Judges 1:1-7

General Introduction to the Period of Judges Judges 1:1 to Judges 2:5

Judah and Simeon Capture Adoni-bezek Judges 1:1-7

Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
2 And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.
3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.
4 And Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Ca-naanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.
5 And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
6 But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
7 And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

1.

What is the connection between Judges and ?Joshua 1:1

Opening with the phrase And it came to pass after the death of Joshua, the book of Judges makes it clear that it follows immediately after the book of Joshua. It was in this same manner that Joshua was related to the Pentateuch, by the statement Now it came to pass after the death of Moses (Joshua 1:1). Some of the events in Judges are recapitulations of the events in Joshua, e.g., Caleb's taking Hebron (cf. Joshua 14:6-15; Joshua 15:13-19; Judges 1:11-15). Most of it, however, is a continuation of Israel's history from the time of Joshua to the time of Samuel. The narrative begins with a flash-back to the time of Joshua and telescopes in with some of the era of Eli which immediately precedes the time of Samuel, the last of the judges.

2.

How did they ask the Lord? Judges 1:1 b

The high priest inquired of the Lord by using the URIM and the THUMMIM. Joshua was told to make this kind of inquiry through Eleazar the high priest (Numbers 27:21). We may assume that Phinehas, Eleazar's son, succeeded him as high priest and that Israel's leaders made inquiry of the Lord's will through him. If such were not the case, a tribe to lead might have been selected by casting the sacred lot (Joshua 7:13-18; cf. Joshua 17:1).

3.

Who went up first among the tribes? Judges 1:2

The tribes of Israel resolved to continue the war with the Canaanites after Joshua died. In order that they might exterminate them from the land altogether, they wanted to follow God's leading; hence, they asked who should be first to go to battle. Judah was selected and he commenced the strife in conjunction with Simeon, They smote the king of Bezek, conquered Jerusalem, Hebron (although Caleb had earlier taken possession of the land), Debir, Zephath, and three of the chief cities of the Philistines. Judah possessed the hill country but was unable to drive out the inhabitants of the plain, just as the Benjaminites were not able to drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem.

4.

When did these events occur? Judges 1:3 ff

The conquest was made in the days of Joshua. Some of the events described in the first chapter of Judges occurred in the days of Joshua (for example, the conquest of Hebron by Caleb in Judges 1:10-15; cf. Joshua 14:6-15; Joshua 15:13-19). Others occurred at a later time. The whole chapter is a summary of the activity which was begun under Joshua's leadership and continued through the succeeding era, It forms a proper introduction to the time of the judges and provides a background against which their careers are outlined. The fact that some of the events happened much earlier than the time under most careful consideration is evidenced by such statements as that in Judges 1:8: Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it. Later, in the same chapter, it is said, And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebu-sites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day (Judges 1:21). Under Joshua, this city had been overthrown (Joshua 10). Mention is made again in Judges 1:8 that the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it, setting the city on fire (Judges 1:8). At the same time, the statement made in Judges 1:21 is true. Such a resume of the general activity of the time leaves room for Jerusalem to have been attacked earlier by Joshua, attacked as Judah led in settling her assigned territory, and yet occupied by Canaanites who crept back into the city when it was not occupied by the Israelites. This is typical of the way in which the various accounts of military campaigns and early attempts at settlement were made prior to the time of the judges.

5.

Why is Simeon called Judah's brother? Judges 1:3

Simeon is called Judah's brother, not because Simeon and Judah were both sons of Jacob by the same mother, but because Simeon's territory lay within the territory of Judah (Joshua 19:1 ff.). Simeon was more closely connected with Judah than any of the other tribes. Simeon was really absorbed by Judah and lost his identity. Such a condition was predicted by Jacob, who said of Simeon, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Genesis 49:7).

6.

Why had Adoni-bezek not joined the southern coalition? Judges 1:5

The fact that Adoni-bezek had not joined Adoni-zedek and the other kings of the South to fight against Joshua when the Israelites first came into the land is an indication that this king's power had begun to decline at the time of the Israelite invasion. If he had conquered seventy kings in his time, he had overthrown more kings than Joshua did in all the land of Canaan. Bezek is a city whose location has not been positively ascertained; but a probable identification has been made with the modern Khirbet Bezka, near Gezer, at the edge of the Shephelah, just west of Jerusalem overlooking the Maritime Plain and the Road of the Kings.

7.

Why did they cut off his thumbs and great toes? Judges 1:6-7

A man maimed was not good for fighting. When his thumb was amputated, a man could not hold a spear or sword effectively. Neither could he handle a bow and arrow with dexterity. Likewise, without his large toes on his feet, he could not run swiftly, nor jump obstacles put in his way. Such treatment seems torturous by Christian standards, but the Israelites only treated him in the same way as he had handled the seventy kings who were dependent upon him for their sustenance, It was certainly less torturous than the treatment given conquered peoples by pagan kings.