Following the judgeship of Jephthah, we don’t have the usual statement that Israel fell into sin or that God turned the nation over to an enemy. Instead, we have three minor judges. They are minor in the sense that God gives us little detail about them or their terms of leadership.
The history of their ministries shows political stability, some degree of economic prosperity, but also a decline in the spiritual state of the nation. All three judged, but there is no mention of deliverance nor rest from God.
These three men are a quiet interlude before the most flawed and famous judge in the book.

I. Ibzan and Abdon (Judg 12:8-10 and 13-15). The first and third of these minor judges had much in common. Ibzan had 30 sons and 30 daughters; Abdon had 40 sons and 30 grandsons! These numbers are evidence of material prosperity, at least for the judges and their families. It’s expensive to feed, clothe, and care for the multiples wives necessary to give birth to so many children. This kind of multiplication was the way of royalty, showing that Israel’s longing to be like the heathen nations around them came long before the time of Samuel and Saul (1 Sam 8:5).
Ibzan was a busy man using his family for personal gain. He married out his 60 children. Children, especially women, became sex objects and a political commodity as in the Canaanite culture. This is especially evident in how women are described in Judges (Judg 14:2, 15-17, 20; 16:1-3, 4-21; 19; 20; 21). Ibzan married his daughters to other leaders, cementing his influence and stability. Men are less likely to fight one another when they have children and grandchildren in common.
Abdon’s sons and grandsons rode donkeys, symbols of wealth and influence.
It’s significant that the these men had more than 100 children and grandchildren, yet Jephthah had no sons, and he sacrificed his only daughter.

II. Elon (Judg 12:11-12). Like Ibzan and Abdon, Elon did nothing of note. There was no deliverance, no rest from the Lord. Each was born, judged, and then died.

III. Why Include These 3 Judges? God included these men to:

(1) Insist this book is historically true and accurate. These men ruled 25 consecutive years.

(2) Remind us many can be in charge, but few save or deliver.

(3) Make clear God didn’t give Israel rest. Life continued without God and His favor; busyness without divine blessing.

(4) Show God doesn’t give every detail of everything (Deut 29:29), but gives us sufficient information to reveal Himself, salvation, and all we need to live godly (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:3). God is the focus of Judges (and the Bible), not His servants.



(5) Train us to number our days (Ps 90:12). Death is man’s constant; yet we have a Judge death can’t touch again because He broke death’s power and removed it’s sting for His people (1 Cor 15:55; Heb 7:23-25).

(6) Stress that most of us will only ever be like these judges: born, lived, and died, yet God remembers us!

(7) Elevate the mystery of God’s will and works. Children are a gift from God, a display of grace; but why are some barren? Others unmarried? Some rich and others poor? Some live short lives and others a long time? (Gen 33:5; Josh 24:3; 1 Sam 1:6; 2:4-9; 1 Chron 29:10-15; Ps 127:3). Why was Peter delivered from prison (Acts 12:6-11) and the apostle James martyred (Acts 12:1-2)?
God’s ways are unsearchable (Job 38:1-42:6; esp 40:1-7; Is 40:28; Hab 1:1-5). Our place is to trust Him (Rom 8:28).