Judges 1:2

2 And the Lord said, Judas shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

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 And it came to pass after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel enquired of the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Chananites, to fight against them?

2 And the Lord said, Judas shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

3 And Judas said to his brother Symeon, Come up with me into my lot, and let us array ourselves against the Chananites, and I also will go with thee into thy lot: and Symeon went with him.

4 And Judas went up; and the Lord delivered the Chananite and the Pherezite into their hands, and they smote them in Bezek to ten thousand men.

5 And they overtook Adonibezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they smote the Chananite and the Pherezite.