Judges 1–2

1^*Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel ^aasked the Lord, saying, ^bWho shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? ²And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. ³And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and ^cI likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him. ⁴And Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in ^dBezek ten thousand men. ⁵And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites. ⁶But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. ⁷And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having ^†their thumbs and their great toes cut off, ^||gathered their meat under my table: ^eas I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. ⁸Now ^fthe children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.

⁹And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the ^||valley. ¹⁰And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in ^gHebron: (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba:) and they slew ^hSheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. ¹¹And from thence he went against the inhabitants of ⁱDebir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher: ^12kAnd Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife. ¹³And Othniel the son of Kenaz, ^lCaleb’s younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife. ¹⁴And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou? ¹⁵And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

¹⁶And the children of the ^mKenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out ⁿof the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of ^oArad; ^pand they went and dwelt among the people. ^17qAnd Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited ^rZephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called ^sHormah. ¹⁸Also Judah took ^tGaza with the coast thereof, and ^uAskelon with the coast thereof, and ^wEkron with the coast thereof. ¹⁹And ^xthe Lord was with Judah; and ^||he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had ^ychariots of iron. ^20zAnd they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak. ^21aAnd the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but ^bthe Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.

²²And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Beth-el: and the Lord was with them. ²³And the house of Joseph ^csent to descry Beth-el. (Now the name of the city before was ^dLuz.) ²⁴And the spies saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said unto him, Shew us, we pray thee, the entrance into the city, and ^ewe will shew thee mercy. ²⁵And when he shewed them the entrance into the city, they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let go the man and all his family. ²⁶And the man went into ^fthe land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz: which is the name thereof unto this day.

^27gNeither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. ²⁸And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.

^29hNeither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; ⁱbut the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. ³⁰Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the ^jinhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries. ³¹Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of ^kZidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of ^kAchzib, nor of Helbah, nor of ^kAphik, nor of ^kRehob: ³²But the Asherites ^ldwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out. ³³Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of ^mBeth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of ^mBeth-anath; but he ^ldwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath ⁿbecame tributaries unto them. ³⁴And ^othe Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley: ³⁵But the Amorites would dwell in mount ^pHeres in ^qAijalon, and in ^qShaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph ^†prevailed, so that they became tributaries. ³⁶And the coast of the Amorites was from ^||the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.

2And an ^||angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal ^ato Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never ^bbreak my covenant with you. ²And ^cye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ^dye shall throw down their altars: ^ebut ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? ³Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be ^fas thorns in your sides, and ^gtheir gods shall be a ^hsnare unto you. ⁴And it came to pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. ⁵And they called the name of that place ^||Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the Lord.

⁶And when ⁱJoshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land. ⁷And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that ^†outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel. ^8*And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. ⁹And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in ^||Timnath-heres, ^jin the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

¹⁰And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which ^kknew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. ^11*And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: ¹²And they ^lforsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed ^mother gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and ⁿbowed themselves unto them, and ^oprovoked the Lord to anger. ¹³And they forsook the Lord, and ^pserved Baal and Ashtaroth. ¹⁴And ^qthe anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he ^rdelivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and ^she sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they ^tcould not any longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and ^uas the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed. ¹⁶Nevertheless ^xthe Lord raised up judges, which ^†delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. ¹⁷And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they ^ywent a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: ^zthey turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so. ¹⁸And when the Lord raised them up judges, then ^athe Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for ^bit repented the Lord because of their ^cgroanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. ¹⁹And it came to pass, ^dwhen the judge was dead, that they returned, and ^||corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; ^†they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. ²⁰And ^ethe anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath ^ftransgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; ^21gI also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: ²²That ^hthrough them I may ⁱprove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. ²³Therefore the Lord ^||left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.