Title: The rhetoric of the book of Judges
First published: 1996
Description: 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 I 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.
Subjects: Bible, Criticism, interpretation, Rhetoric in the Bible, Exegese, Rhétorique dans la Bible, Critique rhétorique, Bibel, Richteren (bijbelboek), Textanalyse, Rhetorik, Retorica, Critique, interprétation, Bible, commentaries, o. t. historical books, Rhetoric, ancient
LC classification: BS410.V452 vol. 63 BS1305.2