Judges 1-2 (Darby Translation)

Judges 1

 ¹And it came to pass after the death of Joshua that the children of Israel asked Jehovah, saying, Which of us shall go up against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?

 ²And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

 ³And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, and let us fight against the Canaanites, and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot; and Simeon went with him.

 ⁴And Judah went up; and Jehovah delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they smote them in Bezek, ten thousand men.

 ⁵And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him, and they smote the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

 ⁶And Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

 ⁷And Adoni-Bezek said, Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gleaned under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

 ⁸And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.

 ⁹And afterwards the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the hill-country, and in the south, and in the lowland.

 ¹⁰And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron -- the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba; and they slew Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

 ¹¹And from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir; now the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher.

 ¹²And Caleb said, He that smites Kirjath-sepher and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.

 ¹³And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.

 ¹⁴And it came to pass as she came, that she urged him to ask of her father the field; and she sprang down from the ass. And Caleb said to her, What wouldest thou?

 ¹⁵And she said to him, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a southern land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

 ¹⁶And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, had gone up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt with the people.

 ¹⁷And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it; and they called the name of the city Hormah.

 ¹⁸And Judah took Gazah and its border, and Ashkelon and its border, and Ekron and its border.

 ¹⁹And Jehovah was with Judah; and he took possession of the hill-country, for he did not dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

 ²⁰And they gave to Caleb Hebron, as Moses had said; and he dispossessed from thence the three sons of Anak.

 ²¹And the children of Benjamin did not dispossess the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

 ²²And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel; and Jehovah was with them.

 ²³And the house of Joseph sent to search out Bethel; now the name of the city before was Luz.

 ²⁴And the guards saw a man come forth out of the city, and said unto him, Shew us, we pray thee, how [we] may enter into the city, and we will shew thee kindness.

 ²⁵And he shewed them how to enter into the city. And 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 the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.

 ²⁷And Manasseh did not dispossess Beth-shean and its dependent villages, nor Taanach and its dependent villages, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its dependent villages, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its dependent villages, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its dependent villages; and the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

 ²⁸And it came to pass when Israel became strong, that they made the Canaanites tributary; but they did not utterly dispossess them.

 ²⁹And Ephraim did not dispossess the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt among them in Gezer.

 ³⁰Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries.

 ³¹Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor Ahlab, nor Achzib, nor Helbah, nor Aphik, nor Rehob;

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

 ³³Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-anath; and he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, but the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became tributaries to them.

 ³⁴And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill-country, for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley.

 ³⁵And the Amorites would dwell on mount Heres, in Ajalon and in Shaalbim; but the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, and they became tributaries.

 ³⁶And the border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upwards.

Judges 2

 ¹And the Angel of Jehovah came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you; and as for you,

 ²ye shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not hearkened unto my voice. Why have ye done this?

 ³Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [scourges] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.

 ⁴And it came to pass, when the Angel of Jehovah spoke these words to 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 to Jehovah.

 ⁶And Joshua dismissed the people, and the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.

 ⁷And the people served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders whose days were prolonged after Joshua, who had seen all the great works of Jehovah, which he had done for Israel.

 ⁸And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, a hundred and ten years old.

 ⁹And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-Heres, in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the mountain of Gaash.

 ¹⁰And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not Jehovah, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

 ¹¹And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baals.

 ¹²And they forsook Jehovah the God of their fathers, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked Jehovah to anger.

 ¹³And they forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

 ¹⁴And the anger of Jehovah was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about; and they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

 ¹⁵Whithersoever they went out the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as Jehovah had said, and as Jehovah had sworn unto them; and they were greatly distressed.

 ¹⁶And Jehovah raised up judges, and they saved them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

 ¹⁷But they did not even hearken to their judges, for they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves to them; they turned quickly out of the way that their fathers had walked in, obeying the commandments of Jehovah; they did not so.

 ¹⁸And when Jehovah raised them up judges, then Jehovah was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it repented Jehovah because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and crushed them.

 ¹⁹And it came to pass when the judge died, that they turned back and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them: they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.

 ²⁰And the anger of Jehovah was hot against Israel; and he said, Because this nation hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and hath not hearkened unto my voice,

 ²¹I also will not henceforth dispossess from before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died;

 ²²that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Jehovah to walk therein, as their fathers did keep [it], or not.

 ²³Therefore Jehovah left those nations, without dispossessing them hastily, neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.