God delivered them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judges were present. This continued until Samuel was raised up by God. Then the age of the judges was ended.
Eli was both a priest and a judge (1 Sam. 4:18; 1:9). When God’s ark was in Shiloh, he ministered to God in the priestly office. He blessed Hannah, Samuel’s mother, that she might have a son (1 Sam. 1:17). He also taught the child Samuel how to minister to the Lord (1 Sam. 2:11).
Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and both were wicked. They both were priests but they did not know the Lord. Their custom with the people was that, when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand, and he thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. Because they abhorred the offerings of the Lord, their sin was very great before Him (1 Sam. 2:12-17), to such an extent that He would slay them (1 Sam. 2:25).
But Eli allowed his two sons to make themselves fat with the best of all the offerings of God’s people, for he honored his sons more than God (1 Sam. 2:29). He knew that his sons defiled themselves, but he did not restrain them (1 Sam. 3:13). Therefore God swore to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house would never be cleansed with sacrifice or offerings (1 Sam. 3:14).
When the children of Israel went out to fight against the Philistines, God allowed His ark to be taken, and the two sons of Eli were slain (1 Sam. 4:11). When Eli heard that the ark of the Lord was taken, he fell from the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck broke and he died (1 Sam. 4:18). From the time God established Samuel as a prophet (1 Sam. 3:20) until the death of Eli, the priests no longer held the important position but were replaced by the prophets.