The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 After the death of Y'hoshua, the people of Isra'el asked ADONAI, "Who will go up for us first to fight against the Kena'ani?"
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Now after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel made request to the Lord, saying, Who is to go up first to make war for us against the Canaanites?
2 ADONAI said: "Y'hudah will go up; here, I have handed the land over to him."
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And the Lord said, Judah is to go up: see, I have given the land into his hands.
3 Y'hudah said to his brother Shim'on, "Come up with me into my assigned territory, so that we can fight against the Kena'ani; and I likewise will go with you into your territory." So Shim'on went with him.
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Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my heritage, so that we may make war against the Canaanites; and I will then go with you into your heritage. So Simeon went with him.
4 Y'hudah went up; and ADONAI gave the Kena'ani and the P'rizi into their hands; of those in Bezek they killed ten thousand men.
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And Judah went up; and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands; and they overcame ten thousand of them in Bezek.
5 They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him. They killed the Kena'ani and the P'rizi,
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And they came across Adoni-zedek, and made war on him; and they overcame the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
6 but Adoni-Bezek fled. They pursued him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
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But Adoni-zedek went in flight; and they went after him and overtook him, and had his thumbs and his great toes cut off.
7 Adoni-Bezek said: "Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their big toes cut off, gathered food under my table; God has paid me back in accordance with what I did." They brought him to Yerushalayim, and he died there.
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And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table: as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there.
8 Then the people of Y'hudah fought against Yerushalayim, captured it, overpowered it with the sword, and set the city on fire.
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Then the children of Judah made an attack on Jerusalem, and took it, burning down the town after they had put its people to the sword without mercy.
9 Afterwards, the people of Y'hudah went down to fight against the Kena'ani who lived in the hill-country, in the Negev, and in the Sh'felah.
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After that the children of Judah went down to make war on the Canaanites living in the hill-country and in the south and in the lowlands.
10 Y'hudah also attacked the Kena'ani living in Hevron (formerly called Kiryat-Arba), and they overpowered Sheshai, Achiman and Talmai.
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And Caleb went against the Canaanites of Hebron: (now in earlier times Hebron was named Kiriath-arba:) and he put Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai to the sword.
11 From there they attacked the inhabitants of D'vir (D'vir was formerly called Kiryat-Sefer).
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And from there he went up against the people of Debir. (Now the name of Debir in earlier times was Kiriath-sepher.)
12 Kalev said: "To whoever overpowers Kiryat-Sefer and captures it I will give my daughter 'Akhsah as his wife."
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And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it.
13 'Otni'el the son of K'naz, Kalev's younger brother, captured it; so he gave him 'Akhsah his daughter as his wife.
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And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife.
14 After becoming his wife, she persuaded him to ask her father to give them a field; when she got off her donkey, Kalev asked her, "What do you want?"
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Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it?
15 She said to him: "Give me a blessing: since you gave me land in the Negev, also give me sources of water." So Kalev gave her the Upper Springs and the Lower Springs.
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And she said to him, Give me a blessing; because you have put me in a dry south-land, now give me springs of water. So Caleb gave her the higher spring and the lower spring.
16 Next, the descendants of the Keini, Moshe's father-in-law, went up out of the City of Date-Palms with the people of Y'hudah into the Y'hudah Desert south of 'Arad; and they came and settled with the people.
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Now Hobab the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, had come up out of the town of palm-trees, with the children of Judah, into the waste land of Arad; and he went and was living among the Amalekites;
17 Y'hudah went with Shim'on his brother; they overpowered the Kena'ani who inhabited Tz'fat, and completely destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah.
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And Judah went with Simeon, his brother, and overcame the Canaanites living in Zephath, and put it under the curse; and he gave the town the name of Hormah.
18 Y'hudah also took 'Azah with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory and 'Ekron with its territory.
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Then Judah took Gaza and its limit, and Ashkelon and its limit, and Ekron and its limit.
19 ADONAI was with Y'hudah, and they took possession of the hill-country, because they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, since they had iron chariots.
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And the Lord was with Judah; and he took the hill-country for his heritage; but he was unable to make the people of the valley go out, for they had war-carriages of iron.
20 They gave Hevron to Kalev, as Moshe had said to do; and he drove out from there the three sons of 'Anak.
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And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said; and he took the land of the three sons of Anak, driving them out from there.
21 The people of Binyamin did not drive out the Y'vusi who inhabited Yerushalayim; rather, the Y'vusi continued living with the people of Binyamin in Yerushalayim, as they do to this day.
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And the children of Judah did not make the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem go out; the Jebusites are still living with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem.
22 The house of Yosef likewise attacked Beit-El; and ADONAI was with them.
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And the family of Joseph went up against Beth-el, and the Lord was with them.
23 The house of Yosef sent spies to Beit-El (the city was formerly called Luz).
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So they sent men to make a search round Beth-el. (Now the name of the town in earlier times was Luz.)
24 The spies saw a man coming out of the city and said to him: "Please show us the way to enter the city, and we will treat you kindly."
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And the watchers saw a man coming out of the town, and said to him, If you will make clear to us the way into the town, we will be kind to you.
25 So he showed them the way into the city, and they overpowered the city with the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free.
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So he made clear to them the way into the town, and they put it to the sword; but they let the man and all his family get away safe.
26 He went into the land of the Hittim, built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.
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And he went into the land of the Hittites, building a town there and naming it Luz: which is its name to this day.
27 M'nasheh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit-Sh'an and its villages, Ta'anakh and its villages, Dor and its villages, Yivle'am and its villages or Megiddo and its villages; so that the Kena'ani managed to keep on living in that land.
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And Manasseh did not take away the land of the people of Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, or of Taanach and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Ibleam and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, driving them out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land.
28 In time, when Isra'el had grown strong, they did put the Kena'ani to forced labor but failed to drive them out completely.
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And whenever Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, without driving them out completely.
29 Efrayim did not drive out the Kena'ani living in Gezer; so the Kena'ani continued living in Gezer along with them.
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And Ephraim did not make the Canaanites who were living in Gezer go out; but the Canaanites went on living in Gezer among them.
30 Z'vulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or Nahalol; so the Kena'ani continued to live among them but became subject to forced labor.
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Zebulun did not make the people of Kitron or the people of Nahalol go out; but the Canaanites went on living among them and were put to forced work.
31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of 'Akko, Tzidon, Achlav, Akhziv, Helbah, Afik or Rechov;
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And Asher did not take the land of the people of Acco, or Zidon, or Ahlab, or Achzib, or Helbah, or Aphik, or Rehob, driving them out;
32 so the Asheri lived among the Kena'ani who were living in the land, because they didn't drive them out.
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But the Asherites went on living among the Canaanites, the people of the land, without driving them out.
33 Naftali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh or Beit-'Anat but lived among the Kena'ani living in the land; however, the inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh and Beit-'Anat became forced labor for them.
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Naphtali did not take the land of the people of Beth-shemesh or of Beth-anath, driving them out; but he was living among the Canaanites in the land; however, the people of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were put to forced work.
34 The Emori forced the people of Dan into the hills; for they would not let them come down to the valley.
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And the children of Dan were forced into the hill-country by the Amorites, who would not let them come down into the valley;
35 The Emori had resolved to live in the Heres Hills, in Ayalon and in Sha'alvim; but when the power of the house of Yosef grew greater, they became subject to forced labor.
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For the Amorites would go on living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the children of Joseph became stronger than they, and put them to forced work.
36 So the territory of the Emori was from the Scorpion Ascent and the Rock upward.
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And the limit of the Edomites went from the slope of Akrabbim from Sela and up.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.