Judges 1:1-18

New King James Version

The Continuing Conquest of Canaan^(A)

1 Now after the ^(B)death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel ^(C)asked the Lord, saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the ^(D)Canaanites to fight against them?”

² And the Lord said, ^(E)“Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand.”

³ So Judah said to ^(F)Simeon his brother, “Come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and ^(G)I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory.” And Simeon went with him. ⁴ Then Judah went up, and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at ^(H)Bezek. ⁵ And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him; and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. ⁶ Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. ⁷ And Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; ^(I)as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

⁸ Now ^(J)the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it; they struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. ^9 (K)And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountains, in the ^[a]South, and in the lowland. ¹⁰ Then Judah ^[b]went against the Canaanites who dwelt in ^(L)Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly ^(M)Kirjath Arba.) And they killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

^11 (N)From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. (The name of Debir was formerly Kirjath Sepher.)

^12 (O)Then Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.” ¹³ And Othniel the son of Kenaz, ^(P)Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife. ^14 (Q)Now it happened, when she came to him, that ^[c]she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?” ¹⁵ So she said to him, ^(R)“Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water.”

And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

^16 (S)Now the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up ^(T)from the City of Palms with the children of Judah into the Wilderness of Judah, which lies in the South near ^(U)Arad; ^(V)and they went and dwelt among the people. ^17 (W)And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called ^(X)Hormah. ¹⁸ Also Judah took ^(Y)Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.