Judges 1

Joshua has died, and Israel asks the LORD who should lead the fight to take the land. Judah goes first and wins real victories, and God is with them. But as the chapter moves north, the tribes one by one fail to drive out the Canaanites. The chapter shows a slow slide from faith toward compromise.

Judges 1:1

With Joshua gone, Israel has no single leader. They do the right thing and ask the LORD what to do next. The question is how to finish the work of taking the land God had promised. They start by depending on Him.

BSA: inquired (“asked, sought guidance”): Israel does not just pick a plan; it seeks God’s direction before going to war.

Hebrew: וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ (vayyish’alu, H7592) — “and they asked.” This is the ordinary Hebrew word for asking a question, but here it is asked of the LORD. It shows a people who still look to Him for orders.

See also: Joshua 24:29.

Judges 1:2

The LORD names Judah to lead. He also speaks as if the victory were already won: the land is delivered into their hands. Judah’s calling to go first fits the place Jacob’s blessing gave this tribe among its brothers.

BSA: delivered (“given, put, or set”): The land is a gift God has already placed in their hands, not something they earn by their own strength.

Hebrew: נָתַתִּי (natati, H5414) — “I have given.” The Hebrew is in the past tense: I have given. God treats the victory as settled, and Judah only has to walk into it.

See also: Genesis 49:8-10.

Judges 1:3

Judah asks its brother tribe Simeon to help, and promises to help Simeon in return. Simeon’s land lay inside Judah’s. The two tribes fight side by side, each taking the other’s share as seriously as its own.

BSA: allotted territory (“our inheritance, portion assigned by God”): The land was not seized at random; each tribe’s portion had been assigned by God.

See also: Joshua 19:1.

Judges 1:4-5

Judah attacks, and the LORD gives the victory. Ten thousand men fall at Bezek, and Judah finds the local king, Adoni-bezek. The text credits the win to the LORD, not to Judah’s strength.

Judges 1:6-7

Judah cuts off the king’s thumbs and big toes, the same cruelty he had done to seventy other kings. He sees it as fair payment from God. His own words admit that his cruelty was being answered. They bring him to Jerusalem, where he dies.

BSA: scraps (“leftovers, crumbs”): Kings who could no longer hold a sword or walk well were left to pick crumbs like dogs, and Adoni-bezek now knows how that feels. repaid (“or requited”): He admits that what he did has come back on him.

Hebrew: שִׁלַּם (shillam, H7999) — “he has repaid, made good.” The word comes from the same root as the Hebrew word for peace and wholeness. It means a debt paid in full, so that the account is settled.

See also: Galatians 6:7.

Judges 1:8

Judah also fights against Jerusalem and burns it. Yet verse 21 shows that Jebusites were still living there, so the city was struck but not held for good. It would be many years before it became truly Israel’s.

See also: 2 Samuel 5:6-7.

Judges 1:9-10

Judah goes on to the hill country, the dry south and the western foothills. At Hebron they strike down three men of the Anak family, people the earlier spies had feared. The giants that once frightened Israel are now overcome.

See also: Numbers 13:22; Joshua 15:13-14.

Judges 1:11-13

Caleb offers his daughter Acsah to whoever captures Debir, once called Kiriath-sepher. His nephew Othniel takes it and marries her. Othniel is quietly introduced here, and later he becomes Israel’s first judge.

BSA: Kiriath-sepher (“the city of the book, Debir”): The old name means city of the book, which hints that it was a place of records and learning.

See also: Joshua 15:15-17; Judges 3:9.

Judges 1:14-15

Acsah is not shy about asking. The Negev she was given is dry, so she asks her father for springs of water as well. Caleb gladly gives her both the upper and lower springs. Water makes the gift of land usable, and a father who loves to give is pictured here.

BSA: blessing (“a gift from God, bringing prosperity and praise”): She treats her father’s gift as a blessing that makes her land fruitful. springs of water (“a source of refreshment”): In dry country, springs are what turn a plot of land into a place where people can live.

Hebrew: בְּרָכָה (berakah, H1293) — “blessing.” It is the same word used when God blesses His people. Acsah asks for more than a favor: she asks for a gift that makes life flourish.

See also: Matthew 7:11.

Judges 1:16

The Kenites, relatives of Moses’ father-in-law, travel from Jericho with Judah and settle in the dry southern country near Arad. Outsiders who had befriended Israel are welcomed and given a home among God’s people.

BSA: City of Palms (“the city of palm trees, Jericho”): This is another name for Jericho, the first city Israel took in the land.

See also: Numbers 10:29-32.

Judges 1:17

Judah and Simeon keep their promise and take Zephath. They give the city over to God for destruction, and the town is renamed Hormah, a name that remembers this. It is the very place where Israel had earlier been beaten back in unbelief.

BSA: devoted (“utterly destroyed, put under the curse”): The city is placed wholly under God’s judgment, and nothing from it is kept for Israel.

Hebrew: וַיַּחֲרִימוּ (vayacharimu, H2763) — “and they devoted to destruction.” The root means to set something apart for God, with no part of it kept back. The name Hormah comes from the same root.

See also: Numbers 21:1-3.

Judges 1:18

Judah also takes Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron, three coastal cities, along with the land around them. This is Judah at its strongest, reaching all the way to the western sea plain.

BSA: territory (“border, boundary”): Each city was taken together with the land around it, not just its walls.

Judges 1:19

This is the turning point of the chapter. The LORD is with Judah, so the hills are taken. But the plains are not, because the enemy had iron chariots. The text lets the chariots seem stronger than the One who was already with them.

BSA: drive out (“to dispossess or expel”): The aim was not just to win a battle but to remove the people from the land.

Hebrew: רֶכֶב (rekev, H7393) — “chariotry, chariots.” Chariots were the tanks of that age, and they were useless in the hills but strong on flat ground. Joshua had already told Israel that even they could be beaten.

See also: Joshua 17:16-18.

Judges 1:20

Hebron goes to Caleb, as Moses had promised, and Caleb drives out the three sons of Anak. This is a picture of a man who kept trusting God for forty-five years. His faith finishes what others left undone.

See also: Joshua 14:9-14.

Judges 1:21

Benjamin, in whose land Jerusalem lay, does not drive out the Jebusites. The writer adds that they are still there to this day. A small failure becomes a permanent neighbor.

BSA: failed (“did not have the strength or will”): The failure could have been weakness or lack of will, and both come from not trusting God.

Hebrew: הוֹרִישׁוּ (horishu, H3423) — “they dispossessed, drove out.” The verb means to take something over from its holder. It is the key word of the chapter and returns again and again, always with the same failure.

See also: Joshua 15:63.

Judges 1:22-23

The house of Joseph, meaning Ephraim and Manasseh, goes up against Bethel. Once again it says the LORD was with them. They begin with spies, which was a careful and ordinary way to prepare for battle.

BSA: Bethel (“house of God”): The name means house of God, the place where Jacob met God long before. It was still held by Canaanites.

See also: Genesis 28:19.

Judges 1:24-26

The spies promise kindness to a man who shows them the way in. They keep their word and spare him and his family. This echoes Rahab at Jericho. But the man goes off and founds another Luz among the Hittites, so a Canaanite name lives on elsewhere.

BSA: treat you kindly (“deal kindly with you, show mercy”): The spies promise mercy, and it is mercy that the man received.

See also: Joshua 2:12-14.

Judges 1:27-28

Manasseh fails to drive out the people of several strong cities, because the Canaanites were set on staying. When Israel grows stronger, they make them work as laborers instead of removing them. Israel finds it more useful to profit from the Canaanites than to obey God.

BSA: determined (“insisted, willing”): The Canaanites would not move, and Israel would not make them. forced labor (“taskwork, tribute”): Israel settled for getting work and tribute from them instead of obeying God’s order.

Hebrew: לָמַס (lamas, H4522) — “to forced labor.” The word means work crews of conquered people. It shows Israel turning a command to remove the Canaanites into a profit.

See also: Joshua 17:12-13; Deuteronomy 7:1-2.

Judges 1:29

Ephraim fails at Gezer, and the Canaanites stay right among them. The phrase is not about a border but about living side by side. Having them in their midst was an open door for their ways to take hold.

BSA: among them (“in their midst, in their entrails”): The Canaanites were not next door but inside the Israelite community.

See also: Joshua 16:10.

Judges 1:30

Zebulun fails to clear Kitron and Nahalol. The Canaanites live among them and do forced labor. Again the people are allowed to stay, as long as they are useful to Israel.

BSA: forced laborers (“taskworkers, tributaries, subject to taskwork”): The Canaanites were kept for work, which made their presence easier to accept.

Judges 1:31-32

Asher fails to drive out the people of seven towns, including Sidon. Notice the change in wording: the Asherites live among the Canaanites, not the other way round. Asher has become the guest in its own land.

BSA: failed to drive out (“expel, cast out”): Seven towns are named, which shows how large the failure was.

Judges 1:33

Naphtali also fails to drive out the people of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath. These towns do forced labor for them, but Naphtali still lives among the Canaanites. Having the upper hand did not remove the danger.

See also: Judges 2:1-3.

Judges 1:34

Now the story is reversed. The Amorites push Dan back into the hills and will not let them come down to the plain. Dan, the tribe that failed to take its land, is itself being forced out of it.

Hebrew: וַיִּלְחֲצוּ (vayilchatzu, H3905) — “and they squeezed, pressed.” The verb pictures someone being squeezed in a tight place. Dan is hemmed in by the very people it should have driven out.

See also: Joshua 19:47.

Judges 1:35-36

The Amorites hold on to their towns, until the house of Joseph grows strong enough to make them do forced labor. Their border is described as running from Akrabbim to Sela. The chapter ends on a land only partly taken, which sets up the warning in the next chapter.

BSA: grew in strength (“became stronger or more numerous”): Joseph succeeded only when strong, and not by faithfully removing them.

See also: Judges 2:1-3.