The Tribal Period is that interval of time between the giving of the Law during the days of Moses, until the setting up of the kingdom under Saul several hundred years later. Since dates have already been assigned to the end of the wilderness wandering and beginning of Saul’s reign, the Tribal Period is constrained to,

1406/05 BC (wilderness trek ends) - 1047/46 BC (start of Saul’s reign) = 359 years

A brief review of the book of Joshua will reveal that there are no dates or time periods that directly provide the length of time required for the conquest of the Land. Nonetheless, an indirect statement made by Caleb near the completion of those military campaigns gives us a clue. Caleb spoke to Joshua recalling the promise that Moses had made to both of them (Joshua 14.6-15). He had honored their willingness to occupy the Land immediately when they had first come to Kadesh Barnea over 40 years earlier, and promised that both of them would receive an inheritance in the Land. Caleb was now eager to receive his.

Since the date for the first Kadesh Barnea arrival should have been 1445/44 BC and 45 years of time had elapsed, he must have made the above request in 1400/99 BC. Therefore, Caleb’s request must have been made in the 7^th year after their entrance into the Land.

Unfortunately, the chronology for the period of the Judges is not so simple, as we shall now see. The most direct answer would seem to be given by simply adding up the time periods given in Judges. That result is given below in two columns. One gives the chronology of actions taken either by God or the Hebrews while the other the actions taken by various neighboring, hostile Gentile powers to oppress Israel.

At first glance, something surely looks amiss. 359 years is needed for the Tribal Period, but the above totals aren’t even close. Neither the Hebrew nor the Gentile totals work out, and the sum of both adds up to 410 years, far too long. It would seem that either the Bible is in error or else something has not been considered.

As this problem is pondered, it is realized that the entire Tribal Period does not end with the book of Judges. It continues on through (I Samuel 1-9), so it is necessary to review those chapters before a correct total can be ascribed to the years of the Judges.

(I Samuel) opens with the story of Samuel, one of the great leaders of ancient Israel. His mother, Hannah, was barren and prayed to the Lord in her anguish, vowing that if she were given a son, she would dedicate him to the service of God. Her prayer was answered with the birth of Samuel. He grew up during the days when Eli was the judge over Israel, however Eli’s sons were very corrupt and his refusal to discipline them eventually brought a warning from God that his inheritance would be cut off.

The Hebrews were later forced again into battle by Israel’s perennial nemesis, the Philistines. Israel found themselves on the verge of defeat, so decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant with them into the fray, more or less as a "good luck charm". It was a bad idea because the Philistines captured the Ark, destroyed the Tabernacle located at Shiloh at that time, and killed Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. When Eli heard the shocking news, he fell backwards off his chair, broke his neck, and died. He had judged Israel 40 years (I Samuel 4.18).

It was a terrible disaster for Israel because their Tabernacle was gone and the glory of the Lord had departed from them. However there was a bright side; neither were these the best of times for the Philistines. The captured Ark seemed to bring them bad luck. It started when they set the Ark in front of Dagon, their fish god, but the next morning the statue of Dagon had mysteriously fallen from its pedestal and broken into pieces. Then some kind of life-threatening disease spread among the Philistines ravaging their entire population. The plague brought them to return the Ark to Israel in hopes that its God might turn away from the evil that had come to them, so the Ark was returned to Israel after a period of only seven months (I Samuel 6.1).

The Ark of the Covenant was taken to Kirjath Jearim, a small town in the hill country, where it remained for the next 20 years (I Samuel 7.2). Samuel continued to judge Israel, providing leadership to bring the people to lament over their many transgressions and return to the Lord. Moreover, their Philistine oppressors were subdued and unable to encroach into Israel’s territory. They were forced to restore Israel’s cities captured earlier, and peace came to the entire Land.

When Samuel became old, he tried to make his sons Joel and Abijah judges over Israel, but they were just like Eli’s sons, a disgrace to the nation. The elders of Israel appealed to Samuel asking him to discontinue the rule of the judges, and anoint for them a king over the entire nation. The idea displeased Samuel, but he was given God’s sanction and so concurred with their request. A short time later Saul was anointed to be the first king, beginning the period of the United Kingdom.

This discussion of the final years of the Tribal Period has been provided so that it might be appended to the above history already recorded in the book of Judges.

*Note that the taking of the Ark of the Covenant is not included in the total because those seven months constituted a time of Gentile oppression against Israel and would be included in the years of the Gentiles.

Here is a surprising result; when only Hebrew chronology is counted, the result agrees with the remainder of the calendar as it has been compiled through the Old Testament!

Actually, this result uncovers an important principle of Bible chronology. Up till now, computations have been made as though the Bible were simply a history book, but that is fundamentally incorrect. It is rather God's Redemptive Plan. The history recorded in it is factual, but only incidental to its main underlying theme. As we continue, there will be other instances where it appears superficially that men and nations are dictating history, only to discover later that the sovereign God working behind the scenes actually controls what and when things happen. This is especially true where Israel is concerned.

In the example just highlighted, God counted inconsequential the efforts of the Gentile kings; their actions did not even alter His timetable for Israel. His Plan called for a prescribed period of time between the Exodus and the United Kingdom, so both the Hebrew and Gentile activities were neatly fitted into that predetermined span. Therefore if we are willing to regard the possible existence of such an underlying Plan, we can make the chronology of the Tribal period fit into the remainder of the calendar with the following two assumptions.

1. The activities described in the entire book of Joshua explaining the conquest and allocation of Land for each of the Tribes must have been included in the initial years given in the book of Judges.

2. All of the activities of the Gentiles and their times of oppression against Israel must have also been included in the periods indicated solely by the Hebrew chronology.

This second assumption might seem questionable since it would require times when the Gentile kings were ravaging Israel while simultaneously the "Land had rest". However, it can be discovered in the prophetic section of COMING GLORY that this expression had a very special meaning with respect to God’s Levitical Calendar quite independent of any physical turmoil that might have been going on in the Land.

Although it is now possible to construct a calendar for much of the Tribal Period, it must be admitted that some of the final chapters in the book of Judges are not chronological.

(Judges 17-19) describe an incident involving the Tribe of Dan.

The story recounts a foray by 600 Danites first into the region given to the Tribe of Ephraim, then up North to a Gentile city called Laish. In that transgression, they killed the people in Laish, burned the city, then rebuilt and occupied it as the city of "Dan". From its location in the book of Judges, we might think that this incident happened near the end of that period, but (Joshua 19.40-48) describes the attack as having occurred soon after Israel first entered the Land.

The final story in the book of Judges is another example of an event that occurred earlier than its location in the text would indicate. It concerns a major dispute that developed between the Tribe of Benjamin and the remaining Tribes (Judges 20-21). A civil war ensued and most of the men of Benjamin were killed, making it necessary for the remaining Tribes to make special provisions to preserve Benjamin’s inheritance. Its location in Judges would seem to place the event near the end of the Tribal Period but this cannot be so. At one point in the battle, the Tribes deliberated concerning the next step to take. They inquired of one who was High Priest at that time. (Judges 20.28) indicates he was Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron. Since (Joshua 24.29-33) informs us that Eleazar died at the same time as Joshua and that Joshua died at the age of 110, no more than 30 years after the Hebrews entered the Land, this civil war with Benjamin had to occur during the early years of the Tribal Period.

Using the above findings, the following calendar for the Tribal Period may be constructed.

REDEMPTIVE PLAN