The Period of the Judges

The Book of Judges is a history of Israel after the death of Joshua and before Samuel. Israel was a loose confederation of Twelve Tribes settled in a land only partially conquered from the Canaanites. "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." (Judges 17:6) The cycle of the times -- apostasy, oppression, deliverance by a Judge -- was enacted many times over this period.

Dates	Delivering Judge	Oppressing Nation
1406 BC	Joshua
1315 BC	Ehud	Moab
1215 BC	Deborah and Barak	Canaanites
1169 BC	Gideon	Midianites, Amalakites
1105 BC	Samson	Philistines
1105 BC	Ark captured, Samuel is judge	Philistines
1065 BC	Saul becomes king	Philistines

Samuel anoints Saul First King of Israel 1065 B.C.

Samuel, from the Hebrew Shemuel, meaning Name of God or His Name is El, was a Levitical priest who is generally regarded as the last of the judges (1 Samuel 7:6,15-17), and the first of the prophets .... Samuel was the son of Elkanah and Hannah At a very young age his parents took him to Shiloh and consecrated him to The Lord, serving under Eli the priest.

Samuel was eventually chosen by God to succeed Eli because Eli's sons had become corrupt beyond hope. The succession became final after the Israelites temporarily lost The Ark Of The Covenant, which had been carried from The Tabernacle in Shiloh into battle against the Philistines . Eli's sons were killed in the battle, and Eli himself died when he was told the news.

After becoming their leader, Samuel turned the Israelites away from their gross Idolatry, and led them to an overwhelming victory over the Philistines, who had been severely troubling Israel for over 40 years .... The victory over the Philistines was followed by a long period of peace for Israel, during which Samuel served as a "circuit judge," going each year from his home in Ramah, about 20 miles north of Jerusalem, around the neighboring towns of Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and then back to Ramah .

Samuel established regular worship of The Lord at Shiloh, 20 miles north of Jebus (Jerusalem) where he built an altar, and he established a school of the prophets at Ramah, and later also at Gibeah, Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho .....

Samuel's Mountain at Ramah