Judges 1:1-26--The Continuing Conquest of Canaan

Judges 1:1-26
English Standard Version

The Continuing Conquest of Canaan
1 After 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?” 2 The LORD said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” 3 And 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. 4 Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. 5 They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6 Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7 And 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.

8 And 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. 9 And 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. 10 And 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.

11 From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher. 12 And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.” 13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife. 14 When 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?” 15 She 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.

16 And 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. 17 And 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. 18 Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. 19 And 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. 20 And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said. And he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. 21 But 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.

22 The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them. 23 And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.) 24 And 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.” 25 And 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. 26 And 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.

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There was an orderly transition of power in the book of Deuteronomy as the LORD was clear who the successor of Aaron would be when he died and who the successor of Moses would be when he died, and then in the book of Joshua, the LORD called Joshua to step up and step into the role that he was already chosen for.  However, there is no successor chosen for Joshua as he gets older and nears the time of his death, and when Eleazar dies, it is apparent that his son Phineas will step into the role of high priest, but as we'll see, there was no real leadership there as there was for his father.

After the death of Joshua, the people asked the LORD who would lead them in the fight against the remaining Canaanites.  They should have known the answer to that question because the LORD said through the blessings of Jacob on his sons that the scepter would not be removed from between Judah's feet until the Messiah was to come.  It was Judah's rightful place to lead the people, even if there was no king in Israel yet (the book of Judges will take us right up to that point where the people do demand a king in their rejection of the LORD as their king).

So the LORD told the people that Judah would lead them and Judah called on Simeon who lived in their midst to join them in the battle, and the LORD gave them great victory over 10,000 Canaanites and Perizzites at Bezek and then over the king of the Canaanites and Perizzites named Adoni-bezek.  He used to cut off the thumbs and big toes of enemy kings that he made his servants and had done so to seventy different kings, so the LORD ordered this to be done to him, and Adoni-bezek was brought to Jerusalem and died there.  This is one more victory that the LORD provided for Judah and Simeon who were faithful to continue the fight that the LORD had commanded them be engaged in.

The city of Jerusalem (possessed at the time by the Jebusites) was attacked by the men of Judah and taken and set on fire, just like all the other cities in the Southern Campaign.  After this the tribe of Judah took the fight to the Canaanites that lived in the hill country, and in the Negeb (that is the southern wilderness between Jerusalem and the Sinai Peninsula) and the lowlands in the territory that the LORD had allotted to them.  From there they attacked Hebron (formerly known as Kiriath-arba), and they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai (I presume these are the names of three Canaanite kings).  All this occurred while Caleb was still alive an leading the tribe of Judah.

​When it came time to attach the city now known as Debir which was formerly known as Kiriath-sepher, Caleb made a promise that the man that captured that city would be given Caleb's daughter Achsah in marriage.  It was Caleb's nephew, Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz, who captured this city and won the hand of Achsah in marriage.  So Caleb gave all of the Negeb to his daughter as a wedding present, but she knew that this desert wilderness was not all that her father had to offer her, so she went back to her father to ask for the springs of water and he also gave her the upper springs and lower springs.

Now the family of Jethro, the Kenites, who were loyal to the Israelites but had received no allotment of their own since they were not part of the Twelve Tribes went up with the people of Judah and they made their home among them in the Negeb (the land that was just given to Caleb's daughter).  God gave the descendants of Moses' father-in-law peace and rest in the Land, even though it was a land that did not belong to them.

Judah and Simeon continued to battle together to capture the city of Zephath which they devoted to destruction, so it was called Hormah which means "Devoted" or "Dedicated" or more specifically "to designate or consign to the afterlife."  They then continued their Southern Campaign taking Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.  They were able to drive out the Canaanites inhabitants from all the hill country, because the LORD was with them, but they did not gain victory over those in the plain because those Canaanites has chariots of iron, so the people of Judah were unable to defeat them in battle.

Hebron was given to Caleb as Moses had promised, and Caleb drove out of the Land the three sons of Anak (the people that were the giants that made the original spies feel like grasshoppers).  Judah had much success because the LORD was with them, but not all the other tribes fought so hard or had as much success.

Benjamin failed to drive the Jebusites out of the Jebusites that lived in Jerusalem and they will still be living there among the Israelites at the time of King David in 2 Samuel 24, for David will buy the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite and the oxen used for the sacrifice in that passage for fifty shekels of silver.  This will be the exact land that the Temple would eventually be built on by Solomon.

We see that the house of Joseph, probably meaning the tribe of Ephraim from which Joshua had come, did go to battle against Bethel (which was formerly named Luz).  The text explains why there is a different city name Luz now, because there was an inhabitant of the city that the Ephraimites asked for directions to the city, and they promised to deal kindly with him if he was honest with them, and when they let him go, he went to the land of the Hittites and built a new city there with the name of Luz.

This is the end of the good news, for we will next time see a long list now of how the other tribes failed to drive the Canaanites out of the Land and there does not seem to be any record that they even tried to fight them like Judah did.  Instead, they simply let their enemies live among them, work among them and even intermarry with their daughters so that soon the culture of the wicked Canaanites started to become the culture of the Israelites, which would force the LORD to bring judgement upon His people so that the would cry out for deliverance and the judge that He would provide as deliverer would lead the people back in repentance for a time.  However the revival that we will see is short-lived (usually for as long as the judge is alive, but sometimes not even that long) and we'll continue to see a downward spiral where the people quickly return to their old ways faster and faster and they become more and more wicked until we will get to 1 Samuel where the people will ultimately reject the LORD as their king and will desire to have a king like all the other nations.  There were supposed to be holy and separate from all the other nations but they will desire to be just like everyone else in a relatively short period of time after the time of Joshua, and the Gentile peoples around them won't win this battle with swords or spears or chariots, but by the people of God engaging in moral compromise and backsliding until they could no longer be told apart from the Gentiles and wanted to be just like them in every way, including wanting a king.  The book of Judges will tell us all about how this rot and decay happened, even to the point of them wanting to choose a king for themselves that was as morally depraved as they were--for he would one day turn to consorting with witches when the LORD would not speak to him.  I don't want to get too far ahead though....just know that's where the story is going.  If it feels like we get to the end of the book of Judges and everything just got worse and worse and there was never any happy resolution, that's exactly how you are supposed to feel at the end.  You are to desire the Messiah to come and fix everything and be the Judge that will deal with all of the enemies of God that still remain and will turn His people away from their sins and deal with their greatest enemy once and for all, and He will not only be Judge, but also King of Kings and Lord of Lords.