Beginning

1 After Joshua died, the people of Israel asked a question of the Eternal One.

³ The tribe of Judah enlisted support from the tribe of Simeon.

The tribe of Simeon agreed to help them. ^4-5 So Judah and her ally went up to fight against Adoni-bezek at the town of Bezek, and the Eternal gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites. They killed 10,000 of them at Bezek; ⁶ and although Adoni-bezek tried to escape, they caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes, which rendered him useless for basically anything.

They carried him away to Jerusalem, where he died.

⁸ Then the people of Judah attacked Jerusalem; and when they had captured it, they killed many, burned the city, and destroyed it. ⁹ After that the people of Judah swept down upon the Canaanites remaining in the highlands and in the lowlands and in the southern desert. ¹⁰ Judah campaigned against the Canaanites of Hebron (formerly Kiriath-arba), where they defeated Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, ¹¹ and then they went out in battle against the people of Debir (formerly Kiriath-sepher). ¹² It was about this battle that Caleb had made a vow.

¹³ Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz, captured the city, so Caleb gave Othniel his daughter Achsah to marry. ¹⁴ When she came to Othniel, she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. As she dismounted from her donkey, Caleb approached her.

And so Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

¹⁶ The people who descended from Moses’ father-in-law, Hobab the Kenite, went with the people of Judah from the city of palm trees into the wilderness of Judah, and they settled there with the people, the Amalekites, in the southern desert near Arad.

¹⁷ Then Judah and Simeon defeated the Canaanites who lived in Zephath and destroyed them completely, so their city was renamed Hormah, which means “destruction.” ¹⁸ Judah went on to take the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron and all the land surrounding them. ¹⁹ The Eternal was with Judah, and the tribe conquered all of the highlands. But those living in the plains had iron chariots, so Judah could not drive them out. ²⁰ Caleb received the land of Hebron, as Moses had promised many years earlier, and he drove out the three sons of Anak. ²¹ The people of the tribe of Benjamin, however, did not drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, and the Jebusites live alongside the Benjaminites in Jerusalem to this very day.

^22-23 The tribe of Joseph went up against Bethel (which was formerly known as Luz), and the Eternal supported them. They sent out spies ²⁴ who intercepted a man leaving the city.

²⁵ He showed them the way, and they destroyed the city with swords; but as they had promised, they let the man and his family go. ²⁶ This man went into the land of the Hittites, and there he established a city; he called it Luz, and that is still its name.

^27-28 The tribe of Manasseh failed to drive out the people who lived in the cities and surrounding villages of Beth-shean, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, and Megiddo. The Canaanites continued to live in those regions for they were determined to live there; but when the people of Israel grew strong, they made the Canaanites their slaves and did not completely drive them out.

²⁹ So it was with the tribe of Ephraim, who did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer but lived among them.

³⁰ Zebulun also did not drive out the people of Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them and became their slaves.

^31-32 Asher failed to drive out the people of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob; instead, the tribe of Asher lived among the Canaanites who lived in the land.

³³ Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or Beth-anath but lived among these Canaanites who lived in the land. They also became the slaves of Naphtali.

³⁴ The Amorites pushed the tribe of Dan back into the hills and did not allow them to dwell in the valley. ³⁵ The Amorites persisted in living on Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the tribe of Joseph overpowered them and forced them into labor. ³⁶ In those days, the border of the Amorites ran from the heights of Akrabbim to Sela and beyond.

2 The Eternal’s messenger traveled from Gilgal to Bochim.

⁴ When the Eternal’s messenger spoke these words to Israel, the people wept bitterly. ⁵ So they named that place Bochim, which means “weeping,” and there they sacrificed to Him.

⁶ When Joshua sent the people away, each tribe of Israel went to gain possession of its territorial inheritance. ⁷ The people served the Eternal as long as Joshua lived and through all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua—those who had seen all the great works that the Eternal had done for Israel.

⁸ Joshua, son of Nun, the Eternal’s servant, died at the age of 110 years ⁹ and was buried within the borders of his inheritance at Timnath-heres in the hills of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ Now that whole generation, the generation that had walked with Moses—the generation that saw the walls of Jericho fall—that generation passed on, and another generation grew up after them, a generation that did not know the Eternal and had not seen the great works He had done for Israel. ¹¹ Consequently this new generation served the gods of Canaan—the Baals^[a] as they were called—doing what the Eternal God considered evil. ¹² They abandoned the Eternal One, the True God of their ancestors, who brought them safely out of Egypt. Instead, they began to serve the gods of their neighbors, the Canaanites, bowing low before their images, causing the Eternal to burn with anger.

¹³ The Israelites abandoned the worship of the Eternal One and turned to serve Baal and his consort the moon goddess, Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ So the Eternal’s anger burned hot against them, and He caused them to be overcome by those around them, using their enemies to plunder them so that the Israelites could no longer stand against their enemies. ¹⁵ Whenever they marched out to battle, the hand of the Eternal One was raised against them in evil, as He had warned and promised them, and they were in anguish.

¹⁶ But the Eternal appointed judges among them, leaders and liberators who rescued the Israelites from their enemies who plundered them. ¹⁷ Even then the people of Israel did not listen to their judges, but instead passionately pursued other gods and bowed down to them. How quickly they turned from the faithfulness exhibited by their ancestors in obeying the Eternal’s commandments. This younger generation did not follow their ancestors’ example.

¹⁸ Still, whenever the Eternal appointed judges among the Israelites, He was with each one, saving the Israelites from their enemies as long as that leader lived, for He was moved to compassion by the groans of His people when they were persecuted and oppressed. ¹⁹ But when the judge died, then the people would fall away from their faithfulness, and the next generation behaved even worse than their ancestors, pursuing and serving other gods, and bowing down before them. They would not change their bad habits but clung to them stubbornly.

²⁰ So the Eternal’s anger burned hot against the people of Israel.

²³ So God did as He promised. He left those pagan nations in the land of Canaan. He did not drive them away immediately, nor did He give them into the hands of Joshua and his armies.