Judges 1:1

1 After Joshua died, the Israelites asked the Lord, "Who will be first to go and fight for us against the Canaanites?"

Judges 1:1 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 1:1

Now after the death of Joshua
With the account of which the preceding book is concluded, and therefore this very properly follows after that; though Epiphanius ^F2 places the book of Job between them:

it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord;
that is, the heads of them who gathered together at Shiloh, where the tabernacle was; and standing before the high priest, either Eleazar, or rather Phinehas his son, Eleazar being in all probability dead, inquired by Urim and Thummim:

saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight
against them?
for they had no commander in chief, Joshua leaving no successor, though the Samaritan Chronicle ^F3 pretends he did; one Abel, a son of Caleb's brother, of the tribe of Judah, on whom the lot fell, out of twelve of the nine tribes and a half, to whom Joshua delivered the government of the nation, and crowned him: but this inquiry was not for any man to go before them all as their generalissimo, but to know what tribe should first go up, and they were desirous of having the mind of God in it, when they might expect to succeed; which to do, at their first setting out, would not only be a great encouragement to them to go on, but strike dread and terror into their enemies; and this is to be understood of the Canaanites who remained unsubdued, that dwelt among them, and in cities, which though divided to them by lot, they were not in the possession of; and these being troublesome neighbours to them, and besides the Israelites daily increasing, needed more room and more cities to occupy, and more land to cultivate.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 De Mensur. & Ponder. c. 13.
F3 Apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 522.

Judges 1:1 In-Context

1 After Joshua died, the Israelites asked the Lord, "Who will be first to go and fight for us against the Canaanites?"

2 The Lord said to them, "The tribe of Judah will go. I have handed the land over to them."

3 The men of Judah said to the men of Simeon, their relatives, "Come and help us fight the Canaanites for our land. If you do, we will go and help you fight for your land." So the men of Simeon went with them.

4 When Judah attacked, the Lord handed over the Canaanites and the Perizzites to them, and they defeated ten thousand men at the city of Bezek.

5 There they found Adoni-Bezek, the ruler of the city, and fought him. The men of Judah defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites,