Shofetim 1:2

2 And Hashem said, Yehudah shall go up; hinei, I have delivered HaAretz into his yad.

Shofetim 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 1:2

And the Lord said
By an articulate voice, which it is probable was the usual way of answering by Urim and Thummim:

Judah shall go up;
not Judah in person, who was long ago dead, but the tribe of Judah; it was the will of the Lord that that tribe should engage first with the Canaanites, being the principal one, and the most numerous, powerful, and valiant, and perhaps had the greatest number of Canaanites among them; and who succeeding, would inspire the other tribes with courage, and fill their enemies with a panic:

behold, I have delivered the land into his hands;
that part of it which belonged to that tribe as yet unsubdued, the conquest of which they are assured of for their encouragement.

Shofetim 1:2 In-Context

1 Now after the mot Yehoshua it came to pass, that the Bnei Yisroel asked Hashem, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Kena’ani first, to fight against him [them]?

2 And Hashem said, Yehudah shall go up; hinei, I have delivered HaAretz into his yad.

3 And Yehudah said unto Shim’on his brother, Come up with me into my goral (lot), and we will fight against the Kena’ani; and I likewise will go with thee into thy goral. So Shim’on went with him.

4 And Yehudah went up; and Hashem delivered the Kena’ani and the Perizzi into their yad; and they struck them down at Bezek ten thousand ish.

5 And they found Adoni-Bezek at Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck down the Kena’ani and the Perizzi.