Judges 1

CHAPTER 1

The Fight Against the Canaanites

¹Now it happened after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel ^aasked of ¹Yahweh, saying, “Who shall go up first for us ^bagainst the Canaanites, to fight against them?”

²And Yahweh said, “^aJudah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.”

³Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into ¹the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and ²I in turn will go with you into ³the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him.

⁴So Judah went up, and ^aYahweh gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down 10,000 men at Bezek.

⁵Then they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they struck down the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

⁶But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and seized him and cut off his ¹thumbs and big toes.

⁷And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; ^aas I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸Then the sons of Judah fought against ^aJerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.

⁹And afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the ¹Negev and in the ²Shephelah.

^10aSo Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

¹¹Then ^afrom there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher).

¹²And Caleb said, “The one who strikes Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah as a wife.”

^13aThen Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as a wife.

¹⁴Now ^ait happened that when she came to him, she enticed him to ask her father for the field. Then she alighted from ¹her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What ²do you want?”

¹⁵And she said to him, “Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the ¹Negev, so you shall give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶Now the sons of ^athe Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the ^bcity of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of ^cArad; and they went and lived with the people.

¹⁷Then Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath and devoted it to destruction. So the name of the city was called ^aHormah.

¹⁸And Judah captured ^aGaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory.

¹⁹Now Yahweh was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not dispossess the inhabitants of the valley because they had ^airon chariots.

²⁰Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, ^aas Moses had ¹promised; and he dispossessed from there ^bthe three sons of Anak.

^21aBut the sons of Benjamin did not dispossess the ^bJebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²²Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and Yahweh was with them.

²³And the house of Joseph spied out Bethel (^anow the name of the city was formerly Luz).

²⁴Then the ¹spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city, and ^awe will treat you with lovingkindness.”

²⁵So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, ^abut they let the man and all his family go free.

²⁶So the man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz ¹which is its name to this day.

Israel Fails to Complete the Conquest

^27aBut Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean and its towns or Taanach and its towns or the inhabitants of Dor and its towns or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; so ^bthe Canaanites persisted to live in that land.

²⁸And it happened when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not dispossess them completely.

^29aAlso Ephraim did not dispossess the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

³⁰Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of ¹Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor.

³¹Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob.

³²So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not dispossess them.

³³Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

³⁴Then the Amorites pressed the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley;

³⁵and the Amorites persisted in ¹living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the hand of the house of Joseph became heavy, and they became forced labor.

³⁶Now the border of the Amorites ran from the ^aascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.