YHWH and Israel in the Book of Judges
An Object – Relations Analysis

Reveals Israel's intense relationship with YHWH: a masochistic dance on an epic scale.

Deryn Guest (Author)

9781108476508, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 December 2018

208 pages
22.3 x 14.4 x 1.6 cm, 0.38 kg

In the Book of Judges the narrator presents an image of the good parent YHWH whose enduring love and loyalty is offset by his wayward child Israel who defaults on the relationship repeatedly. Biblical scholars have largely concurred, demonstrating the many faults of Israel while siding with YHWH's privileged viewpoint. When object-relations theory (which examines how human beings relate to each other) is applied to Judges, a different story emerges. In its capacity to illuminate why and how relationships can be intense, problematic, rewarding, and enduring, object-relations theory reveals how both YHWH and Israel have attachment needs that are played out vividly in the story world. Deryn Guest reveals how its narrator engages in a variety of psychological strategies to mask suppressed rage as he engages in an intriguing but rather dysfunctional masochistic dance with a dominant deity who has reputation needs.

1. Problematic parenting: Donald Winnicott and the YHWH/Israel relationship
2. Judges' cyclical framework and trauma theory
3. YHWH and Israel in the 'Strange Situation': attachment theory and God-talk
4. Israel's masochistic defence mechanism
5. Conclusion: psychological theory and biblical hermeneutics.

Subject Areas: Jewish studies [JFSR1], Theology [HRLB], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], Old Testaments [HRCF1], Bibles [HRCF]