Passage: Judges 1, 2, 3 (RSV)


Judges 1


1After the death of Joshua the people of Israel inquired of the LORD,of "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?"
2The LORD said, "Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand."
3And Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you." So Simeon went with him.
4Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Per'izzites into their hand; and they defeated ten thousand of them at Bezek.
5They came upon Ado'ni-be'zek at Bezek, and fought against him, and defeated the Canaanites and the Per'izzites.
6Ado'ni-be'zek fled; but they pursued him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
7And Ado'ni-be'zek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and their great toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has requited me." And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
9And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who dwelt in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland.
10And Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron (now the name of Hebron was formerly Kir'iath-ar'ba); and they defeated She'shai and Ahi'man and Talmai.
11From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kir'iath-se'pher.
12And Caleb said, "He who attacks Kir'iath-se'pher and takes it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as wife."
13And Oth'ni-el the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.
14When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field; and she alighted from her ass, and Caleb said to her, "What do you wish?"
15She said to him, "Give me a present; since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water." And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
16And the descendants of the Ken'ite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad; and they went and settled with the people.
17And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah.
18Judah also took Gaza with its territory, and Ash'kelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.
19And the LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron.
20And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said; and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak.
21But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jeb'usites who dwelt in Jerusalem; so the Jeb'usites have dwelt with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
22The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel; and the LORD was with them.
23And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.)
24And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, "Pray, show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you."
25And he showed them the way into the city; and they smote the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go.
26And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city, and called its name Luz; that is its name to this day.
27Manas'seh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-she'an and its villages, or Ta'a-nach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megid'do and its villages; but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land.
28When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.
29And E'phraim did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
30Zeb'ulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Na'halol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became subject to forced labor.
31Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, or of Helbah, or of Aphik, or of Rehob;
32but the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.
33Naph'tali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-she'mesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-she'mesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.
34The Amorites pressed the Danites back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain;
35the Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har-heres, in Ai'jalon, and in Sha-al'bim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily upon them, and they became subject to forced labor.
36And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrab'bim, from Sela and upward.

Judges 2


1Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land which I swore to give to your fathers. I said, `I will never break my covenant with you,
2and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my command. What is this you have done?
3So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you."
4When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.
5And they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the LORD.
6When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land.
7And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work which the LORD had done for Israel.
8And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.
9And they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Tim'nath-he'res, in the hill country of E'phraim, north of the mountain of Ga'ash.
10And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the LORD or the work which he had done for Israel.
11And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Ba'als;
12and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.
13They forsook the LORD, and served the Ba'als and the Ash'taroth.
14So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them; and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
15Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them; and they were in sore straits.
16Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them.
17And yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed down to them; they soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.
18Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.
19But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them; they did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.
20So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; and he said, "Because this people have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not obeyed my voice,
21I will not henceforth drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,
22that by them I may test Israel, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not."
23So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out at once, and he did not give them into the power of Joshua.

Judges 3


1Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan;
2it was only that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, that he might teach war to such at least as had not known it before.
3These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sido'nians, and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Ba'al-her'mon as far as the entrance of Hamath.
4They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.
5So the people of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per'izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb'usites;
6and they took their daughters to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons; and they served their gods.
7And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, forgetting the LORD their God, and serving the Ba'als and the Ashe'roth.
8Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cu'shan-rishatha'im king of Mesopota'mia; and the people of Israel served Cu'shan-rishatha'im eight years.
9But when the people of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who delivered them, Oth'ni-el the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
10The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel; he went out to war, and the LORD gave Cu'shan-rishatha'im king of Mesopota'mia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cu'shan-rishatha'im.
11So the land had rest forty years. Then Oth'ni-el the son of Kenaz died.
12And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
13He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amal'ekites, and went and defeated Israel; and they took possession of the city of palms.
14And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
15But when the people of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.
16And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it on his right thigh under his clothes.
17And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.
18And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people that carried the tribute.
19But he himself turned back at the sculptured stones near Gilgal, and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." And he commanded, "Silence." And all his attendants went out from his presence.
20And Ehud came to him, as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." And he arose from his seat.
21And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly;
22and the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the dirt came out.
23Then Ehud went out into the vestibule, and closed the doors of the roof chamber upon him, and locked them.
24When he had gone, the servants came; and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, "He is only relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber."
25And they waited till they were utterly at a loss; but when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them; and there lay their lord dead on the floor.
26Ehud escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the sculptured stones, and escaped to Se-i'rah.
27When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of E'phraim; and the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, having him at their head.
28And he said to them, "Follow after me; for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand." So they went down after him, and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and allowed not a man to pass over.
29And they killed at that time about ten thousand of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped.
30So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.
31After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred of the Philistines with an oxgoad; and he too delivered Israel.



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