Judges 1:2

2 The Lord answered, "The tribe of Judah will go first. I am giving them control of the land."

Judges 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 1:2

And the Lord said
By an articulate voice, which it is probable was the usual way of answering by Urim and Thummim:

Judah shall go up;
not Judah in person, who was long ago dead, but the tribe of Judah; it was the will of the Lord that that tribe should engage first with the Canaanites, being the principal one, and the most numerous, powerful, and valiant, and perhaps had the greatest number of Canaanites among them; and who succeeding, would inspire the other tribes with courage, and fill their enemies with a panic:

behold, I have delivered the land into his hands;
that part of it which belonged to that tribe as yet unsubdued, the conquest of which they are assured of for their encouragement.

Judges 1:2 In-Context

1 After Joshua's death the people of Israel asked the Lord, "Which of our tribes should be the first to go and attack the Canaanites?"

2 The Lord answered, "The tribe of Judah will go first. I am giving them control of the land."

3 The people of Judah said to the people of Simeon, "Go with us into the territory assigned to us, and we will fight the Canaanites together. Then we will go with you into the territory assigned to you." So the tribes of Simeon

4 and Judah went into battle together. The Lord gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.

5 They found Adonibezek there and fought him.