Judges 1–2

Chapter 1

Jerusalem Is Captured

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

²The Lord 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.

⁴Judah went up, and ^athe Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they ¹defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.

⁵They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they ¹defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

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

⁷Adoni-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.

⁹Afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the ¹Negev and in the lowland.

^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.

Capture of Other Cities

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 attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah for a wife.”

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

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

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

¹⁶The ¹descendants 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 utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called ^aHormah.

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

¹⁹Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not ¹drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had ^airon chariots.

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

^21aBut the sons of Benjamin did not drive out 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 the Lord was with them.

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

²⁴The spies 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 kindly.”

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.

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

Places Not Conquered

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

²⁸It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

^29aEphraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

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

³¹Asher did not drive out 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 drive them out.

³³Naphtali did not drive out 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 ¹forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley;

³⁵yet the Amorites persisted in ¹living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim; but when the ²power of the house of Joseph ³grew strong, they became forced labor.

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

Chapter 2

Israel Rebuked

¹Now ^athe angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to ^bBochim. And he said, “^cI brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘^dI will never break My covenant with you,

²and as for you, ^ayou shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ^byou shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not ¹obeyed Me; what is this you have done?

³“Therefore I also said, ‘^aI will not drive them out before you; but they will ¹become ^bas thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’ ”

⁴When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

⁵So they named that place ¹Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.

Joshua Dies

^6aWhen Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land.

⁷The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who ¹survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

⁸Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten.

⁹And they buried him in the territory of ^ahis inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who ^adid not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel Serves Baals

¹¹Then the sons of Israel did ^aevil in the sight of the Lord and ¹served the ^bBaals,

¹²and ^athey forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger.

¹³So they forsook the Lord and ^aserved Baal and the Ashtaroth.

^14aThe anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and ^bHe sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

¹⁵Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken and ^aas the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

^16aThen the Lord raised up judges ¹who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.

¹⁷Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way ^ain which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers.

¹⁸When the Lord raised up judges for them, ^athe Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was ^bmoved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them.

¹⁹But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.

^20aSo the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice,

^21aI also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,

²²in order to ^atest Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers ¹did, or not.”

²³So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.