Beginning

1 After Joshua died, the nation of Israel went to the Lord to receive his instructions.

“Which of our tribes should be the first to go to war against the Canaanites?” they inquired.

² God’s answer came, “Judah. And I will give them a great victory.”

³ The leaders of the tribe of Judah, however, asked help from the tribe of Simeon. “Join us in clearing out the people living in the territory allotted to us,” they said, “and then we will help you conquer yours.” So the army of Simeon went with the army of Judah. ^4-6 And the Lord helped them defeat the Canaanites and Perizzites, so that ten thousand of the enemy were slain at Bezek. King Adoni-bezek escaped, but the Israeli army soon captured him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

⁷ “I have treated seventy kings in this same manner and have fed them the scraps under my table!” King Adoni-bezek said. “Now God has paid me back.” He was taken to Jerusalem and died there.

⁸ (Judah had conquered Jerusalem and massacred its people, setting the city on fire.) ⁹ Afterward the army of Judah fought the Canaanites in the hill country and in the Negeb, as well as on the coastal plains. ¹⁰ Then Judah marched against the Canaanites in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath-arba), destroying the cities of Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. ¹¹ Later they attacked the city of Debir (formerly called Kiriath-sepher).

¹² “Who will lead the attack against Debir?” Caleb challenged them. “Whoever conquers it shall have my daughter Achsah as his wife!”

¹³ Caleb’s nephew, Othniel, son of his younger brother Kenaz, volunteered to lead the attack; and he conquered the city and won Achsah as his bride. ¹⁴ As they were leaving for their new home,^[a] she urged him to ask her father for an additional piece of land. She dismounted from her donkey to speak to Caleb about it.

“What do you wish?” he asked.

¹⁵ And she replied, “You have been kind enough to give me land in the Negeb, but please give us springs of water too.”

So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

¹⁶ When the tribe of Judah moved into its new land in the Negeb Desert south of Arad, the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law—members of the Kenite tribe—accompanied them. They left their homes in Jericho, “The City of Palm Trees,” and the two tribes lived together after that. ¹⁷ Afterwards the army of Judah joined Simeon’s, and they fought the Canaanites at the city of Zephath and massacred all its people. So now the city is named Hormah (meaning, “massacred”). ¹⁸ The army of Judah also conquered the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, with their surrounding villages. ¹⁹ The Lord helped the tribe of Judah exterminate the people of the hill country, though they failed in their attempt to conquer the people of the valley, who had iron chariots.

²⁰ The city of Hebron was given to Caleb as the Lord had promised; so Caleb drove out the inhabitants of the city; they were descendants of the three sons of Anak.

²¹ The tribe of Benjamin failed to exterminate the Jebusites living in their part of the city of Jerusalem, so they still live there today, mingled with the Israelis.

^22-23 As for the tribe of Joseph, they attacked the city of Bethel, formerly known as Luz, and the Lord was with them. First they sent scouts, ²⁴ who captured a man coming out of the city. They offered to spare his life and that of his family if he would show them the entrance passage through the wall.^{[b] 25} So he showed them how to get in, and they massacred the entire population except for this man and his family. ²⁶ Later the man moved to Syria and founded a city there, naming it Luz, too, as it is still known today.

²⁷ The tribe of Manasseh failed to drive out the people living in Beth-shean, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo, with their surrounding towns; so the Canaanites stayed there. ²⁸ In later years when the Israelis were stronger, they put the Canaanites to work as slaves, but never did force them to leave the country. ²⁹ This was also true of the Canaanites living in Gezer; they still live among the tribe of Ephraim.

³⁰ And the tribe of Zebulun did not massacre the people of Kitron or Nahalol, but made them their slaves; ^31-32 nor did the tribe of Asher drive out the residents of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob; so the Israelis still live among the Canaanites, who were the original people of that land. ³³ And the tribe of Naphtali did not drive out the people of Beth-shemesh or of Beth-anath, so these people continue to live among them as servants.

³⁴ As for the tribe of Dan, the Amorites forced them into the hill country and wouldn’t let them come down into the valley; ³⁵ but when the Amorites later spread into Mount Heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim, the tribe of Joseph conquered them and made them their slaves. ³⁶ The boundary of the Amorites begins at the ascent of Scorpion Pass, runs to a spot called The Rock, and continues upward from there.

2 One day the Angel of the Lord arrived at Bochim, coming from Gilgal, and announced to the people of Israel, “I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I promised to your ancestors, and I said that I would never break my covenant with you, ² if you, on your part, would make no peace treaties with the people living in this land; I told you to destroy their heathen altars. Why have you not obeyed? ³ And now since you have broken the contract, it is no longer in effect, and I no longer promise to destroy the nations living in your land; rather, they shall be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you.”

⁴ The people broke into tears as the Angel finished speaking; ⁵ so the name of that place was called “Bochim” (meaning, “the place where people wept”). Then they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

⁶ When Joshua finally disbanded the armies of Israel, the tribes moved into their new territories and took possession of the land. ^7-9 Joshua, the man of God, died at the age of 110 and was buried at the edge of his property in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. The people had remained true to the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime, and as long afterward as the old men of his generation were still living—those who had seen the mighty miracles the Lord had done for Israel.

¹⁰ But finally all that generation died; and the next generation did not worship Jehovah as their God and did not care about the mighty miracles he had done for Israel. ¹¹ They did many things that the Lord had expressly forbidden, including the worshiping of heathen gods. ^12-14 They abandoned Jehovah, the God loved and worshiped by their ancestors—the God who had brought them out of Egypt. Instead, they were worshiping and bowing low before the idols of the neighboring nations. So the anger of the Lord flamed out against all Israel. He left them to the mercy of their enemies, for they had departed from Jehovah and were worshiping Baal and the Ashtaroth idols.

¹⁵ So now when the nation of Israel went out to battle against its enemies, the Lord blocked their path. He had warned them about this, and in fact had vowed that he would do it. But when the people were in this terrible plight, ¹⁶ the Lord raised up judges to save them from their enemies.

¹⁷ Yet even then Israel would not listen to the judges, but broke faith with Jehovah by worshiping other gods instead. How quickly they turned away from the true faith of their ancestors, for they refused to obey God’s commands. ¹⁸ Each judge rescued the people of Israel from their enemies throughout his lifetime, for the Lord was moved to pity by the groaning of his people under their crushing oppressions; so he helped them as long as that judge lived. ¹⁹ But when the judge died, the people turned from doing right and behaved even worse than their ancestors had. They prayed to heathen gods again, throwing themselves to the ground in humble worship. They stubbornly returned to the evil customs of the nations around them.

²⁰ Then the anger of the Lord would flame out against Israel again. He declared, “Because these people have violated the treaty I made with their ancestors, ²¹ I will no longer drive out the nations left unconquered by Joshua when he died. ²² Instead, I will use these nations to test my people, to see whether or not they will obey the Lord as their ancestors did.”

²³ So the Lord left those nations in the land and did not drive them out, nor let Israel destroy them.