This verb appears a number of times in Judges 1:1 – 2:5: here, Judges 1:4, Judges 1:22, Judges 2:1. “This is partly a simple matter of topography—a movement up into the central hill country…. But the 'going up' has more significance than this. The repetition of ‘ala [the Hebrew verb behind 'go up'] unifies the passage as a whole, helps to delineate its parts, and shows us that the end comes in Judges 2:1–5 rather than at the end of chapter 1. When the angel of Yahweh 'goes up' in Judges 2:1, a climax is reached. All that has gone before is reviewed and evaluated, and this evaluation produces the weeping of Judges 2:4. While there have been successes in Judges 1:1–36, overall it has been a chronicle of failure.”¹