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Chronological

Read the Bible in the chronological order in which its stories and events occurred.

Duration: 365 days

Judges 1-2

I. The Situation in Canaan Following the Israelite Conquest

Chapter 1

Canaanites in Palestine. ¹^[a]After the death of Joshua the Israelites consulted the Lord, asking, “Who shall be first among us to attack the Canaanites and to do battle with them?” ²The Lord answered: Judah shall attack: I have delivered the land into his power.^(A) ³Judah then said to his brother Simeon, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, and let us do battle with the Canaanites. I will likewise go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him.^(B)

⁴When Judah attacked, the Lord delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their power, and they struck down ten thousand of them in Bezek. ⁵^(C)They came upon Adonibezek in Bezek and fought against him. When they struck down the Canaanites and Perizzites, ⁶Adonibezek fled. They pursued him, and when they caught him, they cut off his thumbs and big toes. ⁷“Seventy kings,” said Adonibezek, “used to pick up scraps under my table with their thumbs and big toes cut off. As I have done, so has God repaid me.” He was brought to Jerusalem, and he died there. ⁸^[b]The Judahites fought against Jerusalem, captured it, and put it to the sword, setting the city itself on fire.^(D)

⁹Afterward the Judahites went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the mountain region, in the Negeb, and in the foothills.^(E) ¹⁰Judah also marched against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron, which was formerly called Kiriath-arba, and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.^(F) ¹¹They marched from there against the inhabitants of Debir, which was formerly called Kiriath-sepher. ¹²Caleb said, “To the man who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage.” ¹³^(G)Othniel captured it, the son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz; so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage. ¹⁴When she came to him, she induced him to ask her father for some land. Then, as she alighted from the donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you want?” ¹⁵She answered, “Give me a present. Since you have put me in the land of the Negeb, give me pools of water.” So Caleb gave her what she wanted, both the upper and the lower pool.

¹⁶^(H)The descendants of Hobab the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law,^[c] came up with the Judahites from the City of Palms to the wilderness of Arad, which is in the Negeb, and they settled among the Amalekites. ¹⁷^(I)Then Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they defeated the Canaanites who lived in Zephath. They put the city under the ban and renamed it Hormah.^[d]^(J) ¹⁸Judah captured Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, Ekron with its territory, and Ashdod^[e] with its territory.^(K) ¹⁹The Lord was with Judah, so they gained possession of the mountain region. But they could not dispossess those who lived on the plain, because they had iron chariots. ²⁰^(L)As Moses had commanded, they gave Hebron to Caleb, who then drove the three sons of Anak away from there.

²¹^[f]As for the Jebusites dwelling in Jerusalem, the Benjaminites did not dispossess them, so that the Jebusites live with the Benjaminites in Jerusalem to the present day.^(M)

²²The house of Joseph, too, went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. ²³The house of Joseph reconnoitered Bethel, which formerly was called Luz.^(N) ²⁴The scouts saw a man coming out of the city and said to him, “Tell us the way into the city, and we will show you mercy.” ²⁵He showed them the way into the city, and they put the city to the sword; but they let the man and his whole clan go free. ²⁶The man then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.

²⁷^(O)Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean with its towns or of Taanach with its towns. Nor did they dispossess the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, those of Ibleam and its towns, or those of Megiddo and its towns. The Canaanites continued to live in this district. ²⁸When Israel grew stronger, they conscripted the Canaanites as laborers, but did not actually drive them out. ²⁹^(P)Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, and so the Canaanites lived among them in Gezer.

³⁰^(Q)Nor did Zebulun dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or those of Nahalol; the Canaanites lived among them and became forced laborers.

³¹^(R)Nor did Asher dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or those of Sidon, or take possession of Mahaleb, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob. ³²So the Asherites settled among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, for they had not dispossessed them.

³³^(S)Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or those of Beth-anath. They settled among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced laborers for them.

³⁴The Amorites hemmed in the Danites in the mountain region, not permitting them to come down onto the plain. ³⁵So the Amorites continued to live in Harheres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim, but as the power of the house of Joseph grew, they were conscripted as laborers.

³⁶The territory of the Amorites extended from the Akrabbim pass, from Sela and upward.

Chapter 2

Infidelities of the Israelites. ¹A messenger of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land which I promised on oath to your ancestors. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, ²but you must not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you must pull down their altars.^(T) But you did not listen to me. Look what you have done! ³For I also said,^[g] I will not clear them out of your way; they will become traps for you, and their gods a snare for you.^(U)

⁴When the messenger of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud. ⁵They named that place Bochim,^[h] and they offered sacrifice there to the Lord.

⁶^(V)Then Joshua dismissed the people, and the Israelites went, each to their own heritage, to take possession of the land. ⁷The people served the Lord during the entire lifetime of Joshua, and of those elders who outlived Joshua and who had seen all the great work the Lord had done for Israel. ⁸Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten, ⁹and they buried him within the borders of his heritage at Timnath-heres in the mountain region of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.^(W)

¹⁰^[i]When the rest of that generation were also gathered to their ancestors, and a later generation arose that did not know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel, ¹¹^(X)the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals,^[j] ¹²and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the one who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, and bowed down to them, and provoked the Lord.

¹³Because they had abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Astartes,^[k] ¹⁴the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel, and he delivered them into the power of plunderers who despoiled them. He sold them into the power of the enemies around them, and they were no longer able to withstand their enemies. ¹⁵Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord turned against them, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them;^(Y) and they were in great distress. ¹⁶But the Lord raised up judges to save them from the power of their plunderers; ¹⁷but they did not listen to their judges either, for they prostituted themselves by following other gods, bowing down to them. They were quick to stray from the way their ancestors had taken, who obeyed the commandments of the Lord; but these did not. ¹⁸When the Lord raised up judges for them, he would be with the judge and save them from the power of their enemies as long as the judge lived. The Lord would change his mind when they groaned in their affliction under their oppressors. ¹⁹But when the judge died, they would again do worse than their ancestors, following other gods, serving and bowing down to them, relinquishing none of their evil practices or stubborn ways.^(Z)

²⁰^(AA)The anger of the Lord flared up against Israel, and he said: Because this nation has transgressed my covenant, which I enjoined on their ancestors, and has not listened to me, ²¹I for my part will not clear away for them any more of the nations Joshua left when he died. ²²^(AB)They will be made to test Israel, to see whether or not they will keep to the way of the Lord and continue in it as their ancestors did. ²³Therefore the Lord allowed these nations to remain instead of expelling them immediately. He had not delivered them into the power of Joshua.

Footnotes

1:1–36 The chapter depicts the Israelite settlement of Canaan as a gradual and incomplete process (cf. Ex 23:29–30; Dt 7:22). This picture contrasts sharply with that found in Joshua, where the conquest is rapid and total. Accordingly, some scholars believe that Jgs 1 derives from an early account, which is less idealized and more realistic than that on which Joshua is based. Others, noting that Judah is presented as the only tribe that was completely successful in driving foreigners from its territory, think that the account was written at a late date and reflects suspicion in Judah about foreign elements in the Israelite populations of outlying areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24–33).
1:8 See note on 1:21 below.
1:16 Hobab the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law: as in 4:11. However, in Nm 10:29 Hobab is identified as Moses’ brother-in-law, while Reuel is identified as Moses’ father-in-law (see also Ex 2:18). The more common name of Moses’ father-in-law is Jethro, also a Midianite (e.g., Ex 3:1). It is impossible to sort out the relationships among these three men in the ancient traditions. City of Palms: Jericho (cf. Dt 34:3) or a town in the Negeb.
1:17 The ban…Hormah: the narrator relates the city-name “Hormah” to “the ban” (Hebrew herem), which commanded the Israelites to devote to the Lord—and thus to destroy—whatever was captured within the land (cf. Dt 20:10–18).
1:18 Gaza…Ashkelon…Ekron…Ashdod: four of the five major cities of the Philistines (see note on 3:3). Since these cities were on the coastal plain, the statement that Judah captured them is contrary to v. 19, which notes Judah’s failure to drive out the inhabitants of the lowlands. In the Septuagint the problem is removed by changing the beginning of this verse to read “Judah did not dispossess….”
1:21 According to Jos 18:16, Jerusalem was assigned to the tribe of Benjamin. According to the notice in 1:8 above, the city was burned by the Judahites, but elsewhere (2 Sm 5:6–9) we learn that it was not actually taken from the Jebusites until David captured it and made it his capital.
2:3 I also said: the Lord explicitly warned the Israelites of the consequences of disobedience; see Nm 33:55 and especially Jos 23:13.
2:5 Bochim: Hebrew for “weepers.”
2:10–19 This long thematic passage establishes the cyclical pattern for the stories found in the rest of the book. When the Israelites are secure, they forsake the Lord and worship other gods. In punishment the Lord places them in the power of a foreign oppressor. But when they cry out in distress, the Lord takes pity on them and raises up a judge, who delivers them from the oppressor. The Israelites remain faithful to the Lord during the lifetime of the judge, but when the judge dies they again abandon the Lord, and the cycle begins anew.
2:11 The Baals: the title “Baal,” meaning “lord” or “master,” belonged to a large number of Canaanite, Phoenician, and Syrian deities, including especially the great storm god Hadad Baal, widely revered as lord of the earth. The plural form, which occurs here, was used by the biblical writers to refer to foreign gods in general.
2:13 The Astartes: Ashtoreth, or Astarte, was an important Canaanite and Phoenician goddess. The plural form used here probably refers to foreign goddesses in general.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.