Judges 17 · a question people ask
"In those days there was no king in Israel" (17:6). What is the refrain pointing to?
Judges says it four times near its end: "In those days there was no king in Israel" (17:6, 18:1, 21:25), and "In those days, when there was no king in Israel" (19:1). Twice it adds, "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (17:6, 21:25). Moses had said, "You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8). Judges doesn't say what a king would have changed. Christians read the refrain in two main ways, and the two don't rule each other out. Both agree it describes the days of these stories.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Looking toward a king the LORD would choose
Those who hold this view read the refrain as looking ahead to a king. Moses had said that when Israel asked for a king, "you shall surely set him whom the LORD your God chooses as king over yourselves" (Deuteronomy 17:15), and that the king "shall write himself a copy of this law in a book" (Deuteronomy 17:18) and "read from it all the days of his life" (Deuteronomy 17:19). They note that the book that follows, set "In the days when the judges judged" (Ruth 1:1) ends with David: "He is the father of Jesse, the father of David" (Ruth 4:17).
Deuteronomy 17:14-19 · Ruth 1:1 · Ruth 4:17
Pointing to the LORD, the King Israel had set aside
Those who hold this view read the refrain beside Gideon's answer earlier in the book: "I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The LORD shall rule over you" (8:23). When Israel later asks for a king, the LORD says to Samuel, "they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me as the king over them" (1 Samuel 8:7), and Samuel says the people asked for a king "when the LORD your God was your king" (1 Samuel 12:12). On this reading, the refrain describes a people living as though they had no king, when the LORD was their King.
Judges 8:23 · 1 Samuel 8:7 · 1 Samuel 12:12
The verses
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”
“In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.”
“In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.”
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”