Judges 1
The full text of Judges 1 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, "Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites?"
2 The LORD answered, "Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands."
3 The men of Judah then said to the Simeonites their fellow Israelites, "Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours." So the Simeonites went with them.
4 When Judah attacked, the LORD gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek.
5 It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites.
6 Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
7 Then Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.
9 After that, Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills.
10 They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath Arba) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
11 From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher).
12 And Caleb said, "I will give my daughter Aksah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher."
13 Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Aksah to him in marriage.
14 One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, "What can I do for you?"
15 She replied, "Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water." So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
16 The descendants of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms with the people of Judah to live among the inhabitants of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.
17 Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites their fellow Israelites and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed the city. Therefore it was called Hormah.
18 Judah also took Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron—each city with its territory.
19 The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron.
20 As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak.
21 The Benjamites, however, did not drive out the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.
22 Now the tribes of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the LORD was with them.
23 When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz),
24 the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, "Show us how to get into the city and we will see that you are treated well."
25 So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared the man and his whole family.
26 He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.
27 But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land.
28 When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely.
29 Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them.
30 Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them, but Zebulun did subject them to forced labor.
31 Nor did Asher drive out those living in Akko or Sidon or Ahlab or Akzib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob.
32 The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out.
33 Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them.
34 The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain.
35 And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor.
36 The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion Pass to Sela and beyond.
Translation notes (10)
- Judges 1:1a The book of Judges opens exactly where Joshua closed—"after the death of" the leader (compare Joshua 1:1)—but now there is no successor. The book traces what happens to the covenant when the generation that knew the LORD's acts is gone (compare Judges 2:10).
- Judges 1:6a Cutting off thumbs and big toes disabled a warrior from holding a weapon or standing firmly in battle; this was a recognized ancient mutilation of captured kings. Adoni-Bezek's own words in verse 7 frame it as the same treatment he had inflicted on others. The text reports the act without endorsing it, and its ethics are not judged here.
- Judges 1:7a Adoni-Bezek interprets his own fate as just retribution—"God has paid me back"—a theme of measured recompense that runs through the book of Judges. The narrator reports his confession, and the translation does not judge the theology of retribution it expresses.
- Judges 1:8a This brief notice of Jerusalem's capture stands in tension with verse 21 and Joshua 15:63, where the Jebusites are not driven out, and with 2 Samuel 5:6-9, where David takes the stronghold much later. The relationship of these accounts is debated; the text is translated as it stands, and the difference is noted without resolving it.
- Judges 1:14a This Caleb-Achsah episode repeats Joshua 15:16-19 almost word for word, anchoring the start of the book of Judges in the faithful old generation before the decline sets in.
- Judges 1:17a The phrase "totally destroyed" translates the Hebrew verb herem, which means to devote something to destruction. The name "Hormah" comes from the same Hebrew root (herem), memorializing this devotion-to-destruction (compare Numbers 21:3). The killing of a city's population is among the gravest moral and theological difficulties in these books; the text is translated as it stands, and the questions are not judged here.
- Judges 1:19a This verse candidly holds two things together: "the LORD was with Judah," yet they "were unable" to take the plains because of iron chariots. The narrative does not resolve this tension; the recurring failure to drive out the inhabitants (verses 21, 27-33) is the driving force of the whole book.
- Judges 1:21a This nearly repeats Joshua 15:63 (where it mentions "Judah") and stands beside verse 8. The recurring "did not drive out" refrain (verses 27-33) is the candid record of an incomplete conquest, setting up the covenant indictment of chapter 2.
- Judges 1:32a The wording quietly inverts here: it is now Asher who lives "among the Canaanites," not the reverse (contrast verse 30). This failure is becoming assimilation, which was the danger Joshua warned of (Joshua 23:12-13).
- Judges 1:34a Here the failure is a total reversal: the Danites are not merely unable to drive out the Amorites—the Amorites press Dan back. This sets up the Danite migration of chapter 18 (compare Joshua 19:47).
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Hebrew, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open Judges in the Trinity Bible app.
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