Judges 1
New King James Version
The Continuing Conquest of Canaan(A)
1 Now after the (B)death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel (C)asked the Lord, saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the (D)Canaanites to fight against them?”
2 And the Lord said, (E)“Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand.”
3 So Judah said to (F)Simeon his brother, “Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and (G)I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory.” And Simeon went with him. 4 Then Judah went up, and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at (H)Bezek. 5 And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6 Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7 And Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; (I)as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
8 Now (J)the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it; they struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. 9 (K)And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountains, in the [a]South, and in the lowland. 10 Then Judah [b]went against the Canaanites who dwelt in (L)Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly (M)Kirjath Arba.) And they killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.
11 (N)From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. (The name of Debir was formerly Kirjath Sepher.)
12 (O)Then Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.” 13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, (P)Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife. 14 (Q)Now it happened, when she came to him, that [c]she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?” 15 So she said to him, (R)“Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water.”
And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
16 (S)Now the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up (T)from the City of Palms with the children of Judah into the Wilderness of Judah, which lies in the South near (U)Arad; (V)and they went and dwelt among the people. 17 (W)And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called (X)Hormah. 18 Also Judah took (Y)Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. 19 So the Lord was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had (Z)chariots of iron. 20 (AA)And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said. Then he [d]expelled from there the (AB)three sons of Anak. 21 (AC)But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; so the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
22 And the [e]house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, (AD)and the Lord was with them. 23 So the [f]house of Joseph (AE)sent men to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city was formerly (AF)Luz.) 24 And when the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city, and (AG)we will show you mercy.” 25 So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go. 26 And the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.
Incomplete Conquest of the Land
27 (AH)However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its villages, or (AI)Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of (AJ)Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. 28 And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites [g]under tribute, but did not completely drive them out.
29 (AK)Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; so the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
30 Nor did (AL)Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites dwelt among them, and [h]were put under tribute.
31 (AM)Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob. 32 So the Asherites (AN)dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.
33 (AO)Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but they dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were put under tribute to them.
34 And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; 35 and the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres, (AP)in Aijalon, and in [i]Shaalbim; yet when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they [j]were put under tribute.
36 Now the boundary of the Amorites was (AQ)from the Ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela, and upward.
Footnotes
- Judges 1:9 Heb. Negev, and so throughout the book
- Judges 1:10 attacked
- Judges 1:14 LXX, Vg. he urged her
- Judges 1:20 drove out from there
- Judges 1:22 family
- Judges 1:23 family
- Judges 1:28 to forced labor
- Judges 1:30 became forced laborers
- Judges 1:35 Shaalabbin, Josh. 19:42
- Judges 1:35 became forced laborers
Judges 1
Contemporary English Version
The Tribes of Judah and Simeon Fight the Canaanites
1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Which of our tribes should attack the Canaanites first?”
2 “Judah!” the Lord answered. “I'll help them take the land.”
3 The people of Judah went to their relatives, the Simeon tribe, and said, “Canaanites live in the land God gave us. Help us fight them, and we will help you.”
Troops from Simeon came to help Judah. 4-5 Together they attacked an army of 10,000 Canaanites and Perizzites at Bezek, and the Lord helped Judah defeat them. During the battle, Judah's army found out where the king of Bezek[a] was, and they attacked there. 6 The king tried to escape, but soldiers from Judah caught him. They cut off his thumbs and big toes, 7 and he said, “I've cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 kings and made those kings crawl around under my table for scraps of food. Now God is paying me back.”
The army of Judah took the king of Bezek along with them to Jerusalem, where he died. 8 They attacked Jerusalem,[b] captured it, killed everyone who lived there, and then burned it to the ground.
9 Judah's army fought the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, the Southern Desert, and the foothills to the west. 10 After that, they attacked the Canaanites who lived at Hebron, defeating the three clans called[c] Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. At that time, Hebron was called Kiriath-Arba.
11 From Hebron, Judah's army went to attack Debir, which at that time was called Kiriath-Sepher. 12 Caleb[d] told his troops, “The man who captures Kiriath-Sepher can marry my daughter Achsah.”
13 Caleb's nephew Othniel captured Kiriath-Sepher, so Caleb let him marry Achsah. Othniel was the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz.[e] 14 Right after the wedding, Achsah started telling Othniel that he[f] ought to ask her father for a field. She went to see her father, and while she was getting down from[g] her donkey, Caleb asked, “What's bothering you?”
15 She answered, “I need your help. The land you gave me is in the Southern Desert, so please give me some spring-fed ponds for a water supply.”
Caleb gave her a couple of small ponds named Higher Pond and Lower Pond.[h]
16 The people who belonged to the Kenite clan were the descendants of the father-in-law of Moses. They left Jericho[i] with the people of Judah and settled near Arad in the Southern Desert of Judah not far from the Amalekites.[j]
17 Judah's army helped Simeon's army attack the Canaanites who lived at Zephath. They completely destroyed[k] the town and renamed it Hormah.[l]
18-19 The Lord helped the army of Judah capture Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and the land near those towns. They also took the hill country. But the people who lived in the valleys had iron chariots, so Judah was not able to make them leave or to take their land.
20 (A) The tribe of Judah gave the town of Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had told them to do. Caleb defeated the three Anakim[m] clans[n] and took over the town.
The Benjamin Tribe Does Not Capture Jerusalem
21 (B) The Jebusites were living in Jerusalem, and the Benjamin tribe did not defeat them or capture the town. That's why Jebusites still live in Jerusalem along with the people of Benjamin.
The Ephraim and Manasseh Tribes Capture Bethel
22-23 The Ephraim and Manasseh tribes[o] were getting ready to attack Bethel, which at that time was called Luz. And the Lord helped them when they sent spies to find out as much as they could about Bethel. 24 While the spies were watching the town, a man came out, and they told him, “If you show us how our army can get into the town,[p] we will make sure that you aren't harmed.” 25 The man showed them, and the two Israelite tribes attacked Bethel, killing everyone except the man and his family. The two tribes made the man and his family leave, 26 so they went to the land of the Hittites,[q] where he built a town. He named the town Luz, and that is still its name.
Israel Does Not Get Rid of All the Canaanites
27-28 (C) Canaanites lived in the towns of Beth-Shan, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo, and all the villages nearby. The Canaanites were determined to stay, and the Manasseh tribe never did get rid of them. But later on, when the Israelites grew more powerful, they made slaves of the Canaanites.
29 (D) The Ephraim tribe did not get rid of the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived there with Israelites all around them.
30 The Zebulun tribe did not get rid of the Canaanites who lived in Kitron and Nahalol, and the Canaanites stayed there with Israelites around them. But the people of Zebulun did force the Canaanites into slave labor.
31-32 The Asher tribe did not get rid of the Canaanites who lived in Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob, and the Asher tribe lived with Canaanites all around them.
33 The Naphtali tribe did not get rid of the Canaanites who lived in Beth-Shemesh and Beth-Anath, but they did force the Canaanites into slave labor. The Naphtali tribe lived with Canaanites around them.
34 The Amorites[r] were strong enough to keep the tribe of Dan from settling in the valleys, so Dan had to stay in the hill country.
35 The Amorites on Mount Heres and in Aijalon and Shaalbim were also determined to stay. Later on, as Ephraim and Manasseh grew more powerful, they forced those Amorites into slave labor.
The Amorite-Edomite Border
36 The old Amorite-Edomite border used to go from Sela through Scorpion Pass[s] into the hill country.[t]
Footnotes
- 1.4,5 king of Bezek: Or “Adoni-Bezek.”
- 1.8 Jerusalem: This probably refers to towns and villages belonging to Jerusalem but lying in Judah's territory south of the city wall. Jerusalem itself was just inside Benjamin's territory, but was not captured by Israel at this time (see verse 21; Joshua 15.5-9; 18.15-18).
- 1.10 clans called: Or “warriors.”
- 1.12 Caleb: One of the leaders of Judah; see Joshua 14.6-14 and Numbers 13.6,30; 14.6,10, 20-24. For verses 12-15, see Joshua 15.13-19.
- 1.13 Othniel was the son of … Kenaz: Or “Othniel and Caleb both belonged to the Kenaz clan, but Othniel was younger than Caleb.”
- 1.14 Achsah … Othniel … he: Hebrew; two ancient translations “Othniel … Achsah … she.”
- 1.14 getting down from: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 1.15 spring-fed ponds … small ponds … Higher Pond and Lower Pond: Or “wells … wells … Higher Well and Lower Well.”
- 1.16 Jericho: The Hebrew text has “Town of Palm Trees,” another name for Jericho.
- 1.16 not far … Amalekites: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 1.17 completely destroyed: The Hebrew word means that the town was given completely to the Lord, and since it could not be used for normal purposes anymore, it had to be destroyed.
- 1.17 Hormah: In Hebrew “Hormah” sounds like “completely destroyed.”
- 1.20 Anakim: Perhaps a group of very tall people that lived in Palestine before the Israelites (see Numbers 13.33 and Deuteronomy 2.10,11, 20,21).
- 1.20 clans: See the note at 1.10.
- 1.22,23 The Ephraim and Manasseh tribes: The Hebrew text has “The Joseph family,” which was divided into these two tribes named after Joseph's sons.
- 1.24 If you … town: Sometimes there were small doors in the town wall that could be opened from the inside even when the main town gates were shut and locked.
- 1.26 land of the Hittites: The Hittites had an empire centered in what is now Turkey. At one time their empire reached south into Syria, north of Israel.
- 1.34 Amorites: Used in the general sense of nations that lived in Canaan before the Israelites.
- 1.36 Scorpion Pass: Or “Akrabbim Pass.”
- 1.36 country: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 36.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.
