Judges 1:1-18

Common English Bible

The tribes and their military conflicts

1 After Joshua’s death, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Who should go up first to fight for us against the Canaanites?”

² The Lord said, “The tribe of Judah will go up. I’ve handed over the land to them.”

³ So the tribe of Judah said to the tribe of Simeon, their brothers, “Come up with us into our territory, and let’s fight against the Canaanites. Then we’ll go with you into your territory too.” So Simeon went with them.

⁴ When Judah went up, the Lord handed them the Canaanites and Perizzites. They defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. ⁵ There they found Adoni-bezek at Bezek, fought against him, and defeated the Canaanites and Perizzites. ⁶ Adoni-bezek fled, but they chased after him, captured him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. ⁷ He said, “Seventy kings with severed thumbs and big toes used to pick up scraps under my table, so God has paid me back exactly for what I did.” They brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. ⁸ The people of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it. They killed its people with their swords and set the city on fire.

⁹ Afterward, the people of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the highlands, the southern plain,^[a] and the western foothills.^{[b] 10} Judah moved against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron, known before as Kiriath-arba, and they defeated Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. ¹¹ From there they moved against those who lived in Debir, known before as Kiriath-sepher. ¹² Caleb said, “I’ll give my daughter Achsah as a wife to the one who defeats and captures Kiriath-sepher.” ¹³ Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah as a wife. ¹⁴ When she arrived, she convinced Othniel to ask her father for a certain piece of land. As she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What do you want?”

¹⁵ Achsah said to Caleb, “Give me a gift. Since you’ve given me land in the southern plain, give me springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

¹⁶ The descendants of Moses’ father-in-law the Kenite went up with the people of Judah from Palm City into the Judean desert, which was in the southern plain near Arad. They went and lived with the Amalekites.^{[c] 17} Then the Judahites went with the Simeonites, their brothers, and they defeated the Canaanites who lived in Zephath, and they completely destroyed it. So the city was called Hormah.^{[d] 18} Judah also captured Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and all their territories.