Judges 1:1-7 - Should Judah Have Invited Simeon?

One of the difficult questions in Judges 1 is whether it was right for Judah to invite Simeon to lead the fight against the Canaanites given that God had said that Judah was supposed to lead. Often when there are multiple interpretive options if there is an allusion to another text, that can provide the correct perspective.

Here, the author alludes to Deuteronomy 32:30 in Judges 1:4. "Ten Thousand" is a rare number up to this point in the Bible and Judges 1:4 tells us that Judah and Simeon kill 10,000 men. Deuteronomy 32 is the Song of Moses and in 32:30 Moses sings, "How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up?"

In Judges 1, you have two, Judah and Simeon, putting to flight ten thousand. Given the positive allusive context (Deut 32) we can be more confident in the righteousness of the decision to include Simeon.

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