1. What are the particular sins of the nation (1:3 -2:3) that call for God’s Judgement?
   What can be learnt from this about the things God hates?
2. Judah and Israel are judged because they have failed to live up to God’s Law – a different standard of Judgement from that applied to the nations.
   In what ways does 2:4-16 show the social, economic, and religious guilt of God’s people?
   How do we fall short on the same issues?

Note

1. 1:3. Heavy machines for threshing grain had been used as instruments of torture on the people of Gilead.
2. 2:1. Desecration of the dead was considered specially wicked.
3. 2:8. Cf. Exod. 22:26. The judges demanded unjust fine s, accepting payment in clothing and wine, then made use of these at their sacrificial feasts.