Mar 7 - Judges 1-2
Judges
1After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, "Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?"2The LORD answered, "Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands."3Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, "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.4When Judah attacked, the LORD gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek.5It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites.6Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.7Then 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.8The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.9After that, the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills.10They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath Arba) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.11From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher).12And Caleb said, "I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher."13Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.14One 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?"15She replied, "Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water." Then Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.16The descendants of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms with the men of Judah to live among the people of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.17Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites their brothers and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed the city. Therefore it was called Hormah.18The men of Judah also took Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron-each city with its territory.19The 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 iron chariots.20As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak.21The Benjamites, however, failed to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.22Now the house of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the LORD was with them.23When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz),24the 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."25So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared the man and his whole family.26He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.27But 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.28When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely.29Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them.30Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, who remained among them; but they did subject them to forced labor.31Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob,32and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land.33Neither 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.34The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain.35And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the house of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor.36The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion Pass to Sela and beyond.
1The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you,2and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?3Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you."4When the angel of the LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud,5and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the LORD.6After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.7The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.8Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.9And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.10After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.11Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.12They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger13because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.14In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.15Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.16Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.17Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD 's commands.18Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.19But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.20Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me,21I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.22I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did."23The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.