whether Abimelech was a judge or not<\/a>: I remember a passage concerning the people wanting a king because of the evil of Samuel’s sons, whom he appointed to be judges over the people in I Samuel 8:1-5. I’m not sure if this would help your answer, but I remembered them being called judges, but they were never appointed by God.<\/p>\n\tAnswer:<\/h2>\n
In Israel’s government, from the days of Moses, there were men who were appointed legal judges (Exodus 18:13-26). “So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves<\/em>” (Exodus 18:26). It is assumed that Samuel did this because of his age (I Samuel 8:1). Samuel tended to do a circuit in the center of Israel, just north of Jerusalem. “And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. But he always returned to Ramah, for his home was there. There he judged Israel, and there he built an altar to the LORD<\/em>” (I Samuel 7:15-17). He had his sons judging in southern Israel at the city of Beersheba, but he continued as the last God-appointed judge of Israel for his entire life. Thus, Samuel’s sons would not be counted as judges in the mean of “judge” found in the book of Judges.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: Concerning your post recently about\u00a0whether Abimelech was a judge or not: I remember a passage concerning the people wanting a king because of the evil of Samuel’s sons, whom he appointed to be judges over the people in I Samuel 8:1-5. I’m not sure if this would help your answer, but I remembered them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[279,1391,627],"class_list":["post-46942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-history","tag-judges","tag-samuel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24289,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-in-the-bible-does-it-tell-about-two-judges-ruling-at-the-same-time-one-evil-and-the-other-one-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":46942,"position":0},"title":"Where in the Bible does it tell about two judges ruling at the same time, one evil and the other one good?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where in the Bible does it tell about two judges ruling at the same time, one evil and the other one good? Answer: Sounds like a trivia question. I suppose some might count Eli as an evil judge (I Samuel 14:8); however, his sin was not in his judgment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12137,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-only-priests-allowed-to-offer-sacrifices\/","url_meta":{"origin":46942,"position":1},"title":"Were only priests allowed to offer sacrifices?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were priests from the tribe of Levi the only ones who could lawfully offer sacrifices?\u00a0 If so, why did the Judges do them?\u00a0 Noticed that none of the Judges were from the tribe of Levi (using the information I have anyway).\u00a0 I am wondering about this in conjunction with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94057,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-isnt-samuel-mentioned-being-the-son-of-elkanah-in-i-chronicles-628\/","url_meta":{"origin":46942,"position":2},"title":"Why isn’t Samuel mentioned as being the son of Elkanah in I Chronicles 6:28?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why is it that in I Chronicles 6:27-28, the \"son of\" pattern suddenly stops at Samuel? (\"Son of _____, Son of ______, Son of ______, and his son Elkanah.\u00a0 Samuel's sons...\") Answer: I should mention that there is a minor textual problem in I Chronicles 6:27: the name of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56505,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-shows-no-partiality\/","url_meta":{"origin":46942,"position":3},"title":"God Shows No Partiality","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Matthew Dockens Racial discrimination is senseless and ungodly. God's plan for salvation has always been open to all. Centuries before Christ came to fulfill the divine promise, Isaiah prophesied of the church that \"all nations shall flow into it\" (Isaiah 2:2). Indeed, the very day it was established,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Races.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3152,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-samuel-offer-a-burnt-offering-when-he-was-not-a-levite\/","url_meta":{"origin":46942,"position":4},"title":"How could Samuel offer a burnt offering when he was not a Levite?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How could Samuel offer a burnt offering when he was not a Levite? Answer: Samuel was a descendant of Levi, his lineage being traced in\u00a0I Chronicles 6:33-38. Samuel was born in the territory of Ephriam, where his family had lived for several generations. \"Now there was a certain man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51930,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-kenites-descendants-of-cain\/","url_meta":{"origin":46942,"position":5},"title":"Were the Kenites descendants of Cain?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who were and who are the Kenites (Hebrew word meaning children of Cain, the first murderer)? Answer: Names are not often unique to a single individual. There can be more than one Cain in world history. Thus, at best you can say that the Kenites trace their origins to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}