The Book of Judges has typically been treated either as a historical account of the conquest of Israel and the rise of the monarch, or as an ancient Israelite work of literary fiction. In this alternative approach to a book which has become the focus of significant contemporary scholarly attention, Marc Zvi Brettler contends that Judges is essentially a political tract, which argues for the legitimacy of Davidic kingship. The book contains a variety of diverse stories, and Brettler analyzes a cross-section of these to support his case. Theoretical discussion of the genres employed is combined with an overview of the ways in which the book has conventionally been treated. The purposes behind several paradigmatic passages, such as the Ehud story, the Barak-Deborah story and poem and the long Samson cycle, are considered, and the functions of the Book's introduction, and its horrific ending, are given particular attention.