Outline of Chapter 1:

         vv.     1–7           Judah and Simeon move against the Canaanites and the Perizzites in Bezek

         vv.     8–9           Judah moves against Jerusalem and the Canaanites

         v.       10           Judah Moves Against Hebron

         vv.    11–15         Debir is Taken/Caleb, his daughter and his son-in-law

         vv.    16–20         Further movements of Judah and Simeon

         vv.    21–29         Early history of Benjamin and the house of Joseph (the Sons of Rachel)

         vv.    30–36         The early history of Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan

Charts, Maps and Short Doctrines:

         Introduction         Matthew Henry on Judges 1

         Introduction         Eleazar, the 2^nd High Priest

         Introduction         Phinehas, the 3^rd High Priest

         v.       2              The Preeminence of Judah

         v.       3              The Wholesale Destruction of the Indigenous Heathen in Palestine

         v.       4              Brief Summary of the Perizzites

         v.       7              Matthew Henry Comments on Judges 1:7

         v.       7              Exegetes Who Do not Think that Adoni-Bezek is Redeemed

         v.       6              The Historical Perspective of Cutting off the Thumbs and Big Toes

         v.       8              The Jebusites in Jerusalem

         v.       8              A Chronology of Events

         v.      10              The Sequence of Events in the Capture of Hebron

         v.      10              The Key Differences Between the Attacks on Hebron

         v.      12              The Authorship of the Book of Judges and Narrative Inserts

         v.      13              Othniel’s Relationship to Caleb

         v.      13              How Are Othniel and Achsah Related?

         v.      13              Incest

         v.      16              A Summary of the Doctrine of the Kenites

         v.      16              Possible Reasons Why the Kenites Leave the City of Palms

         v.      17              The Cities and Peoples Devoted to God by Israel

         v.      17              The Cities and Peoples not Completely Devoted to God by Israel

         v.      18              The Five Cities of the Philistines

         v.      19              God With Us

         v.      21              Comparing Joshua 15:63 to Judges 1:21

         v.      21              A Summary of Judges 17–21

Judges 17–18: Micah and the Danites

Judges 19–21: The Degeneracy of the Tribe of Benjamin

         v.      22              A Summary of the City of Bethel

         v.      25              Basic Gospel Vocabulary

         v.      26              The Possible Locations for New Luz

         v.      26              Rahab and the Man of Luz

         v.      29              Map Showing Location of Gezer

         v.      31              The Short Doctrine of Acco

         v.      31              The City of Aphik in Asher

         v.      32              Keil and Delitzsch on the Asherite Cities

         v.      34              God’s Postscript for the Era of the Judges

         v.      35              Why Israel was Generally Unsuccessful in Canaan

I ntroduction: In the book of Joshua, Joshua led Israel into the Land of Promise and essentially conquered it. This does not mean that Joshua conquered each and every city; however, Israel conquered enough major cities and killed enough heathen in order to have a solid foothold in the land. Whereas, they could not simply erect cities and settle down; they would be able to erect cities and continue to conquer those around them.

What we have in this first chapter of the Judges is, Israel has begun to settle into the cities given them (Joshua 15–19); and they have begun, in some cases, to conquer the individual cities belonging to them which Joshua had not. However, in many cases, the people were simply settling in and learning to live with their neighbors.

In today’s thinking, many would assume that what Israel has done thus far is barbaric; and that learning to live with the indigenous people of this land is the prudent and moral thing to do. Wrong! God did not just arbitrarily give Israel a chunk of land; God gave Israel a chunk of land inhabited by people whose degeneracy was so great as to require—dare I say it?—genocide. Some of these people worshiped Molech. They would construct a statue of Molech and put fire to this statue to heat it with fire; then they would take their own babies and place these babies in the glowing hot arms of Molech as their reasonable sacrifice to this god. These are people whose degeneracy had become complete, and God was ready to destroy them.

Furthermore, there were groups of people who absolutely and irrationally hated Israel. Well, their hatred is irrational from a human perspective; however, very rational from the divine perspective. The Jews are God’s people—not some localized god whom they build statues to—but the God of the Universe, the God Who created man; the God Who created the universe. Those in the land hated the True God with every fibre of their being; and therefore, hated Israel with the same intense passion. Their negative volition toward God would be revealed in their absolute hatred of Israel. The other evening, I was watching a news-magazine program; and a young Palestinian man, who had been arrested, was being interviewed. He was around 21 and had been arrested at age 17 for attempting a suicide bombing mission. He found a place where there were dozens of Jewish civilians and he walked toward them with the intention of setting off the bomb in his backpack. His bomb did not go off, he was arrested, and now he was being interviewed, several years later. His mother had raised him with the idea that he would die killing as many Jews as possible with his death. He believed that God would create for him 72 virgins whom he would live with after this death. This was his mindset—he had no thought of going to school; no thought of marrying the woman of his dreams and having a family; no thought of finding a job—he wanted to end his own life killing as many Jews as he possibly could, and then get rewarded by his god for doing so. Now, don’t misunderstand me—not all Palestinians think in this way. However, there are thousands of them which do. They are raised from their youth to think this way; the hatred of their parents for the Jew is so great, that they would be happy and proud to see their young son die killing Jews.

Israel is a tiny postage stamp of a country in the Middle East. Israel takes up less than one-tenth of 1% of the Middle East. Hawaii is about twice that percentage of the size of the United States. We often have the impression that Israel is a much larger nation in the Middle East, but it is not. It is simply the hatred of many Arabs which makes it seem as though the Jews have taken over some huge piece of land. Their hatred will not even be satisfied if they could completely wipe out the Jew in the Middle East, because their hatred is actually toward God, and manifested toward the Jews. This is not new. This goes back to the book of the Judges and before. Man has an old sin nature and some men despise God so much, that they will lash out at anything associated with God. Let me give you a minor example—when a court or school district or a state makes a ruling with regards to evolution being taught in the classroom, try to discuss this from a Christian perspective anywhere on the internet. Although you might have a few who will argue the point with you, a large number of people will verbally lash out against you, calling you names, even disparaging your heritage. They will make a number of assumptions about you: you are brainwashed, you are not very intelligent, you have never thought your position through, and you will go along with whatever someone else tells you. I’ve been accused of brainwashing my students and of being a lousy teacher with extremely stupid students. Their extreme emotion is palpable.

This is what we had in the Middle East circa 1400–1100 b.c., the time of the judges, but amplified many times. We had groups of people whose hatred for God was all-consuming. Therefore, God was going to wipe some of these tribes out. Now, don’t get all flipped-out over this. Israel was a theocracy at that time and God communicated with Israel at that time. This is not the case today; there are no theocracies in this world today in this dispensation. God is not calling upon any nation to commit genocide or to become involved in ethnic cleansing or anything like this. That was something confined to that era, and God was very specific.

As we have studied in the Law, God recognized the rights and dignity of slaves and of foreigners, and Israel was to deal with these sub-groups fairly. How should I explain this? If some person wanders into your church, regardless of their political affiliations and regardless of what they felt about God in the past, you receive them with graciousness. You don’t jump all over them for holding this or that incorrect view; you do not castigate them for whatever sins that they have committed which shock you. Their coming into your church indicates some sort of positive volition; and you treat them with the same graciousness as God treated you when you turned to Him. The nation Israel represented God on earth. Therefore, even though this nation was called upon to destroy this or that people; they were also a refuge for those who sought God. A person who came to Israel was a person often in search of God and in search of a relationship with God, just as we find with a person who comes into a church. Therefore, as we examine the book of the Judges, we have to bear these things in mind, and be able to strike a balance in Israel’s role. Now, this should not be difficult to do—our God is perfect justice and perfect righteousness; He is also gracious toward us. Anyone who comes to God through Jesus Christ will be saved eternally; anyone who believes in Jesus Christ will spend eternity with God, despite what he or she has done in their life. Just as we can face God as our Savior or as our Judge, so was Israel to her neighbors. As we examine this chapter, and Israel’s conquering of this or that city; bear in mind that we are only seeing one side of the picture.

Let me add that, Israel is made up of a variety of believers, and that God dealt with them and their walk as well. Therefore, what happens in the Land of Promise is going to be a reflection of God’s relationship to Israel; and some people will be left in the midst of Israel as thorns in their side, to test Israel—but, that is Judges 2, which we will get to in due time.

Keller: Immediately after the conquest an astonishing thing happened: the tribes of Israel dug their toes into the ground they had won. They can therefore no longer have been a typical nomadic people. Canaan had experienced invasions of nomads from time immemorial but they had always been merely episodes. The tribes would graze their flocks and then one day they would disappear as suddenly as they had come. Israel, on the other hand, became static, cultivating fields and clearing forests...they gave up their tents and built themselves huts; they settled down among the ruins of the houses in the towns they had conquered. In Debir, Bethshemesh and Bethel remains of their primitive and poverty-stricken furnishings were found on top of the strata which were deposited when the towns were burned down. This break with the past is clearly recognisable from the excavations. Where previously patrician houses and palaces of the long established feudal barons had been standing, there now arose peasants’ huts and fences. The massive defence walls show signs of having had necessary repairs done to them.

Joshua has essentially retired after distributing the land. Some commentators never were able to grasp that. They feel as though Joshua had done something wrong because he did not train a man to follow him. Moses appeared to train Joshua; however, Joshua did not appear to train anyone in particular. However, God gave no guidance whatsoever to Joshua in this regard. If he was able to get a man to take his place, fine; and if he wasn’t fine. There was no indication anywhere that there needed to be someone to rule over Israel. Israel is a theocracy where God rules Israel. God will inspire judges to rule over disputes and to iron out problems. However, what God does not set up was a man to rule over all of Israel.

With this first chapter of Judges, we begin part I of the three parts of the book of Judges—the introduction and overview. This part I can be broken down into two sections. Chapter 1 just gives us an overall view as to what progress the various tribes made with regards to the divine mandate—capture and subdue the land. This first chapter will give us an update as to what each of nine tribes did individually to take the remainder of the land which was their inheritance.

ZPEB: [Israel failed] to complete the Conquest, particularly in such strategic areas as the Esdraelon valley (Judg. 1:27, 28), Gezer, the Aijalon valley, Jerusalem (1:21, 29, 35), and the northern coastal plain (1:31). Israelite control was limited to three separate areas—Judah, the central highlands, and a portion of Galilee. Only Ephraim appears to have completed the occupation of its designated area, which accounts for its preeminence during the period (8:1–3; 12:1). The remainder of the tribes were hard pressed to maintain their positions and after were involved in conflict with neighboring countries.

Levi is not mentioned, as it was not their responsibility to secure their possession. Gad and Reuben are not mentioned, as they controlled the land on the other side of the Jordan. However, for some reason, Issachar is not mentioned either in this chapter. Joshua had taken these tribes through and had conquered enough of the land and enough cities that the individual tribes could settle their area without fear of attack and/or removal. However, in each inheritance, there were additional cities to subdue and groups of peoples to eradicate. Actually, the entire book of Judges deals with the interaction between the Israelites and the Canaanites in the land. In general, vv. 1–26 the most successful that Israel will be, although the success is primarily confined to Judah and to Ephraim. It is downhill from there. The remainder of the chapter will deal with the failure of the other tribes.

Interestingly enough, the chapter will move from the south to the north when naming the tribes of Israel. It almost appears as if we go from the tribes which do the most with what God gives them to those who do the worst. However, between the very successful aggressions of Judah (Judges 1:1–20) and moderately successful aggressions of Ephraim and West Manasseh (Judges 1:22–26), we find the tribe of Benjamin unable to secure Jerusalem (Judges 1:21). However, after that, we appear to generally go in the order of disobedient to more disobedient.

In general, Judah will take the hill country, but will be unable to secure the coastal plain between the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea (vv. 1–12). Joseph will conquer the city of Bethel (vv. 22–26), but will not be able to expel the Canaanites from the rest of their inheritance. In fact, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun were all unable to conquer the Canaanites living in their inheritance, although they were strong enough to collect tribute from them (or, to make slaves of them) (vv. 27–30). Asher, Naphtali, and Dan actually suffered setbacks or were held to an uneasy co-existence with the Canaanites in their area (vv. 31–34). My guess is that Issachar is not mentioned because this tribe did nothing to secure its inheritance.

At the conclusion of this chapter, Keil and Delitzsch tell us: The angel of the Lord therefore appeared at Bochim, and declared to the Israelites, that because they had not obeyed the command of the Lord, to make no covenant with the Canaanites, the Lord would no more drive out these nations, but would cause them and their gods to become a snare to them (Judges 2:1–5). From this divine revelation it is evident, on the one hand, that the failure to exterminate the Canaanites had its roots in the negligence of the tribes of Israel; and on the other hand, that the accounts of the wars of the different tribes, and the enumeration of the towns in the different possessions out of which the Canaanites were not expelled, were designed to show clearly the attitude of the Israelites to the Canaanites in the age immediately following the death of Joshua, or to depict the historical basis on which the development of Israel rested in the era of the judges.

Authorship throughout the book of Judges is difficult to determine. We will operate on two principles: (1) given the previous Scripture written, who is the likely author; and, (2) given what is written in any given passage, who is the likely author. In the book of Genesis, we saw authorship handed off continually, and the likely author was often quite obvious (for instance, who else but Jacob would write Gen. 29?). Because Phinehas led Israel in Joshua 22, and the death of his father is mentioned at the end of the book of Joshua, he would be the most likely candidate to write the end of Joshua (he or his father, Eleazar), and therefore, the beginning of the book of Judges. He ends one book because he is beginning another. It makes less sense for Bob to finish the book of Joshua, and then for Ray to decide he is going to write the book of Judges. It is more likely that this would be accomplished at one fell swoop. Therefore, Phinehas is the person who probably at least began writing the book of Judges.

There is a problem with this theory, and it is that the vocabulary and sentence structure of the end of Joshua is moderately complex; whereas, the vocabulary and sentence structure of Judges 1 is quite simple, if not repetitive. One possibility is, Eleazar wrote the final couple chapters of Joshua; and Phinehas wrote the first couple chapters of Judges. This could account for the different style and vocabulary.

Almost every commentator around assumes that Joshua dies, and then the events of Judges 1 take place. This is but one narrow option. The first couple verses can be an introduction to the entire book, the author now aware that what is recorded will result in a book, and possibly aware that this book will become a part of the cannon of Scripture (something which Joshua seemed to grasp immediately and something that Moses was not hip to until the last month or so of his life). I want for you to consider the possibility that this author has picked up the pen following the death of Joshua and is now recording events which Joshua did not, although some of these events took place during Joshua’s life. The first two verses of this book would act as (1) an introduction to the book of Judges; and, (2) indicate why this is being recorded by someone else. Joshua’s death will be mentioned again in Judges 2. Why would an author do that unless it was to orient his readers to time? Therefore, for awhile, we will assume that Phinehas is writing this (or, whoever wrote the final chapters of Joshua), and we will entertain the possibility that Judges 1 took place during the lifetime of Joshua. Another point to consider when placing this in time: does it make sense for Israel to have gone to war against the Canaanites and the Amorites in the land, and then to take 15–30 years off before mounting an attack against enemies that they are living next to? Recall that this is the generation of promise, not the gen X’ers. Also recall that Caleb is alive and strong, as healthy as ever. Is there any reason to think that Caleb would wait for his friend to die before he did anything in his land? You must read the Bible with some concept of logic and continuity. Given Caleb’s disposition and faith, it would seem likely that two months into the land, he would be looking to take the cities and areas not already dominated by Israel. The other tribes have a momentum going. It would be most likely that they would immediately launch an attack on the unconquered cities.

You will note that there is some actual arrangement with regards to the birth and the mothers of the tribes covered. Gad and Reuben are not mentioned, as they are on the other side of the Jordan and they had moved into land which was essentially conquered. Levi is not mentioned because Levi does not have a particular area, but occupies several cities and is responsible for the spiritual aspects of Israel. Judah and Simeon were born of Leah, of the first four of Jacob’s sons which were born. Caleb was a part of this tribe. Benjamin and Joseph were the last two sons born, both to Rachel, whom Jacob loved. Zebulun was born to Leah (along with Issachar who is not mentioned in this chapter); Asher was born to Leah’s maid Zilpah; and Naphtali and Dan were both born to Bilhah, Rachel’s maid. It is important to recognize that what this chapter deals with is organized by tribe, not by time.

Judah and Simeon Move Against the Canaanites and the Perizzites in Bezek

In this first section, we begin with our focus on the tribes of Judah and Simeon. In fact, in vv. 1–8, we will follow one particular campaign against the city of Bezek, with the result that the king of Bezek will be evangelized. If you will recall from the introduction, you must be able to balance out God’s judgment of these heathen people with His offer to take them to Himself. All unbelievers will spend eternity in hell, eternity separated from God; however, anyone who wants a relationship with God can attain that status by simply believing in Jesus Christ, an act which can take as little as a few seconds. This option to face God’s judgment or God’s grace is before all men, which option will be emphasized in the first 7 verses of this chapter.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          After the death of Josue, the children of Israel consulted the Lord, saying: “Who shall go up before us against the Chanaanite, and shall be the leader of the war?”

Masoretic Text                       And so he was after a death of Joshua:

And so inquired sons of Israel by Y^ehowah, to say, “Who will go up for us against the Canaanite the first to fight against him?”

Septuagint                              And it came to pass after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up for us first against the Chananites, to fight against them?”

Significant differences: No significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                              After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, "Which of our tribes should attack the Canaanites first?".

The Message                         A time came after the death of Joshua when the People of Israel asked GOD, "Who will take the lead in going up against the Canaanites to fight them?".

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

HCSB                                     After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the LORD, "Who will be the first to fight for us against the Canaanites?"

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

ESV                                       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?"

Young’s Updated LT             And it comes to pass, after the death of Joshua, that the sons of Israel ask at Jehovah, saying, “Who goes up for us unto the Canaanite, at the commencement, to fight against it?”

What is the gist of this verse? After the death of Joshua, Israel had to determine what to do next. They inquire of Jehovah God who will fight against the heathen in the land.

Translation: And so it was after the death of Joshua:... We begin with the phrase, And it came about after the death of Joshua. It would seem clear enough on the first read that first Joshua dies, and then this chapter takes place, which is the position that many exegetes take. However, as I mentioned before, I don’t necessarily see it that way. I see this more as a title to the book. This is a general introductory phrase to the entire book—not necessarily to this chapter. To be honest with you, I had no idea if anyone agreed with me that these events took place during the lifetime of Joshua. However, this is how I read the passage.

Barnes comments: From i. 1 to ii. 9 is a consecutive narrative, ending with the death of Joshua. Hence the events in this chapter and in ii. 1–6 are to be taken as belonging to the lifetime of Joshua. Keil and Delitzsch comment: the book of Judges takes up the thread of the history where the book of Joshua had dropped it.

What we have at the beginning of this book is somewhat of a title for the entire book. It was fitting that it began where the book of Joshua left off, topic-wise. A small portion of Judges occurred during Joshua’s lifetime (up to Judges 2:9), but the majority of the book occurred after. The author of the book of Judges (or, at least of this first portion) begins writing after the death of Joshua; however, his subject matter is not completely confined to what took place after the death of Joshua. My thinking is, this is Phinehas, who wrote the final chapter of Joshua (more or less), and has begun to give an overview. “Joshua has died, and now I am going to continue with the history of Israel and her relationship to God.” Phinehas is not going to necessarily pick up the narrative at Joshua’s death, because there would be a period of time when Joshua was old and not leading his troops into battle. There would be a period of time when Joshua would be in a state of retirement—albeit, not necessarily as long as the retirements which we enjoy at this time. Things would take place during this retirement and continue beyond Joshua’s death. That is the book of Judges. Judges 1 is going to give us an overall view of what took place while Joshua was in retirement, and there would be some overlap with his death. Now, the reason that we can reasonably postulate this is, Joshua’s death will be mentioned specifically in Judges 2:6–9. A reasonable hypothesis is, his death is covered by way of giving us a point in time for Judges 2. So, Judges 1 occurs during Joshua’s retirement and after his death; and the remainder of Judges takes place after Joshua’s death.

Bear in mind, the incidents recorded in this book, apart from his death, do not involve Joshua at all, so, topically, they fit in better with this book than they would have with the book of Joshua, even though a short portion of this book did take place during his lifetime.

Translation: ...And so the sons of Israel inquired by Y^ehowah,... My thinking is that this would be by the use of Urim and Thumim, the method given by God to Israel to ask God’s direction in any matter.

Zodhiates explains: the phrase “asked the Lord” is found only in the books of Judges and Samuel. The civil ruler of Israel had the right to ask the high priest to consult the Urim and the Thummim for him (Num. 27:21). This was the means which God set up for the judges, and later the kings, to know His judgment on any particular matter.

Num. 27:21 reads, incidentally: “Furthermore, he [this was a reference to Joshua] will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Jehovah. At his command they will go out and at his command, they will come in, he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation.” However, despite the context of Num. 27:21, this also gives us a general understanding of how Israel could inquire of God. Since Joshua is not in the picture at this time, it would be reasonable that elders from the various tribes have gone to Phinehas, the current High Priest, in order to determine what they should do. Eleazar (the father of Phinehas) has died by the time this is written; and these events either take place during his retirement or after his death. Phinehas, at this time, would be an old man, but still in a position of leadership. He is the most likely person to have recorded these events and to have been approached to determine the will of God.

Translation: ...saying, “Who will go up for us against the Canaanite;... This is an interesting general question, as there are Canaanites all over the Land of Promise—in nearly every territory of every tribe. What will be apparent is, only Judah and Simeon will move against the Canaanites; so that God, through Phinehas, will direct Judah to take the cities in its territory from the Canaanite. Apparently, the other tribes will sit back while this is going on.

Despite the fact that this might seem to be an unusual question, realize that there is no set military leader who stands out after Joshua. Joshua is either retired or dead at the time that these events take place; and is not going to be leading any tribe of Israel anywhere. Therefore, the tribes of Israel must get some kind of direction for their lives.

Gill suggests that the Israelites needed more land to farm and more space to live in , but that is not the case here at all. They have just conquered the Land of Promise and are about to move into their territories distributed to them by Joshua. They realize that God has guided them and has been with them throughout the past 40+ years, and it seems reasonable to them to determine what should be done next. They seem to be aware that rooting out the Canaanite population is still a part of God’s plan for them.

Translation:...[who will be] the first to fight against him?” After the word Canaanite we have the definite article and feminine singular of t^echillâh (ה ָ  ̣ח  ׃) [pronounced t^e-khil-LAW], which means beginning, first; previously. What this might imply is that what follows occurred previously—that is, prior to the death of Joshua. The only problem with that is that this falls within a quotation. However, it would make more sense for this question to have been asked soon after settling into the inheritance of the land, rather than several decades later. Young renders this at the commencement.

Keil and Delitzsch explain that this refers to which tribe would initiate the attack upon the Canaanites, as opposed to which tribe would take the lead in the attack upon the Canaanites. In other words, Judah (v. 2) would be the first of the tribes to initiate the campaign against the Canaanites or to take the lead, but that they would not be considered to be the tribe over the other tribes; this does not imply that they are the foremost of the other tribes or that they had somehow assumed a position of commander-in-chief of the other tribes.

There are two basic viewpoints with respect to time. (1) Joshua died and now Israel has decided to take the remainder of the land which God has given them; or, (2) Joshua hasn’t died, but this is written after he died; at the time of the writing, Joshua is in semi-retirement. Israel is on a roll; they just conquered enough of the land to be able to settle in it without fear for their lives. They are fully aware of God’s help and guidance. They are pumped militarily. Furthermore, God has ordered them to take the land and cities which remain. They were not to co-exist with the peoples of the land. So, which is most logical: (1) within a year or two, they move against those who remain in the land, or, (2) they cool their hills for a few decades, see fewer and fewer signs from God, and suddenly decide, en masse, to attack their enemies separately? In this chapter, we have a progress report on all of the tribes of Israel. Since Joshua’s death is mentioned again in the second chapter, my thinking, obviously, is that all of this took place prior to his death, but while he was in semi-retirement.

The last verb is the Qal imperfect of to go up, to ascend, to rise. Given all the times we have seen this verb, it seems that it is used figuratively as well. That is, not for people physically going up, but that this is often used for going into battle against someone, or to aggressive movements made by an army (here, the Israelite army). Although the NIV Study Bible says that Israel has been camped in Gilgal (800 ft. Below sea level), and that they are going up against Canaanites who live in the hills and on tells (2500–3500 ft. high), this is an incorrect interpretation of this verse. First of all, Israel has been camped in Shiloh during the final portion of Joshua (Joshua 18:1) and the priest and the tabernacle appear to be in Shiloh as well and this is where they would go to ask of the Lord (Num. 27:21 Joshua 18:1 22:12–13). Now, all of that aside, most of the time, it would make sense for Israel to go up against the Canaanites, as they are generally parked upon a tell in a fortified city.

Now, there is an important implication here. I want to place this in a time-line of sorts. If the tribes are in their separate areas at the time of this verse, why on earth would the tribe of Judah, with Simeon living in his midst, travel to Shiloh, and ask who will go up against the Canaanite? The answer will be the tribe of Judah (v. 2), and then Judah will ask the tribe of Simeon to go with them (v. 3). Do you see the logical problem? Is Judah, in his own area, living side-by-side with Simeon, going to go to Shiloh and ask which tribe should go against their enemies? It makes no sense.

Wesley equates this attack with the first judge, Othniel, in Judges 3:9–13. However, in this chapter, Israel appears to be the aggressor; and, in Judges 3, Israel appears to be responding to servitude. In our chapter, it is very clear as to who goes up from Israel and whom they capture. In Judges 3, it appears to be a different enemy altogether, and the fighting does not appear to be confined to Judah and Simeon only.

What is a distinct possibility is that this takes place immediately after Joshua’s farewell address in Joshua 23 (Joshua 24 is not his final words to Israel). The land has been conquered, more or less; the cities and areas distributed to the various tribes; and Joshua, old and advanced in years, calls the elders of Israel to hear him. Interestingly enough, Joshua warns Israel to remain separate from the peoples still in the land and adds, “Know with certainty that Jehovah your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you, but they will become a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Jehovah your God has given you.” (Joshua 23:15). It would be reasonable that, at the conclusion of this message, the elders go before Phinehas and ask for direction (“Who will go up against the Canaanite?”). This is also in agreement with early occurrences of the book of the Judges (Judges 20:18, 28; where the tribes ask who should take the lead against the tribe of Benjamin).

Now, since Bezek (v. 4) is not mentioned in the book of Joshua, then this would not make sense for this to take place during the initial southern campaign. Therefore, the only logical time frame for this to have occurred would have been between the time of the southern campaign and prior to the moving into the land. Therefore, when it said that the tribes went to inquire about who should go up, this means that they would have been gathered together in one place. Nothing is said about the gathering of Israel to any particular place. This gives us two possibilities: (1) this occurred immediately after the distribution of land; or, (2) the incidents in vv. 1–8 took place immediately after the funeral and mourning for Joshua (which no doubt would have involved the gathering of the tribes). Although the first option is the most likely, as the tribes had just returned from a very successful 7 year campaign throughout Palestine, were pumped, and knew where there were pockets of resistance, I do allow that the latter option is a reasonable possibility. In the latter case, the incidents recorded in these first twenty verses are not necessarily a chronological progression of this particular attack, as v. 8 could have occurred at any time before or after v. 7 (which takes with it the incidents which follow).

Let’s return to exegesis:

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so said Y^ehowah, “Judah will go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand.”

Septuagint                              And the Lord said, “Judas shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.”

Significant differences: None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                              "Judah!" the LORD answered. "I'll help them take the land."

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         The LORD answered, "Judah's troops will go first. I am about to hand the Canaanites over to you."

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

WEB                                      Yahweh said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

Young’s Updated LT             And Jehovah says , “Judah will go up; lo, I have given the land into his hand.”

What is the gist of this verse? Jehovah God tells Israel that Judah will be the first to go up against the Canaanites; and that He has given the land belonging to them into their hands.

Translation: And so Y^ehowah said,... More than likely, God was asked through Urim and Thummim. There was a breastplate with twelve stones, each one representing a different tribe. Whether what is said here was audible to, say, Phinehas, or whether it was the result of the response of Urim and Thummim, along with Scripture being quoted, it is hard to tell. However, we do not have a particular person mentioned, which would indicate to me that it is a matter of using Urim and Thummim. Also, the time frame, as mentioned previously, is probably immediately after the distribution of land, prior to the tribes leaving Shiloh. Barnes suggests that the high priest involved here is Eleazar and not Phinehas, his son; given that we find Phinehas in Joshua 22:30 and Judges 20:28, it is my opinion that this would be Phinehas. This would agree with the time frame which I have proposed.

Translation:...“Judah will go up. Judah was the first tribe to be assigned territory and is the first tribe to go off on its own to begin the mop up operations in Palestine. Essentially, Judah is assuming a leadership role, as Jacob predicted in Gen. 49:8–10: “Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies and your father’s sons will bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down as a lion and, as a lion, who dares to rouse him up? The scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes.” Let’s take a look at these brothers in the order that they were born: Reuben is somewhat isolated on the other side of the Jordan, and has never really assumed a clear, older brother, leadership role with regards to the other tribes. Simeon appears to have no backbone or leadership potential, and Levi’s leadership is spiritual. That takes us to the fourth son of Leah and Jacob, Judah.

Also, let me mention the obvious—Judah refers to a tribe, even though we will find masculine singular verbs throughout in association with Judah. Judah does not refer to Abraham’s son Judah, who had died approximately a half a millennium ago.

Translation: Behold, I have given the land into his hand.” God assure victory. We do not know exactly what questions were asked or if God spoke directly, in some way, to Phinehas. It is an interesting phenomenon for God to speak to this matter, and yet for there to be no record as to the mechanics, something which holds true throughout most of the Bible (some notable exceptions being, God speaking directly to Moses as a man speaks to a man; or speaking in dreams to Samuel). It is reasonable that this could be ascertained via yes or no questions employing Urim and Thummim (which still does not give us much by way of mechanics).

I should also point out that it is interesting that this piecemeal approach is taken. The tribes do not altogether take the land which was given them—moving as individual military units against the Canaanites in the land; but it is decided that Judah will move first to unseat the remaining heathen in her land.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so said Judah to Simeon his brother, “Come up [together] with me into my allocation and we will fight against the Canaanite and I will go [together] with you into your allocation.” And so went [together] with him Simeon.

Septuagint                              And Judas said to his brother Symeon, “Come up with me into my lot, and let us array ourselves against the Chananites, and I also will go with you into your lot.” And Symeon went with him.

Significant differences: None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                              The people of Judah went to their relatives, the Simeon tribe, and said, "Canaanites live in the land God gave us. Help us fight them, and we will help you." Troops from Simeon came to help Judah.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

HCSB                                     Judah said to his brother Simeon, "Come with me to my territory, and let us fight against the Canaanites. I will also go with you to your territory." So Simeon went with him.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

HNV                                       Yehudah said to Shim`on his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Kena`anim; and I likewise will go with you into your lot. So Shim`on went with him.

WEB                                      Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot. So Simeon went with him.

Young’s Updated LT             And Judah says to Simeon his brother, “Go up with me into my lot, and we fight against the Canaanite—and I have gone, even I, with you into your lot.” And Simeon goes with him.

What is the gist of this verse? The tribe of Judah asks the tribe of Simeon to join in the fight against the Canaanites. Recall that the tribe of Simeon is within the territory of Judah. The alliance Judah offers is, “You go with us to help us right the Canaanites in our territory, and we will go with you to fight the Canaanites in your territory.”

Translation: Judah said to Simeon his brother,... Recall that first, Judah was given a huge portion of land from the land of Canaan; then a portion of their land in the central southern area of Judah, was given to Simeon (Joshua 19:1–9). Therefore, since Simeon lives in the center of Judah, it makes sense for them to act in concert.

Translation:...“Come up [together] with me into my allocation... The twelve tribes had fought together side-by-side for seven years. It makes logical sense for them to join forces in one way or another in order to take out the remaining Canaanites in their respective properties. Simeon’s portion of land came from the midst of Judah (Joshua 19:1).

Translation: ...and we will fight against the Canaanite... There are two things in the beginning of this chapter which are encouraging: first, Judah is immediately getting down to taking care of business. There was no implication that Israel, once having taken the land, would be able to take a long and leisurely vacation. The tribes were still to go into their individual parcels and to eradicate the Canaanites which were there. Judah got right to this responsibility. The second encouraging act here is that Judah does not seem to acknowledge any sort of problem with Simeon having taken a portion of their land in the allotment, and there seems to be no bitterness on the part of Simeon that somehow they got shortchanged because they were given a few cities within the inheritance of Judah. We don’t have any evidence of a marring of this relationship, as we did, for instance, with the tribe of Manasseh, which complained about their inheritance (Joshua 17:14–18).

Translation: ...then I will go [together] with you into your allocation.” This is a standard war-time treaty: “You join me in my war against the Canaanites in my cities, and I will join you in your fight against the Canaanites in your cities.”

Translation: So went [together] with him Simeon. Judah and Simeon are probably more closely related than any two other tribes, as Simeon’s land is within Judah’s. It makes sense for them to function together.

This verse does introduce a slight, almost imperceptible problem, which McGee points out: At first this looks like a fine sign of cooperation between Judah and Simeon, and it was, but it was also a sign of weakness. The tribe of Judah had no business asking for help to drive the Canaanites out of their particular portion of land. With God’s help they should have been able to do it. As a result, the Canaanites were never completely driven out of the land. On the one hand, it is possible that McGee is being a bit too hard on the Judahites, as the tribe of Simeon lived within Judah; however, on the other, the direction from God was for Judah to go up. Although I recognize McGee’s point and respect his opinion, I really don’t see any problem with Judah and Simeon establishing this sort of alliance. There was nothing to indicate the God would forbid such a wartime alliance (as God does when Israel desires to ally herself to Egypt).

Now, just in case you are new to exegesis, this is not the literal person Judah nor is it the literal person Simeon. This is not a conversation between the literal Judah or the literal Simeon, but between the heads of those two tribes at that time. This is what is known as a personification. That is, these tribes are named by their forefathers. For those who have studied a little Scripture, this seems like a pretty obvious point; however, I make it, because such personification is made throughout the Bible.

What we will find in the next dozen or so verses is the obedience of the tribes of Judah and Simeon—the people and cities which they conquer are briefly covered, as well as one previous incident recalled (Judges 1:11–15). Although some of these verses are in a chronogical order (e.g., v. 9 appears to follow the events of vv. 5–8); overall, this appears to simply be a list of the cities and territories conquered by Judah and Simeon. This list is summed up in v. 1:4a (So Judah went up and Jehovah gave the Canaanite and the Perizzite in their hand); and specific highlights are noted. Since v. 8 seems to be parenthetical and probably occurs before vv. 5–7; and since vv. 11–15 have already been covered in Joshua 15:13–19, this would indicate that the list of victories here are, in general, not in any sort of chronological order (which is typical of Semitic writings).

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so went up Judah and gave Y^ehowah the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hand. And so they struck them [down] in Bezek, ten of a thousand men.

Septuagint                              And Judas went up; and the Lord delivered the Chananite and the Pherezite into their hands, and they smote them in Bezek to ten thousand men.

Significant differences: None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                              Together they attacked an army of ten thousand Canaanites and Perizzites at Bezek, and the LORD helped Judah defeat them.

The Message                         So Judah went up. GOD gave them the Canaanites and the Perizzites. They defeated them at Bezek—ten military units!

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         Judah's troops went into battle, and the LORD handed the Canaanites and Perizzites over to them. They defeated 10,000 men at Bezek.

HCSB                                     When Judah attacked, the LORD handed the Canaanites and Perizzites over to them. They struck down 10,000 men in Bezek.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

LTHB                                     And Judah went up, and Jehovah delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. And they struck them in Bezek, ten thousand men.

Young’s Updated LT             And Judah goes up, and Jehovah gives the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hand, and they strike them in Bezek—ten thousand men.

What is the gist of this verse? Judah (and Simeon) defeat the Canaanites the Perizzites. They kill 10,000 men in Bezek.

From http://www.bible-history.com/map-israel-joshua/index.html The Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon, in the land of Mizpeh (Joshua 11:3).

Translation: And so Judah went up and Y^ehowah gave the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hand. The Canaanite and the Perizzite have been in this land for a long time. They date back as a people to the time of Abram in Gen. 13:7. In fact, at that time, they were the beginning of what could have been a great people at the time that Abraham was nothing but one man with one barren wife. However, who has despised the day of small things? (Zech. 4:10).

The Bible seems to use the term Canaanite in a general way—to refer to the tribes in the land in general (sometimes, it is the Canaanites and the Amorites together). Since we generally find 6 or so names strung together, maybe the idea is, this is a list of them. That is, Canaanites and Perizzites (or, Canaanites and Amorites) is a shorthand way of referring to all of the heathen tribes in the land. However, slightly more specifically, the Canaanites occupied the Jordan valley and the coastal plain between the mountains of Judah and the coast of the Mediterranean (Num. 13:29 Joshua 11:3). The Perizzites, generally speaking, occupied the mountains—specifically the mountain range which ran parallel to the Dead Sea and the Jordan River (Joshua 17:15). In this map, the Perizzites are shown to be in a different area. It is reasonable to assume that these groups moved around to different places. According to the book of Joshua, the Perizzites would be found where you see the Jebusites, Hittites and Amorites. We are twice given a rundown of where these various heathen peoples live. During the initial spying out of the land, we are told: “Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.” (Num. 13:29). Later, while Joshua was moving into the land and taking it from these people, we read: The Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon, in the land of Mizpeh (Joshua 11:3).

It is mostly likely that Israel was facing here a coalition of Canaanites and Perizzites. However, it is not out of the question that using these two names stands in for a coalition of several indigenous peoples of Palestine. If we do not take these names at face value, it is possible that this is a coalition of nomads and villagers.

Translation: They struck them [down] in Bezek—ten thousand men. Bezek has never been mentioned before. In those seemingly millions of cities named in the latter half of Joshua, there was no mention of a Bezek. Therefore, the theories run rampant here, placing it anywhere from the modern Bezqa near Jerusalem (which makes the most sense, by the way) to the mountains of Gilboa. On my MacMillan map and in the back of my NASB, Bezek is shown to be way up between Beth-Shean and Shechem (which is in Manasseh; and below Manasseh is Ephraim; and below Ephraim is Benjamin; and below Benjamin is Judah). This just seems too far north for Judah to be. Although I could come up with a scenario to place Judah that far north (perhaps they were pursuing Adoni-Bezek and his troops and they retreated northward); it just makes more sense for this city to be found within Judah’s territory.

It would make sense that, unless stated otherwise, that the tribes mentioned here are going to be rooting out enemy forces from their own immediate territory first. However, keep in mind that the original question was who (of the various tribes of Israel) would go up first. This tells us that there were left some strongholds of enemy forces that the Israelites were aware of that needed to be taken care of. This does not require the first act of aggression from Judah to be against such a concentration in its own land, as any tribe could have been chosen to go up. Bezek may have been a hasty campsite, a district or even quasi-city put together from bands of refugees who escaped the pummeling that Israel gave to the various southern cities. At least six years have passed since Israel had been in southern Palestine, which is enough time to regroup and to even establish another city. Still, given that we are speaking of Judah and Simeon, there is no reason to think that Bezek is anywhere else but in Judah. The title of the city’s leader comes from the name of the city.

Given the movement of Judah and Simeon in this chapter, and assuming that the incidents are generally in chronological order, these two tribes might be beginning in the northern-central portion of the hill country and then just worked their way south through the mountains.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and so they fought against him and so they struck [down] the Canaanite and the Perizzite.

Septuagint                              And they overtook Adonibezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they smote the Chananite and the Pherezite.

Significant differences: Apart from the first verb, which may simply be a matter of translation, there are no significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                              During the battle, Judah's army found out where the king of Bezek was, and they attacked there.

The Message                         They caught up with My-Master-Bezek there and fought him. They smashed the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         At Bezek they also caught up with Adoni Bezek. They fought him and defeated the Canaanites and Perizzites.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

HNV                                       They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the Kena`anim and the Perizzi.

Young's Updated LT              And they find Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fight against him, and smite the Canaanite and the Perizzite.

What is the gist of this verse? Judah and Simeon found the lord of Bezek (who was probably the military commander of the Canaanite-Perizzite army) in Bezek and attacked his forces in Bezek.

Translation: They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek... The name of the sovereign is hyphenated. The first word is âdôwn (ןד ָא) [pronounced aw-DOHN], the word we often know as adonai; and this word means lord, master, owner, superior, sovereign. There are actually some slight differences; the pointing under Aleph is ă rather than â and the wâw is missing, which is not uncommon for words with the long o. These minor changes are found most of the time when this word is hyphenated to a proper noun. This does not carry with it any necessary connotation of deity; simply one of sovereignty. I would think that this is actually a title, like pharaoh, which we would translate lord of Bezek.

Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge: Eusebius and Jerome mention two villages of this name [Bezek], near each other, about seventeen miles from Shechem, towards Scythopolis.

Keil and Delitzsch comment: It appears strange, too, that the king of Bezek is not mentioned in connection with the conquest of Canaan under Joshua. Bezek was probably situated more on the side towards the valley of the Jordan, where the Israelites under Joshua did not go. Possibly, too, the culminating point of Adoni-bezek's power, when he conquered so many kings, was before the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan, and it may at that time have begun to decline; so that he did not venture to undertake anything against the combined forces of Israel under Joshua, and it was not till the Israelitish tribes separated to go to their own possessions, that he once more tried the fortunes of war and was defeated. The children of Judah took him with them to Jerusalem, where he died. I don’t find this to be a problem that Bezel is not mentioned among the captured cities; if this is where Adoni-Bezek retreats to, it obviously was not captured by the Israelites.

We know very little about this Adoni-Bezek; he was likely the military leader of Israel’s opposition, but we do not know if he was a Canaanite or a Perizzite; or if he was an acknowledged leader of both groups. Because of our limited knowledge of the Perizzites in general, it is even possible that this Canaanite-Perizzite union is really more of a union of several groups of people (that is, Canaanite and Perizzite could be shorthand for an alliance of several of these antagonistic peoples). So, all we know is, this is the military and possibly political leader of this Canaanite-Perizzite alliance. However, although we will learn very little about this man’s past, we are going to find out a great many details about his future.

Translation: ...and they fought against him... Some translations, like the Contemporary English Version, seem to treat this as if thought the tribes of Judah and Simeon run down this one man and fight against him. However, that is the way the Hebrew is written. Sometimes a nation or an army is personalized by one person.

This could indicate two possible things: the army of Bezek retreated and Judah and Simeon caught up with them in Bezek; or, the king of Bezek and a smaller army escaped and ran off when the fighting became too much; and this smaller army was tracked down in Bezek.

Translation: They struck [down] the Canaanite and the Perizzite. We are given almost no details about this war—who was the aggressor, how long it took, what strategy and tactics were employed. We know where this took place and that they eventually captured Adoni-Bezek alive, who would have been their president-general. We simply know that Judah was aware of his responsibility to take control of the land given him; and he began to do so.

The Hebrew in this book has been fairly easy and straightforward. Recall that Moses was raised in the palace of the pharaoh of Egypt, and was very well-educated, and spoke at least two languages. Joshua was raised as a slave, and Phinehas was a slave in his youth, and therefore lacked the strong educational background of Moses. The structure of these Hebrew sentences has been fairly simple, as has been the vocabulary. The passages likely penned by Phinehas (Joshua 22), are a little more wordy and complex in their Hebrew structure. So far in this book, the Hebrew has been quite simple; even simpler than Joshua’s. Personally, I would, prior to this study, like to see this as a continuation of the hand of Phinehas from the end of the book of Joshua, the vocabulary and sentence structure is too simple thus far, indicating that whoever wrote this had possibly less education than even Joshua.

Application: That last statement should lead me to a tangent. When I make statements like that, I am not looking down my nose at Joshua or at the writer of this chapter of Joshua. Although the lack of education is sometimes a person’s own fault, that is not always the case, as we have here. We could not expect Joshua, a great man of war, a very humble man, and a great man of faith, to have the same educational background as his predecessor Moses. He was born different genetically and he had an entirely different upbringing. My point is, the difference between Moses and Joshua was not some conscious choice which either one made. One of the most deceptively simple-sounding man in contemporary Christianity was J. Vernon McGee. I had a friend who heard him for less than two minutes and wanted me to turn him off because he sounded like such a hick. But, as a personal statement of fact, one of the most enjoyable parts of exegeting any chapter in God’s Word is opening up J. Vernon McGee’s book and reading what he had to say on the matter. He is refreshing, understandable, enjoyable, and generally right on target. For whatever reason—even if it is your own damn fault as an unbeliever—your education may be lacking. This does not mean that God does not have a place for you in his plan. Throughout Scripture, we have men of completely different backgrounds who both take an active role in God’s plan and often write Scripture. Furthermore, this world is filled with men who are brilliant, well-educated, and take absolutely no part in the plan of God; and will spend eternity in the lake of fire, as they desire no contact with God. They key is that you now find yourself at this juncture—what are you going to do with your life? Or, more importantly, are you going to allow God to use you?

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so fled Adoni-bezek and so they pursued after him and so they seized him and so they cut off thumbs of his hands and [the big toes of] his feet.

Septuagint                              And Adonibezek fled, and they pursued after him, and took him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

Significant differences: The Greek does some minor interpretation at the end, which is what most English translations do.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

The Message                         My-Master-Bezek ran, but they gave chase and caught him. They cut off his thumbs and big toes.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

HCSB                                     When Adoni-bezek fled, they pursued him, seized him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

MKJV                                     And Adoni-bezek fled. And they ran after him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

Young's Updated LT              And Adoni-Bezek flees, and they pursue after him, and seize him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

What is the gist of this verse? The Jews capture the Lord of Bezek, grab him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. This effectively neutralizes him as a warrior.

Translation: And Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued after him,... It is not clear whether Adoni-Bezek is retreating with a small force, or whether it has come down to just him and his armorbearer. However, the writer of this portion of Scripture is only concerned with him. The rest of the army, his personal force, etc. are not issues here.

Translation: ...seized him... This group of Jewish soldiers lay their hands on this man. Which Jews are involved is not the issue; the issue is, they capture this particular man, who is leading the opposition force.

Translation: ...and cut off the thumbs of his hands and his big toes. You will notice the classic Hebrew style: the overall picture was given in v. 4, with details that follow. What occurs here strikes me as rather barbaric (the book of Judges is not for the squeamish). NIV notes: Physically mutilating prisoners of war was a common practice in the ancient Near East...It rendered them unfit for military service. He obviously could not escape nor could he bear arms with his thumbs and big toes removed. As one author put it, he could neither fight nor flee. Although we do not read about this sort of barbaric behavior among the Israelites too often, we do find this to be a common practice of ancient peoples. The Assyrian king, Asshur-izirpal, who began his reign in 833 b.c., records the following when speaking of a city which had been recently captured: Their men, young and old, I took prisoners. Of some I cut off the feet and hands; of others I cut off the noses, ears and lips; of the young men’s ears I made a heap; of the old men’s heads I built a minaret. So the Athenians cut off the thumbs of the right hand of the Aeginetae, the inhabitants of the island of Aegina, to disable them from holding a spear, as various writers relate.

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown: [The] severity [here is] unusual among the Israelites, for they "cut off his thumbs and great toes." Barbarities of various kinds were commonly practised on prisoners of war in ancient times, and the object of this particular mutilation of the hands and feet was to disable them for military service ever after. The infliction of such a horrid cruelty on this Canaanite chief would have been a foul stain on the character of the Israelites if there were not reason for believing it was done by them as an act of retributive justice, and as such it was regarded by Adoni-bezek himself, whose conscience read his atrocious crimes in their punishment.

Application: Luckily for us, there are only the most severely insane among us who would ever think to select such a passage and imitate what is found here. Now, we have believers who, rather than learn the realm of doctrine, pick a few verses of historic narrative and imitate what is found in those few verses. Please, do not imitate this particular passage; in fact, do not select any passage which is an historical narrative and copy the behavior of the people in that passage. This includes the book of Acts. The New Testament is filled with imperatives—however, we never find the imperative, Be ye baptized by the Holy Ghost. However, there are some religious denominations who have taken up this made-up imperative and attempt to apply it to every single convert that they come across; and they do not stop until they see some sort of evidence that someone has been baptized by the Holy Ghost or slain in the Spirit. We do not chase afer our enemies and cut off their big toes and thumbs (although, I must admit, now and again, this sounds like a winning idea); nor do we imitate anything else which we find in an historic narrative. And the absolute worst thing that a believer can do is to select an historical passage and to make up his own imperative from this passage. There are hundreds of imperatives in Scripture; you don’t have to make up your own!

An explanation for the behavior of the Israelites is given next.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so said Adoni-bezek, “Seventy kings— thumbs of their hands and [the big toes of] their feet [received] cutting off—they were picking up under my table. As which I have done, so recompensed to me God.” And so they brought him to Jerusalem and so he died there.

Septuagint                              And Adonibezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their food under my table: as I therefore have done, so God has recompensed me.” And they bring him to Jerusalem, and he dies there.”

Significant differences: No significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                              ...and he said, "I've cut off the thumbs and big toes of seventy kings and made those kings crawl around under my table for scraps of food. Now God is paying me back." The army of Judah took the king of Bezek along with them to Jerusalem, where he died.

The Message                         My-Master-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to crawl under my table, scavenging. Now God has done to me what I did to them." They brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.

NLT                                        Adoni-bezel said, “I once had seventy kings with thumbs and big toes cut off, eating scraps from under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.” They took him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

HCSB                                     Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. God has repaid me for what I have done." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

WEB                                      Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their food under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

Young’s Updated LT             And Adoni-Bezek says, “Seventy kings—their thumbs and their great toes cut off—have been gathering under my table; as I have done so has God repaid to me;” and they bring him in to Jerusalem, and he dies there.

What is the gist of this verse? Adoni-Bezel acknowledges that he is receiving just recompense for what he has done to other kings; he even recognizes that this justice is from God. He is taken to Jerusalem, and he lives out the rest of his life there.

Translation: Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings—thumbs of their hands and big toes received cutting off—... The vocabulary that we find here is fairly simple, but by and large different from the vocabulary found in the book of Joshua. In this verse we have the Pual participle of qâtsats (ץשצ ָק) [pronounced kaw-TSAHTS], which means to cut off. Prior to this, this particular word has only been found in Ex. 39:3 and Deut. 25:12; it is only found a dozen times in Scripture. The Pual is the passive of the Piel (or intensive) stem. The simple implication is that this was done under his orders. I have inserted the word received to indicate the passive nature of this.

It is what Adoni-bezek says which makes us wonder about who he is. The city of Bezek has not been mentioned before. Here Adoni-bezek claims to have cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 kings. These do not have to be enemy kings, but it is possible that, in order to take power, the 70 men could have been high-ranking men in his own city. This, in fact, is a more likely explanation, as there would not have been even 70 kings in all of Canaan, as we understand the term kings (recall that after seven years of war, Joshua had only taken out 31 kings).

Another option is that, since this is a direct quote of Adoni-bezek, that he is simply exaggerating. The third option is that Adoni-bezek had been a king for a long time prior to Israel entering into Canaan and that the seventy kings mentioned had been defeated and mutilated over a period a several decades. The first option seems to be the most logical.

It appears as though Adoni-Bezek seems to admit to somewhat of a disturbed conscience over what he has done. What an horrific yet effective way to deal with those who would stand against you. Removing their big toes removed their balance and speed; removing the thumbs makes it impossible for them to actually attack you, as they cannot firmly grasp a weapon or you. And even if any of his enemies had decided to somehow take him out in his sleep, they still could not lead their own people and the next ruler might not be as benevolent to them in their condition (i.e., the next person to rule over Bezek may just have them executed as worthless or send them out to fend for themselves). So Adoni-bezek was a shrewd man. Not only did he disable his enemies, but he essentially captured their souls as well.

Translation: ...they were picking up under my table. ... The verb used of his victims is the absolute status quo verb to be followed by the masculine plural, Piel participle of to gather, to gather up, to pick up. This was used of the Israelites gathering up the manna in the desert (Ex. 16). As a participle, this is used more to designate their responsibilities. They didn’t wait on the king, as they had no thumbs or toes, they cleaned up after him, possibly subsisting on the table scraps which he left, like dogs (see Matt. 15:27 Luke 16:21). When Adoni-bezek consolidated his power, he was ruthless and cruel, which even he recognized.

Clarke remarks: I think this was a proverbial mode of expression, to signify reduction to the meanest servitude; for it is not at all likely that seventy kings, many of whom must have been contemporaries, were placed under the table of the king of Bezek, and there fed; as in the houses of poor persons the dogs are fed with crumbs and offal, under the table of their owners.

Translation: ...As I have done, so God has repaid me.” The verb applied to God is the Piel perfect to recompense, to repay, to restore, to complete, to make perfect, to requite. People are recompensed or rewarded for evil as well as for good. This verb cuts both ways. God rewards those who have done evil to their faces; and He rewards those who have participated in divine good to their faces. Adoni-bezek has received exactly what he has given out. “And if a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it will be done to him: a fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it will be inflected on him.” (Lev. 24:19–20). Not only is this statement quoted in several places, but we have illustrations of it. And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before Jehovah at Gilgal (1Sam. 15:33). James summed this up with: For judgment is merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13).

What is interesting is, Adoni-Bezek recognizes this—he knows why this has happened to him. He does not appear bitter, but reflective. He grasps the concept of justice and how it relates to God. Do you see what I am telling you here? It is possible that Adoni-Bezek—this inhumane, vicious human being—appears to either have believed in Jesus Christ or he is on the verge of believing. Note that there must be a reason for his reflections here. God the Holy Spirit did not record this simply to pass along a little historical narration. Recall what is left out? There are many details about this battle which we are not told—however, we are told the thinking of Adoni-Bezek, which I am certain that he expressed verbally to his captors. “Just as I have done to others, so God has now done to me.”

Translation: Then they brought him to Jerusalem... Now, that Adoni-bezek was brought to Jerusalem is an interesting statement. Jerusalem was on the border between Judah and Benjamin and it had not been completely conquered yet. Properly, it belonged to Benjamin (Joshua 18:28) even though it is on the border between Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8). It was inhabited by Jebusites and it is unclear whether Benjamin actually occupied this city yet (Joshua 15:63). If I was to make a semi-educated guess, I would say that Bezek is very close to Jerusalem; that Judah cannot take Adoni-Bezek everywhere they go, so Jerusalem, a city belonging to the Jews, would be a logical next stop to deposit Adoni-Bezek. What will later be discussed in great detail is, did Judah then recapture Jerusalem at that time or had they done so before?

Note that Adoni-Bezek is not executed; he is taken to Jerusalem. It is interesting that he would be taken there, as he admits God has recompensed him for what he has done—the verb there being shâlêm (ם-לָש) [pronounced shaw-LAHM], which is also, essentially, the end portion of the name of the city Jerusalem. The SH-L-M is also the basis for the word peace, as in peace with God. My feeling is, although this man was disabled for what he has done, his response to this indicates that he accepts God’s justice and this judgment. For this reason, it appears as though the Jews of Judah and Simeon will allow him to live.

Translation: ...and he died there. The Qal of this verb is used, which is the normal stem. There is no indication that Adoni-Bezek died some difficult death; there is no indication that he was executed. The inference of this passage is, Adoni-Bezek was allowed to live out the remainder of his natural life in Jerusalem as a believer in Jesus Christ.

I think what just happened here is, Adoni-Bezek believed in Jesus Christ and his captors, the men of Judah and Simeon, recognized that, and they allowed him to live. We do not know his living conditions whether he was under house arrest to someone there, fuctioning as a slave—however, we do know that he lives out his life there. We have no indication that he was executed—why bring this man to Jerusalem to execute him? That makes no sense. We have no vocabulary to indicate that he is executed. This indicates that God pardoned this man and forgave him, despite his evil past. Furthermore, God the Holy Spirit records this here for us.

Application: No one is too evil, too vicious, or too repugnant to be saved.