Judges 1-3

New American Standard Bible 1995

Jerusalem Is Captured

1 Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel ^(A)inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us ^(B)against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” ² The Lord said, “^(C)Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” ³ Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into ^[a]the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and ^[b]I in turn will go with you into ^[c]the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him. ⁴ Judah went up, and ^(D)the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they ^[d]defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. ⁵ They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they ^[e]defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. ⁶ But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his ^[f]thumbs and big toes. ⁷ Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; ^(E)as I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.

⁸ Then the sons of Judah fought against ^(F)Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. ⁹ Afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the ^[g]Negev and in the lowland. ^10 (G)So 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

¹¹ Then ^(H)from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher). ¹² And Caleb said, “The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah for a wife.” ^13 (I)Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife. ¹⁴ Then ^(J)it came about when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Then she alighted from ^[h]her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What ^[i]do you want?” ¹⁵ She said to him, “Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the ^[j]Negev, give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶ The ^[k]descendants of ^(K)the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the ^(L)city of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of ^(M)Arad; and they went and lived with the people. ¹⁷ Then 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 ^(N)Hormah. ¹⁸ And Judah took ^(O)Gaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory. ¹⁹ Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not ^[l]drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had ^(P)iron chariots. ²⁰ Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, ^(Q)as Moses had ^[m]promised; and he drove out from there ^(R)the three sons of Anak. ^21 (S)But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the ^(T)Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²² Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. ²³ The house of Joseph spied out Bethel (^(U)now the name of the city was formerly Luz). ²⁴ The spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city and ^(V)we will treat you kindly.” ²⁵ So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, ^(W)but they let the man and all his family go free. ²⁶ The man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz ^[n]which is its name to this day.

Places Not Conquered

^27 (X)But 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 ^(Y)the Canaanites persisted in living in that land. ²⁸ It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

^29 (Z)Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

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

³¹ Asher 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. ³² So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

³³ Naphtali 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.

³⁴ Then the Amorites ^[p]forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley; ³⁵ yet the Amorites persisted in ^[q]living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim; but when the ^[r]power of the house of Joseph ^[s]grew strong, they became forced labor. ³⁶ The border of the Amorites ran from the ^(AA)ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

Israel Rebuked

2 Now ^(AB)the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to ^(AC)Bochim. And he said, “^(AD)I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘^(AE)I will never break My covenant with you, ² and as for you, ^(AF)you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ^(AG)you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not ^[t]obeyed Me; what is this you have done? ³ Therefore I also said, ‘^(AH)I will not drive them out before you; but they will ^[u]become ^(AI)as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’” ⁴ When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. ⁵ So they named that place ^[v]Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.

Joshua Dies

^6 (AJ)When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land. ⁷ The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who ^[w]survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. ⁸ Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. ⁹ And they buried him in the territory of ^(AK)his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who ^(AL)did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel Serves Baals

¹¹ Then the sons of Israel did ^(AM)evil in the sight of the Lord and ^[x]served the ^(AN)Baals, ¹² and ^(AO)they 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. ¹³ So they forsook the Lord and ^(AP)served Baal and the Ashtaroth. ^14 (AQ)The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and ^(AR)He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵ Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken and ^(AS)as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

^16 (AT)Then the Lord raised up judges ^[y]who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. ¹⁷ Yet 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 ^(AU)in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers. ¹⁸ When the Lord raised up judges for them, ^(AV)the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was ^(AW)moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. ¹⁹ But 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. ^20 (AX)So 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, ^21 (AY)I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, ²² in order to ^(AZ)test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers ^[z]did, or not.” ²³ So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

Idolatry Leads to Servitude

3 ^(BA)Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not ^[aa]experienced any of the wars of Canaan; ² only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might ^[ab]be taught war, ^[ac]those who had not ^[ad]experienced it formerly). ³ These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and ^(BB)the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as ^[ae]Lebo-hamath. ⁴ They were for ^[af](BC)testing Israel, to find out if they would ^[ag]obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers ^[ah]through Moses. ^5 (BD)The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; ⁶ and ^(BE)they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

⁷ The sons of Israel did ^(BF)what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and ^(BG)forgot the Lord their God and ^(BH)served the Baals and the ^[ai]Asheroth. ⁸ Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of ^[aj]Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

The First Judge Delivers Israel

⁹ When the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, ^(BI)Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ^10 (BJ)The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the Lord gave Cushan-rishathaim king of ^[ak]Mesopotamia into his hand, so that ^[al]he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. ¹¹ Then the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹² Now the sons of Israel again ^(BK)did evil in the sight of the Lord. So ^(BL)the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³ And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and ^[am]defeated Israel, and they possessed ^(BM)the city of the palm trees. ¹⁴ The sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

Ehud Delivers from Moab

¹⁵ But when the sons of Israel ^(BN)cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by ^[an]him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶ Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his cloak. ¹⁷ He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ It came about when he had finished presenting the tribute, that he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹ But he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he said, “Keep silence.” And all who attended him left him. ²⁰ Ehud came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. ²¹ Ehud stretched out his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly. ²² The handle also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the refuse came out. ²³ Then Ehud went out into the vestibule and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him, and locked them.

²⁴ When he had gone out, his servants came and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked; and they said, “^(BO)He is only ^[ao]relieving himself in the cool room.” ²⁵ They waited until they ^[ap]became anxious; but behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their master had fallen to the ^[aq]floor dead.

²⁶ Now Ehud escaped while they were delaying, and he passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ It came about when he had arrived, that ^(BP)he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was in front of them. ²⁸ He said to them, “Pursue them, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands.” So they went down after him and seized ^(BQ)the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross. ²⁹ They struck down at that time about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men; and no one escaped. ³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land was undisturbed for eighty years.

Shamgar Delivers from Philistines

³¹ After him came ^(BR)Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.