Israel’s Failure to Complete the Conquest of Canaan

1 ^[a]After the death of Joshua the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” ² The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” ³ And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory alloted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. ⁴ Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Per′izzites into their hand; and they defeated ten thousand of them at Bezek. ⁵ They came upon Ado′ni-be′zek at Bezek, and fought against him, and defeated the Canaanites and the Per′izzites. ⁶ Ado′ni-be′zek fled; but they pursued him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. ⁷ And Ado′ni-be′zek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their great toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has requited me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸ And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. ⁹ And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland. ¹⁰ And Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron (now the name of Hebron was formerly Kir′iath-ar′ba); and they defeated Sheshai and Ahi′man and Talmai.

¹¹ From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kir′iath-se′pher. ¹² And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kir′iath-se′pher and takes it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as wife.” ¹³ And Oth′ni-el the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. ¹⁴ When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field; and she alighted from her ass, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?” ¹⁵ She said to him, “Give me a present; since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶ And the descendants of the Ken′ite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad; and they went and settled with the people. ¹⁷ And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. ¹⁸ Judah also took Gaza with its territory, and Ash′kelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. ¹⁹ And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron. ²⁰ And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said; and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. ²¹ But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jeb′usites who dwelt in Jerusalem; so the Jeb′usites have dwelt with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²² The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel; and the Lord was with them. ²³ And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.) ²⁴ And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Pray, show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” ²⁵ And he showed them the way into the city; and they smote 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 and built a city, and called its name Luz; that is its name to this day.

²⁷ Manas′seh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-she′an and its villages, or Ta′anach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ib′leam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megid′do and its villages; but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. ²⁸ When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.

²⁹ And E′phraim did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.

³⁰ Zeb′ulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Na′halol; but the Canaanites dwelt 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 but the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

³³ Naph′tali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-she′mesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-she′mesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.

³⁴ The Amorites pressed the Danites back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain; ³⁵ the Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har-heres, in Ai′jalon, and in Sha-al′bim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily upon them, and they became subject to forced labor. ³⁶ And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrab′bim, from Sela and upward.

Israel’s Disobedience

2 Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land which I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, ² and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. What is this you have done? ³ So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries^[b] to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” ⁴ When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. ⁵ And they called the name of that place Bochim;^[c] and they sacrificed there to the Lord.

Death of Joshua

⁶ When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. ⁷ And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work which the Lord had done for Israel. ⁸ And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten years. ⁹ And they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Tim′nath-he′res, in the hill country of E′phraim, north of the mountain of Ga′ash. ¹⁰ And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord or the work which he had done for Israel.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness

¹¹ And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Ba′als; ¹² and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ They forsook the Lord, and served the Ba′als and the Ash′taroth. ¹⁴ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them; and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. ¹⁵ Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them; and they were in sore straits.

¹⁶ Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them. ¹⁷ And yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed down to them; they soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. ¹⁸ Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. ¹⁹ But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them; they did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.^{[d] 20} So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not obeyed my voice, ²¹ I will not henceforth drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, ²² that by them I may test Israel, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.” ²³ So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out at once, and he did not give them into the power of Joshua.

Nations Remaining in the Land

3 Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan; ² it was only that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, that he might teach war to such at least as had not known it before. ³ These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sido′nians, and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Ba′al-her′mon as far as the entrance of Hamath. ⁴ They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by Moses. ⁵ So the people of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per′izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb′usites; ⁶ and they took their daughters to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons; and they served their gods.

Othniel

⁷ And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God, and serving the Ba′als and the Ashe′roth. ⁸ Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cu′shan-rishatha′im king of Mesopota′mia; and the people of Israel served Cu′shan-rishatha′im eight years. ⁹ But when the people of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who delivered them, Oth′ni-el the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ¹⁰ The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel; he went out to war, and the Lord gave Cu′shan-rishatha′im king of Mesopota′mia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cu′shan-rishatha′im. ¹¹ So the land had rest forty years. Then Oth′ni-el the son of Kenaz died.

Ehud

¹² And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³ He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amal′ekites, and went and defeated Israel; and they took possession of the city of palms. ¹⁴ And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵ But when the people of Israel cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶ And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it on his right thigh under his clothes. ¹⁷ And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people that carried the tribute. ¹⁹ But he himself turned back at the sculptured stones near Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he commanded, “Silence.” And all his attendants went out from his presence. ²⁰ And Ehud came to him, as 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 And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly; ²² and the hilt 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 dirt came out. ²³ Then Ehud went out into the vestibule,^[e] and closed the doors of the roof chamber upon him, and locked them.

²⁴ When he had gone, the servants came; and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “He is only relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.” ²⁵ And they waited till they were utterly at a loss; but when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them; and there lay their lord dead on the floor.

²⁶ Ehud escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the sculptured stones, and escaped to Se-i′rah. ²⁷ When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of E′phraim; and the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, having him at their head. ²⁸ And he said to them, “Follow after me; for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him, and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and allowed not a man to pass over. ²⁹ And they killed at that time about ten thousand of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. ³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹ After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred of the Philistines with an oxgoad; and he too delivered Israel.

Elimelech’s Family Goes to Moab

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ² The name of the man was Elim′elech and the name of his wife Na′omi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chil′ion; they were Eph′rathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. ³ But Elim′elech, the husband of Na′omi, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years; ⁵ and both Mahlon and Chil′ion died, so that the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband.

Na′omi and Her Moabite Daughters-in-Law

⁶ Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. ⁷ So she set out from the place where she was, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. ⁸ But Na′omi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. ⁹ The Lord grant that you may find a home, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. ¹⁰ And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” ¹¹ But Na′omi said, “Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, ¹³ would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.” ¹⁴ Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” ¹⁶ But Ruth said, “Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; ¹⁷ where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.” ¹⁸ And when Na′omi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

¹⁹ So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, “Is this Na′omi?” ²⁰ She said to them, “Do not call me Na′omi,^[a] call me Mara,^[b] for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. ²¹ I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Na′omi, when the Lord has afflicted^[c] me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

²² So Na′omi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

The Blessedness of Unity

A Song of Ascents.