ERROL CASTENS The Book of Judges – the seventh book of the Old Testament, in most Bibles – is a disturbing one. There’s a serious scarcity of green pastures, still waters and other peaceful imagery. It is, instead, a narrative of debauchery, depravity, betrayal and unbelief. Its setting is the Promised Land, after the death of Joshua, a man of faith who led Israel for several decades after Moses. Early on, the record declares that after Joshua and his fellow elders had died, “the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” The book notes that quickly after the last faithful leaders were gone, the people abandoned God and found new gods to serve in ways that tickled their fancies. What follows for 21 chapters is largely an account of gut-wrenching, heart-hurting horror. Samson, hero of many a Sunday school story, started his long decline into faithlessness by demanding that his parents secure for him an idolatrous wife. “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes,” he said.