Head and Body in Judges
One way to view the book of Judges is as a series of relationships between the head and the body:
Othniel: The head wins the victory. The body is not mentioned.
Ehud: The head (Ehud) crushes the enemy’s head (Eglon). Then the head summons the body (Israel, and specifically Ephraim) and the body follows the head to conquer the enemy’s body.
Deborah & Barak: The head (Barak) is somewhat weak and loses glory but, when the head leads, the body willingly follows to win the victory. The glory goes to a woman (instead of to the woman’s seed), because she crushes the serpent’s head.
Gideon: The head (Gideon) is quite weak and the body still in rebellion at the outset of the story. But when the head grows in faith, the body is converted and follows the head, except at the end of the story, the body (Ephraim) responds negatively to the head until the head successfully resolves the tension. But then the head leads the body into sin.
Abimelech: A bramble becomes the head because that’s what the body wants. This head is crushed, again by a woman.
Jephthah: The body is in sin and there is no head. In fact, they’ve cast out the one who was qualified to be head. But then they decide to make him head and he wins the victory. But again, as with Gideon, there is tension with the body (Ephraim again) — so much so that Jephthah the head has to fight against part of the body and conquer them.
Samson: The body doesn’t want the head and even hands the head over to the enemy. But the head fights solo anyway. Toward the end of the story, the head replicates the body’s sin and ends up bearing (solo) the punishment the body deserves. At the very end, the head (solo) defeats the enemy.