Judges 11:23

23 So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them?

Judges 11:23 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 11:23

So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites
from before his people Israel
It is his doing, and not the work of the Israelites; it is he that dispossessed the Amorites, and put the Israelites into the possession of their land, and therefore they enjoy it by a good tenure:

and shouldest thou possess it?
what through the blessing of God on their arms they have obtained by conquest, and he has settled them in; did they conquer, that thou should possess what they conquered? did their God put it into their hands to deliver it into thine? did they fight to recover for thee what thou hadst lost, and to put thee into the possession of it? did not they fight in their own defence, and their enemies and their land fell into their hands, and by the laws and right of nations became theirs? and canst thou expect to possess it? what reason is there for it?

Judges 11:23 In-Context

21 And the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.

22 And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

23 So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them?

24 Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess.

25 Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them?