World English Bible · The judges
Judges 1
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After the of , the asked of , saying, "Who should go up for us first against , to fight against them?" said, "Judah shall go up. Behold, I have the land into his hand." Judah said to his brother, "Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against ; and I likewise will go with you into your lot." So went with him. Judah went up, and and the into their hand. They struck ten thousand men in . 5They found Adoni- in , and they fought against him. They struck and the . 6But Adoni- fled. They pursued him, caught him, and his thumbs and his big toes. Adoni- said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes , scavenged under my table. As I have done, so has done to me." They brought him to , and he there. The children of Judah fought against , took it, struck it with the edge of , and set the city on . After that, the children of Judah went down to fight against who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland. Judah went against who lived in . (The name of before that was .) They struck Sheshai, , and Talmai. From there he went against the inhabitants of . (The name of before that was Kiriath .) Caleb said, "I will give my daughter as wife to the man who strikes Kiriath , and takes it." the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it, so he gave him his daughter as his wife. When she came, she got him to ask her for a field. She got off her donkey; and Caleb said to her, "What would you like?" She said to him, "Give me a ; because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water." Then Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. The children of the , ' brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into of Judah, which is in the south of ; and they went and lived with the people. Judah went with his brother, and they struck who inhabited Zephath, and it. The name of the city was called . Also Judah took with its border, and with its border, and with its border. was with Judah, and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. They gave to Caleb, as had said, and he drove the three sons of out of there. The children of didn't drive out the who inhabited , but the with the children of in to this day. The also went up against , and was with them. The sent to spy out . (The name of the city before that was .) The saw a man come out of the city, and they said to him, "Please show us the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you." He showed them the entrance into the city, and they struck the city with the edge of ; but they let the man and all his family go. The man went into the land of the , built a city, and called its name , which is its name to this day. didn't drive out the inhabitants of and its towns, nor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of and its towns, nor the inhabitants of and its towns, nor the inhabitants of and its towns; but would in that land. 28When Israel had grown strong, they put to forced labor, and didn't utterly drive them out. didn't drive out who lived in , but lived in among them. didn't drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but lived among them, and became subject to forced labor. Asher didn't drive out the inhabitants of , nor the inhabitants of , nor of Ahlab, nor of , nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of ; but the lived among , the inhabitants of the land, for they didn't drive them out. didn't drive out the inhabitants of , nor the inhabitants of ; but he lived among , the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of and of became subject to forced labor. The forced the children of Dan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; but the would in Mount Heres, in , and in Shaalbim. Yet the hand of the prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor. The border of the was from the ascent of , from , and upward.
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The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.