JUDGES - CHAPTER 1
v1 After Joshua died, the Israelites asked the Lord a question. ‘Which tribe should go first to fight against the people in Canaan?’ v2 The Lord replied, ‘Judah’s tribe must go. I have given the country to them.’ v3 People from Judah’s tribe spoke to Simeon’s tribe. ‘Come to our area where we will live in Canaan. And help us to fight against the Canaanites there. Then we will help you to conquer your area. So Simeon’s tribe went with them.
Commentary
‘After Joshua died’ is probably a title for the whole book. The events in this section probably happened during his life. They are the same as those in Joshua chapters 15 and 17. (His death is in Judges 2:8.) Here we read about Judah’s tribe and Simeon’s tribe. We learn how they conquered the southern area in Canaan. In order to ask the Lord, they probably used the urim and thummim. These were two stones with different marks on them. They showed different answers to questions that people asked God. People believed that God controlled these stones. ‘Men throw the stone, but the Lord controls its decisions’ (Proverbs 16:33).
When Judah's Tribe Attacked
v4 When Judah’s tribe attacked, the Lord helped them to defeat the Canaanites and the Perizzites. They killed 10,000 men at Bezek. v5 They fought against Adoni-Bezek and they completely defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. v6 Adoni-Bezek ran away but they ran after him. They captured him and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes. v7 Then Adoni-Bezek said, ‘I cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 kings. Then they picked up food under my table. God has done to me what I did to them.’ They took him to Jerusalem and he died there.
Commentary
The Lord promised to give success. But the people had to fight against the people in Canaan. They put the local king Adoni-Bezek in prison. They cut off his big toes and thumbs. This took away his respect for himself. It stopped him from killing anyone. He did not complain about what they did to him. He had done the same thing to many other people. ‘70’ here probably just means a large number. His friends took him to Jerusalem for safety. And he died there.
The Men From Judah's Tribe
v8 The men from Judah’s tribe attacked Jerusalem and they captured it. They killed the people and they burnt the town. v9 After that, they went to fight against the Canaanites. Some Canaanites lived in the hills. Some lived in the Negev. And some lived in the lower hills in the west. v10 The men from Judah’s tribe attacked the Canaanites that lived in Hebron. (Before that time, this was called Kiriath Arba.) They also defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
Commentary
Judah’s tribe attacked Jerusalem and they burnt it. They did not live in it. Later, the Jebusites captured that city again. We can see this in verse 21. Israel’s people did not capture it completely until David was the king. Jerusalem was between the areas where Benjamin’s tribe and Judah’s tribe lived. It was on the border between them. So both those tribes agreed that it should be the capital (the chief city).
The southern area in Canaan had three parts. Verse 9 refers to these. They are:
1. the hills between Jerusalem and Hebron;
2. the Negev, an area that was almost a desert, between Jerusalem and Kadesh Barnea;
3. the lower hills in the west; these were between the plain (near the sea) and the central mountain range.
In verse 10, the name ‘Hebron’ means ‘confederation’. (This is a group of towns that joined together to help each other.) The original name, ‘Kiriath Arba’, may mean ‘a group of 4 towns’. Abraham had once stayed there. During the first 7 years when king David ruled, it was the chief town in Judah.
People in Debir Attacked
v11 Then they attacked the people in Debir (which was called Kiriath Sepher before). v12 Caleb made this promise. ‘My daughter Acsah can marry the man who captures Kiriath Sepher.’ v13 Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz, captured the town. Caleb gave Acsah to him as his wife. v14 When she married Othniel, he urged her to ask her father for some land. She got off her mule. Caleb asked her what she wanted. v15 She said to him, ‘Please give me a present. You gave me land in the Negev. Now please give me springs of water also.’ So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
Commentary
Caleb got the district called Hebron (verse 20). This was probably the district in which he had travelled before. He had gone there to find out its secrets. Othniel, Caleb’s nephew, captured Debir. As a reward, he married Caleb’s daughter. Then, after that, she herself asked her father for something. She asked him for land that had springs of water. These were very important in this dry area.
The Kenite
v16 The descendants of Moses’ wife’s father, the Kenite, went with Judah’s tribe. They left the ‘City with Palm Trees’ to live in the Negev. They went to live near Arad, on this city’s south side. v17 Then the men from Judah’s tribe went with Simeon’s tribe. They attacked Zephath city. And they completely destroyed that city and its people. That is why people called it Hormah. v18 The army of Judah’s tribe also captured Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron. And it captured the areas that surrounded these cities.
Commentary
Verses 16-18 refer to the people who lived after Jethro (Moses’ wife’s father) lived. He belonged to a tribe called the Kenites. They were smiths (people who made things from metal). They traveled all the time from place to place. They went from the ‘City with Palm Trees’. Although that name usually refers to Jericho, here it refers to Tamar city. This city is south of the Dead Sea and it is 85 miles south of Arad. The Kenites decided to live near Arad. Judah’s tribe helped Simeon’s tribe to capture Zephath. Later, people called it Hormah. This means ‘a place that people have completely destroyed as an offering’. Judah’s tribe also captured Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron. The Philistines later captured these cities.
Judah and Benjamin's Tribes
v19 The Lord helped the men from Judah’s tribe to capture the hilly country. They could not remove the people in the plains because these people had iron chariots. (Chariots were like boxes on wheels. Horses pulled them. In war, soldiers rode in them.) v20 As Moses had promised, Caleb captured Hebron. He removed the three sons of Anak. v21 Benjamin’s tribe could not remove the Jebusites from Jerusalem. Both groups live there today.
Commentary
The people in Canaan had iron chariots. Judah’s tribe had to move back to the hills because of this. Benjamin’s tribe could not defeat the Jebusites.
Joseph's Tribes
v22 Now Joseph’s tribes attacked Bethel and the Lord was with them. v23 They sent spies to Bethel (which people called Luz before). v24 The spies met a man who was coming out of the city. They said to him, ‘Show us how to get into the city. We will protect you.’ v25 So he showed them. They killed all the people in the city except the man and his family. v26 He then went into the area where the Hittites lived. There he built a city, which he also called Luz. People still call the city by this name today.
Commentary
‘Joseph’s tribes’ means the tribes that grew from the families of Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh. Bethel means ‘the house of God’. (El is the name that people used for a god. This could be the true God. Or it could be a false god or an image.) Bethel was a very old place where people praised God.
v27 Manasseh’s tribe did not force the local people to leave. The Canaanites remained there. v28 Later, Israel’s people became strong. And then they made the Canaanites work as slaves for them. They never completely forced them to leave. v29 Ephraim’s tribe did not force the Canaanites to leave Gezer. They continued to live with them. v30 Some people were living in Kitron or Nahalol. Zebulun’s tribe did not force them to leave. They made those people work as slaves. v31 Asher’s tribe did not force the local people to leave. v32 They lived with them. v33 Naphtali’s tribe did not force the people in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath to leave. They made those people work as slaves.
Commentary
In the area where Manasseh’s tribe lived, the towns were important. They were important because these towns were on the trade routes. And their people controlled these routes. The Canaanites with their chariots controlled this area. The Israelites had to stay in the hills. The Canaanites lived between Joseph’s tribes and the northern tribes. (‘Joseph’s tribes’ means the tribes of Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh.)
Dan's Tribe
v34 The Amorites made Dan’s tribe stay in the hills. They would not let them come into the plains. v35 The Amorites continued to live in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim. Joseph’s tribes controlled them and they made them work as slaves. v36 Amalek’s people lived in a certain area. Its boundary was from Scorpion Pass to Sela (the Rock) and beyond.
Commentary
The writer shows how things became worse. In verses 27-30 the Canaanites lived among the Israelites and they worked as the Israelites’ slaves. However, where Asher’s tribe and Naphtali’s tribe lived, Canaan’s people controlled those areas. But the Israelites still stayed there. Dan’s tribe did not remove the Canaanites, nor did they control the Canaanites. Later, as a result, the northern kingdom’s people copied how Canaan’s people praised their gods. Dan’s tribe could not even live in their area with the Canaanites.
In chapter 18, the writer tells us that many people from Dan’s tribe went to live somewhere else. They went to live in the north. The cities where the Amorites lived were between Joseph’s sons’ tribes and Judah’s tribe. Judah’s tribe was in the south.
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