Old Testament scholarship tends to focus either on the complex process by which the biblical materials came together, or on the final shape and structure of the work. The first method, mainly historical, typically fails to gain a coherent view of the finished work, while the latter fails to discern the human and historical depth in the text. In this ground-breaking volume, Lawson G. Stone takes on the book of Judges, offering a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which the book has been studied from these two perspectives: redaction-critical and literary critical. He then completely reformulates the method of redaction criticism, seen in the light of ancient Near Eastern literary practice, and undertakes a comprehensive re-thinking of the editorial history of the book of Judges that does full justice both to the text's historical development and the structural and thematic coherence of the book in its final form. The result is a re-visioning of the book of Judges as a rich literary analysis of Israel's epochal transformation from a tribal confederacy, led by warlords and chieftains, to a monarchic state. Since this social revolution in ancient Israel was controversial, the book of Judges reframed the institution of kingship within the context of the failure of the former order and the need for a fresh, faithful response.