simply include sources within a framework commentary rather than use them as a basis for writing a new history. However, both then and now it is an interpretative function in which the authors are engaged. This constitutes a basic and important starting point for our discussion of the book of Judges. The history of Israel in the period of the judges which is related there is an account with a clearly didactic purpose, or, rather, given the complexity of the book, a number of clearly didactic purposes.