Judges 1

¹After the death of Joshua , the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites , to fight against them?

²The Lord said , Judah shall go up ; behold , I have given the land into his hand .

³And Judah said to Simeon his brother , Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites . And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you . So Simeon went with him.

⁴Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand , and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek .

⁵They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites .

⁶Adoni-bezek fled , but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes .

⁷And Adoni-bezek said , Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table . As I have done , so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem , and he died there.

⁸And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire .

⁹And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country , in the Negeb , and in the lowland .

¹⁰And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba ), and they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai .

¹¹From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir . The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher .

¹²And Caleb said , He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife .

¹³And Othniel the son of Kenaz , Caleb’s younger brother , captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife .

¹⁴When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field . And she dismounted from her donkey , and Caleb said to her, What do you want?

¹⁵She said to him, Give me a blessing . Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb , give me also springs of water . And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs .

¹⁶And the descendants of the Kenite , Moses ’ father-in-law , went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah , which lies in the Negeb near Arad , and they went and settled with the people .

¹⁷And Judah went with Simeon his brother , and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction . So the name of the city was called Hormah .

¹⁸Judah also captured Gaza with its territory , and Ashkelon with its territory , and Ekron with its territory .

¹⁹And the Lord was with Judah , and he took possession of the hill country , but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron .

²⁰And Hebron was given to Caleb , as Moses had said . And he drove out from it the three sons of Anak .

²¹But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem , so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day .

²²The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel , and the Lord was with them.

²³And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel . ( Now the name of the city was formerly Luz .)

²⁴And the spies saw a man coming out of the city , and they said to him, Please show us the way into the city , and we will deal kindly with you.

²⁵And he showed them the way into the city . And they struck the city with the edge of the sword , but they let the man and all his family go .

²⁶And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz . That is its name to this day .

²⁷Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages , or Taanach and its villages , or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages , or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages , or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages , for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land .

²⁸When Israel grew strong , they put the Canaanites to forced labor , but did not drive them out completely .

²⁹And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer , so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

³⁰Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron , or the inhabitants of Nahalol , so the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor .

³¹Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco , or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob ,

³²so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites , the inhabitants of the land , for they did not drive them out .

³³Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh , or the inhabitants of Beth-anath , so they lived among the Canaanites , the inhabitants of the land . Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.

³⁴The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country , for they did not allow them to come down to the plain .

³⁵The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres , in Aijalon , and in Shaalbim , but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor .

³⁶And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim , from Sela and upward .