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Judges 1

KJV · Chapter 1/21

1Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?

2And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

3And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.

4And Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.

5And they found Adoni–bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

6But Adoni–bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

7And Adoni–bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

8Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.

9And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley.

10And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath–arba:) and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.

11And from thence he went against the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjath–sepher:

12And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath–sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.

13And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife.

14And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou?

15And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

16And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.

17And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah.

18Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.

19And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

20And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.

21And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.

22And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Beth–el: and the Lord was with them.

23And the house of Joseph sent to descry Beth–el. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)

24And the spies saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said unto him, Shew us, we pray thee, the entrance into the city, and we will shew thee mercy.

25And when he shewed them the entrance into the city, they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let go the man and all his family.

26And the man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz: which is the name thereof unto this day.

27Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth–shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

28And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.

29Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.

30Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries.

31Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob:

32But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out.

33Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth–shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth–anath; but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth–shemesh and of Beth–anath became tributaries unto them.

34And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley:

35But the Amorites would dwell in mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributaries.

36And the coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

After the death of Joshua, the tribes of Israel continue the conquest of Canaan, with Judah and Simeon winning victories, but several tribes fail to completely drive out the Canaanites.

Explanation

The book of Judges opens where Joshua leaves off, but with a different tone: instead of complete, coordinated victories, each tribe acts more independently and with only partial success. The repeated pattern — that a given region's Canaanites 'were not driven out' — appears nine times in this chapter alone, establishing the central problem of the entire book: gradual disobedience and coexistence with the idolatry God had clearly forbidden. The cruelty inflicted on Adoni-Bezek, paid back in the very coin he had dealt out (cutting off the thumbs of kings), shows a principle of retributive justice recognized even by the pagan peoples of the time. This transitional chapter teaches that partial compromises with what God asks tend to accumulate and bring consequences later on.

Fun facts

  • Adoni-Bezek, the mutilated Canaanite king, acknowledges that he suffered the same evil he had inflicted on seventy other kings — a rare moment in which an enemy of Israel recognizes God's justice at work against him.
  • The story of Othniel conquering Debir and receiving Achsah as his wife is repeated almost word for word from Joshua 15, directly connecting the two books.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Judges 1:1After Joshua dies, Israel has no clear successor and asks God which tribe should go up first to fight the Canaanites. This is the book’s starting point: the conquest of the land continues, but without a single leader.
  2. Judges 1:2God answers directly: the tribe of Judah is to go up first, with the promise that the land is already given into its hand before the fighting even begins.
  3. Judges 1:3Judah calls on the tribe of Simeon, a smaller neighboring tribe, to fight alongside it, promising to help later in Simeon’s own territory. It is an alliance between two tribes that shared nearby land.
  4. Judges 1:4Judah and Simeon defeat the Canaanites and Perizzites and kill ten thousand men at Bezek. The chapter opens by showing the conquest going well.
  5. Judges 1:5At Bezek, the Israelites find and confront the local king himself, Adoni-bezek, along with his army.
  6. Judges 1:6Adoni-bezek flees, but he is caught, and his thumbs and big toes are cut off. Without them, he can never again grip a weapon or run to escape.
  7. Judges 1:7Adoni-bezek recognizes that losing the thumbs and big toes, which keeps a man from holding a bow or running, is the very punishment he himself once inflicted on seventy kings before him. The text records this as his own admission of a kind of payback, not as the Israelites inventing a new cruelty.
  8. Judges 1:8The men of Judah attack Jerusalem, defeat it, and set the city on fire. But verse 21 of this same chapter shows that this victory did not drive out its inhabitants for good.
  9. Judges 1:9After Jerusalem, Judah goes down to fight in the mountains, in the dry south (the Negev), and in the lowland plains, that is, across every kind of terrain in the region.
  10. Judges 1:10Judah attacks Hebron, a city formerly called Kirjath-arba, and defeats three local chiefs descended from Anak, the people remembered as giants from the earlier spy reports.
  11. Judges 1:11From there Judah moves against the inhabitants of Debir, a city formerly called Kirjath-sepher.
  12. Judges 1:12Caleb promises his own daughter Achsah in marriage to whoever conquers Kirjath-sepher, using a personal prize to spur on the courage to attack.
  13. Judges 1:13Othniel, Caleb’s nephew, conquers the city and receives Achsah as his wife. This is Othniel’s first appearance; later in the book he becomes Israel’s first judge.
  14. Judges 1:14Achsah gets down from her donkey in front of her father to get his attention and asks Caleb for something beyond what was agreed: a more fertile field than the dry land she had received.
  15. Judges 1:15Achsah also asks for springs of water, since the land she received was dry, and Caleb grants both the upper and lower springs. It is a shrewd bit of negotiating for better resources.
  16. Judges 1:16Descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenites, travel along with Judah and settle in the wilderness of the region, showing outside allies joining themselves to Israel.
  17. Judges 1:17Judah and Simeon destroy the city of Zephath and change its name to Hormah, a word that points to total destruction.
  18. Judges 1:18Judah takes Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron along with their territories, Philistine cities that, as later chapters show, do not stay under Israel’s control for long.
  19. Judges 1:19God is with Judah in the mountains, but they cannot drive out those living in the valley because that people had iron chariots. This is the first time the book admits to an incomplete conquest.
  20. Judges 1:20Hebron is given to Caleb, fulfilling what Moses had promised earlier, and from there he drives out three descendants of Anak.
  21. Judges 1:21The tribe of Benjamin does not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem, and the two peoples end up living there together right up to the time the book was written. It is the first clear example of the pattern of incomplete conquest.
  22. Judges 1:22The house of Joseph, made up of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, attacks the city of Bethel, and God is with them in this attack.
  23. Judges 1:23Bethel was formerly called Luz, the very place where, generations earlier, Jacob had the dream of the ladder reaching to heaven, in Genesis 28.
  24. Judges 1:24The spies see a man coming out of the city and offer him a deal: if he shows them the entrance, they will show him mercy.
  25. Judges 1:25The man shows them the way in, the city is conquered, but he and his family are spared. It is a strategy similar to Rahab’s at Jericho: sparing whoever helps from the inside.
  26. Judges 1:26The spared man goes off to the land of the Hittites and founds another city, naming it Luz as well. An enemy escapes and starts a new life elsewhere.
  27. Judges 1:27Manasseh fails to drive out the inhabitants of several important cities, such as Beth-shean, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, and Megiddo, and the Canaanites keep living there.
  28. Judges 1:28When Israel grows stronger, instead of driving the Canaanites out for good, it merely puts them to forced labor. It is a half-measure the text does not treat as a complete victory.
  29. Judges 1:29Ephraim likewise fails to drive out the Canaanites from Gezer, and the two peoples end up living together in the same city.
  30. Judges 1:30Zebulun does not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron and Nahalol, who likewise become mere tributaries, paying tribute instead of being removed from the land.
  31. Judges 1:31Asher does not drive out the inhabitants of several coastal cities, such as Accho and Zidon, among others listed.
  32. Judges 1:32Because they failed to drive out the Canaanites, the Asherites themselves end up living among them, mixed together in the same land.
  33. Judges 1:33Naphtali does not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath, but at least manages to make them tributaries.
  34. Judges 1:34The Amorites push the men of Dan back into the mountains, not letting them come down into the valley. This territorial squeeze explains why the tribe of Dan, later in the book, goes looking for new land.
  35. Judges 1:35The Amorites insist on staying in mount Heres, in Aijalon and Shaalbim, but the house of Joseph manages to subdue them and makes them tributaries.
  36. Judges 1:36The verse closes the chapter with a geographical note, marking how far the Amorite territory extended, from the ascent of Akrabbim onward.

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