Judges 1:4

4 and Judah went into battle together. The Lord gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.

Judges 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 1:4

And Judah went up
Simeon being along with him, from the southern parts of the land, where they dwelt, and went more northward towards Jerusalem, and which therefore is called a going up:

and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands:
into the hands of Judah and Simeon: the Canaanites here is not the common name of the seven nations, but the name of one of those nations, distinguished from the rest, as here from the Perizzites, who otherwise were also Canaanites; and both these, at least many of them, dwelt in those parts, and were subdued by the united forces of Judah and Simeon, whereby the Lord's promise was fulfilled, ( Judges 1:2 ) ;

and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men:
that is, in and about Bezek, first and last, in the course of this war, as after related. Jerom says F4 there were two villages of this name in his time near one another, seven miles from Neapolis, as you go to Scythopolis; and our countryman Mr. Sandys F5 says, that when they departed from Bethlehem, bending their course from the mountains of Judea lying west from it, near to which, on the side of the opposite hill, they passed a little village called Bezek, as he took it, two miles from Bethsur, see ( 1 Samuel 11:8 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F4 De loc. Heb. fol. 89. H.
F5 Travels, p. 142. Ed. 5th.

Judges 1:4 In-Context

2 The Lord answered, "The tribe of Judah will go first. I am giving them control of the land."
3 The people of Judah said to the people of Simeon, "Go with us into the territory assigned to us, and we will fight the Canaanites together. Then we will go with you into the territory assigned to you." So the tribes of Simeon
4 and Judah went into battle together. The Lord gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.
5 They found Adonibezek there and fought him.
6 He ran away, but they chased him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.