Judges 1 Footnotes

1:1-4 How could a loving and merciful God condone, encourage, and even participate in war? God is not only loving, but also a holy and just God who brings wise judgment upon the guilty. Although the Canaanites had been increasing in wickedness for more than four hundred years, God exhibited his grace to them during that time (Gn 15:16). The time for judgment, however, had now come. God used this war both to punish the guilty and to protect his people from the corrupting influences of idolatry and moral depravity as practiced by the people of the land (Nm 33:55).

1:11-15 In ancient cultures, marriages were often arranged by parents to achieve certain purposes. Caleb was simply exercising his prerogative as father. His method of finding a worthy son for his daughter was, to say the least, imaginative. By establishing this criterion Caleb guaranteed his daughter would marry a courageous man who trusted the Lord and truly desired her as his wife. The Bible depicts women in a variety of situations, sometimes in charge of their own lives and sometimes not. The authors of Scripture, however, did not advocate that women be degraded or treated as of lesser importance than men (13:2-24).

1:19 Judah’s defeat by a nation that possessed iron chariots (when “the LORD was with Judah”) did not mean that God was not all-powerful. God was capable of defeating iron chariots when he chose to do so (4:13-15). Chapter 2, furthermore, reveals that disobedience to God was the true reason the tribes lost their battles (2:1-3,18-22).

1:21,27-30 God did not deliver all parts of Canaan to the Israelites but left some of the previous inhabitants in place. There are two reasons for this. (1) Leaving the land occupied, even by Canaanites, kept it from being overrun by wild animals before Israel could settle in it (Ex 23:30; Dt 7:22). (2) Israel’s enemies would be the instruments of God’s judgment if Israel proved unfaithful to him and adopted their idolatrous worship (Nm 33:55-56; Jos 23:12-13).