1 ① After the death of Joshua, the Israelites consulted Yahweh, “Who among us shall be the first to fight against the Canaanites?” 2Yahweh answered: “The tribe of Judah shall go up first, and I will give the land into their hands.” 3So the people of Judah said to their brothers from the tribe of Simeon, “Help us conquer the part of the land that is allotted to us, and then we will conquer with you the region that is yours.” So they joined forces for the war.
4When the tribe of Judah attacked the Canaanites and the Perizzites, Yahweh gave them into their hands; in Bezek they defeated ten thousand men.
5In Bezek they encountered the lord of Bezek and fought against him. 6The lord of Bezek fled but they pursued him. They captured him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7The lord of Bezek then said, “Seventy kings whose thumbs and big toes I cut off used to pick scraps under my table, now God has done to me according to what I have done.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8The tribe of Judah attacked the city of Jerusalem, and after killing its inhabitants they burned the city. 9Afterwards they went down from Jerusalem to attack the Canaanites who lived in the mountains, in the Negeb and in the plains. 10They also attacked the Canaanites who were in Hebron (Hebron was also called Kiriath-arba at that time), and they defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai. 11From there they marched against the inhabitants of Debir, a city which was also called Kiriath-sepher. 12Then Caleb made this promise, “To the one who takes Kiriath-sepher, I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.” 13It was Othoniel who took the city; he was the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, and Caleb gave him Achsah, his daughter, as wife.
14When Achsah came to Othoniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. She alighted from her ass, and Caleb asked her, “What do you want?” 15She answered, “What a gift this Negeb wilderness is! Give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the Upper Springs and the Lower Springs.
16The descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, also went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms to that part of the desert of Judah on the boundary of the Negeb near Arad, and they settled there with them.
17Those from Judah and their brothers from the tribe of Simeon attacked the Canaanites who lived in Zephath, and they sacrificed Zephath in honor of Yahweh. For this reason, the city was named “Anathema.” 18Judah seized Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron with their respective territories.
19Although they conquered the mountainous regions with the help of Yahweh, they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they fought with iron chariots. 20Following the orders of Moses, they gave the city of Hebron to Caleb who had cast out the three sons of Anak from there. 21But the tribe of Benjamin did not succeed in expelling the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; the Jebusites have stayed in Jerusalem until this day.
22The people of Joseph went up against Bethel with the help of Yahweh. 23They sent men out to spy in Bethel, formerly called Luz, 24and they met a man coming out of the city. They said to him, “Tell us how we can enter the city, and we will not kill you.” 25He showed them the way. Then they entered and put the city to the sword, but set that man free together with his whole family. 26The man went to the land of the Hittites where he built a city which he named Luz which is its name to this day.
27However, the tribe of Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth-shean and Taa-nach or the inhabitants of Dor, Ibleam and Megiddo. The Canaanites persisted in dwelling in these cities and in the towns that depended on them, and they kept their lands. 28But when the Israelites grew stronger, they exacted taxes from the Canaanites who stayed in their place. 29Neither did the tribe of Ephraim expel the Canaanites who lived in Gezer 30nor did the tribe of Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron and Nahalol. These Canaanites lived among them, but had to pay taxes to them.
31Those of Asher did not expel the people of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik or Rehob.
32The tribe of Asher had to live in the midst of the Canaanites who occupied their territory, for they could not drive them out from that region. 33The same happened with the tribe of Naphtali that failed to drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath; they had to dwell in the midst of the Canaanites who lived in that region. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath paid taxes to this tribe.
34The Amorites did not allow the descendants of Dan to come down to the plain, so the latter had to live in the mountains. 35The Amorites also remained in Har-heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the tribe of Joseph grew stronger, they forced the Amorites to pay taxes. 36The territory of the Amorites extended from the slope of Akrabbim, to Sela and upward.
- Jdg 1,1 The first chapter throws some light on the conquest. It was not as triumphal as it appears in the Book of Joshua, but slow and difficult. The Israelites did not obey the command to wipe out the pagans, though such a massacre would have protected their faith in the only God. In this regard, let us put aside our modern sense of respect for other nations. Israel's world is one where survival depends on violence and the future of divine revelation in the world is in the hands of primitive nomads continuously threatened with destruction in a pagan environment. Compare verses 8 and 21: there is no certainty as to this data.
