Judges 1:1-26

The Continuing Conquest of Canaan

1 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel ¹inquired of the LORD, ²"Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?"

2 The LORD said, "Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand."

3 And Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. ³And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you." So Simeon went with him.

4 Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek.

5 They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

6 Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

7 And Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off ⁴used to pick up scraps under my table. ⁵As I have done, so God has repaid me." And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

8 ⁶And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.

9 And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in ⁷the hill country, in the Negeb, and in ⁸the lowland.

10 ⁹And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron ¹⁰(now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba), and they defeated ¹¹Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

11 From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher.

12 And Caleb said, "He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife."

13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, ¹²Caleb's younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife.

14 When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, "What do you want?"

15 She said to him, "Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water." And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

16 And the descendants of the ¹³Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah ¹⁴from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near ¹⁵Arad, ¹⁶and they went and settled with the people.

17 ¹⁷And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction. So the name of the city was called ¹⁸Hormah.^[a]

18 Judah also ¹⁹captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.

19 ²⁰And the LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the ²¹hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had ²²chariots of iron.

20 ²³And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said. And he drove out from it ²⁴the three sons of Anak.

21 But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, ²⁵so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

22 The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, ²⁶and the LORD was with them.

23 And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. (²⁷Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.)

24 And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, "Please show us the way into the city, ²⁸and we will deal kindly with you."

25 And he showed them the way into the city. And they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go.

26 And the man went to ²⁹the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day.

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Judges 1:1-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES

The title of this book in the Hebrew copies is Sepher Shophetim, the Book of Judges; but the Syriac and Arabic interpreters call it,

``the Book of the Judges of the Children of Israel;''

and the Septuagint only Judges; so called, not because it was written by them, though some think it was compiled out of annals and diaries kept by them; but it seems to be the work of one person only: the true reason of its name is, because it treats of the judges of Israel, gives an account of their lives and actions, and especially such as concerned their office; which office was different from that of kings, and seems only to have been occasional, and chiefly lay in delivering the people out of the hands of their enemies, when oppressed, distressed, or carried captive by them; in protecting them in the enjoyment of their country, rights, and liberties; in leading out their armies against their enemies when needful; and in settling differences, judging law suits, and administering justice. The government of the nation, during their time, was a theocracy. It is not certain who was the penman of this book; some ascribe it to King Hezekiah, others to Ezra; but the Jewish writers {a} are generally of opinion that it was written by Samuel, which is most likely, who was the last of the judges; and it seems plainly to be written before the times of David, us appears from a speech of Joab, 2Sa 11:21; and from some passages in Ps 68:8,9 Ps 97:5, which seem to refer or allude to Jud 5:4,5; and from Jerusalem being called Jebus, which shows it to be inhabited by the Jebusites in the time of the writer of this book, whereas it was taken out of their hands by David; besides, Samuel himself refers to the annals of this book; 1Sa 12:9-11; and from whose testimonies, as well as from others in the New Testament, there is no doubt to be made of its being genuine and authentic, and written by divine inspiration; as is evident from the use the Apostle Paul, and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, have made of it, Ac 13:20, Heb 11:32; it is useful as an history, and without which the history of the people of Israel would not be complete; it containing an account of all their judges, excepting the two last, Eli and Samuel, of whom an account is given in the following books, and of some facts incidental to those times, related in an appendix at the end of it, concerning the idol of Micah, and the war of Benjamin; and furnishes out many useful moral observations concerning God's displeasure at sin in his own people Israel, and his corrections for it; and about his providential care of them in raising up for them deliverers in their time of need, as well as points at various virtues and excellencies in great and good men, worthy of imitation. It contains, according to Piscator, Dr. Lightfoot, and others, an history of two hundred ninety and nine years.

\\INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 1\\

The children of Israel, after Joshua's death, inquiring of the Lord which tribes should first go up against the remaining Canaanites, Judah is ordered to go up, who with Simeon did, Jud 1:1-3; and had success against the Canaanites under Adonibezek, whom they brought to Jerusalem Jud 1:4-8; and against the Canaanites in Hebron, Debir, Zephath, Hormah, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, Jud 1:9-20; the Benjamites had not such good success as Judah against the Jebusites in Jerusalem, Jud 1:21; nor as the house of Joseph had against Bethel, Jud 1:22-26; nor could the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali, drive out the Canaanites from several places which belonged unto them, though many of them became their tributaries, Jud 1:27-33; and as for the Amorites, they were too powerful for the tribe of Dan, though some of them became tributaries to the house of Joseph, Jud 1:34-36.

{a} T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 14. 2.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible