Sefer Shoftim (the Book of Judges), the second book of Neviim (the Prophets), continues with the story of Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) in the land of Kenaan (Canaan) between the death of Yehoshua (Joshua) and the first kings. Shoftim is named for the judges, who were the deliverers of Israel.
The tribes fail to drive out the Kenaani (Canaanites), a new generation rises that does not know Hashem, and the Navi lays out the cycle the whole book follows (2:11–19): Bnei Yisrael leave Hashem for the Baalim and the gods of the nations around them; Hashem gives them into the hand of an enemy; they cry out to Him; Hashem raises a shofet and delivers them; the land is quiet for a span of years; and when the shofet dies they fall back.
Otniel ben Kenaz defeats Kushan Rishatayim of Aram. Ehud, the left-handed Binyaminite, kills Eglon king of Moav (Moab). Devorah (Deborah), a neviah (prophetess), sends Barak against Sisra (Sisera), the general of Yavin (Jabin), Yael kills Sisra in her tent, and Devorah and Barak sing Shirat Devorah. Gidon (Gideon, also called Yerubaal) defeats Midyan (Midian) with three hundred men and refuses to rule: "Hashem will rule over you." His son Avimelech (Abimelech) kills his seventy brothers and makes himself king. Yiftach (Jephthah) defeats Ammon and is bound by his vow to his only daughter. Shimshon (Samson), a nazir from the womb, fights the Pelishtim (Philistines) alone, is betrayed by Delilah, and dies pulling down the house of Dagon on the Pelishtim. Shamgar, Tola, Yair, Ivtzan, Elon and Avdon get a few pesukim each.
The last five perakim, 17–21, have no shofet (judge) at all. Michah makes an idol and hires a Levi as his kohen (priest); the shevet (tribe) of Dan carries both off to its new city in the north; and Pilegesh BeGivah (the concubine at Givah) brings all of Yisrael to war against the tribe of Binyamin (Benjamin). Four times the Navi says, "In those days there was no king in Yisrael," and the book ends, "each man did what was right in his own eyes." Sefer Shoftim has twenty-one perakim; three of its passages are haftarot: 4:4–5:31 (Devorah) for Parshat Beshalach, 11:1–33 (Yiftach) for Parshat Chukat, and 13:2–25 (the birth of Shimshon) for Parshat Naso.