Shoftim

After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the LORD, “Which of us shall be the first to go up against the Canaanites and attack them?”

The LORD replied, “Let [the tribe of] Judah go up. I now deliver the land into their hands.”

Judah then said to their brother-tribe Simeon, “Come up with us to our allotted territory and let us attack the Canaanites, and then we will go with you to your allotted territory.” So Simeon joined them.

When Judah advanced, the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand of them at Bezek.

At Bezek, they encountered Adoni-bezek, engaged him in battle, and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and captured him; and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings, with thumbs and big toes cut off, used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has requited me.” They brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.

The Judites attacked Jerusalem and captured it; they put it to the sword and set the city on fire.

After that the Judites went down to attack the Canaanites who inhabited the hill country, the Negeb, and the Shephelah.

The Judites marched against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron, and they defeated Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. (The name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba.)

From there they marched against the inhabitants of Debir (the name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher).

And Caleb announced, “I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath-sepher.”

His younger kinsman, Othniel the Kenizzite, captured it; and Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage.

When she came [to him], she induced him to ask her father for some property. She dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb asked her, “What is the matter?”

She replied, “Give me a present, for you have given me away as Negeb-land; give me springs of water.” And Caleb gave her Upper and Lower Gulloth.^-b

The descendants of the Kenite, the father-in-law of Moses, went up with the Judites from the City of Palms to the wilderness of Judah; and they went and settled among the people in the Negeb of Arad.

And Judah with its brother-tribe Simeon went on and defeated the Canaanites who dwelt in Zephath. They proscribed it, and so the town was named Hormah.

And Judah captured Gaza and its territory, Ashkelon and its territory, and Ekron and its territory.

They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had promised; and he drove the three Anakites out of there.

The Benjaminites did not dispossess the Jebusite inhabitants of Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have dwelt with the Benjaminites in Jerusalem to this day.

The House of Joseph, for their part, advanced against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.

While the House of Joseph were scouting at Bethel (the name of the town was formerly Luz),

their patrols saw a man leaving the town. They said to him, “Just show us how to get into the town, and we will treat you kindly.”

He showed them how to get into the town; they put the town to the sword, but they let the man and all his relatives go free.

The man went to the Hittite country. He founded a city and named it Luz, and that has been its name to this day.

Manasseh did not dispossess [the inhabitants of] Beth-shean and its dependencies, or [of] Taanach and its dependencies, or the inhabitants of Dor and its dependencies, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its dependencies, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its dependencies. The Canaanites persisted in dwelling in this region.

And when Israel gained the upper hand, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labor; but they did not dispossess them.

Nor did Ephraim dispossess the Canaanites who inhabited Gezer; so the Canaanites dwelt in their midst at Gezer.

Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites dwelt in their midst, but they were subjected to forced labor.

Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob.

So the Asherites dwelt in the midst of the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not dispossess them.

Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth-anath. But they settled in the midst of the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath had to perform forced labor for them.

The Amorites pressed the Danites into the hill country; they would not let them come down to the plain.

The Amorites also persisted in dwelling in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim. But the hand of the House of Joseph bore heavily on them and they had to perform forced labor.

The territory of the Amorites extended from the Ascent of Akrabbim—from Sela—onward.

An angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up from Egypt and I took you into the land which I had promised on oath to your fathers. And I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you.

And you, for your part, must make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you must tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me—look what you have done!

Therefore, I have resolved not to drive them out before you; they shall become your oppressors, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

As the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people broke into weeping.

So they named that place Bochim, and they offered sacrifices there to the LORD.

When Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites went to their allotted territories and took possession of the land.

The people served the LORD during the lifetime of Joshua and the lifetime of the older people who lived on after Joshua and who had witnessed all the marvelous deeds that the LORD had wrought for Israel.

Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten years,

and was buried on his own property, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

And all that generation were likewise gathered to their fathers.
Another generation arose after them, which had not experienced [the deliverance of] the LORD or the deeds that He had wrought for Israel.

And the Israelites did what was offensive to the LORD. They worshiped the Baalim

and forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples around them, and bowed down to them; they provoked the LORD.

They forsook the LORD and worshiped Baal and the Ashtaroth.

Then the LORD was incensed at Israel, and He handed them over to foes who plundered them. He surrendered them to their enemies on all sides, and they could no longer hold their own against their enemies.

In all their campaigns, the hand of the LORD was against them to their undoing, as the LORD had declared and as the LORD had sworn to them; and they were in great distress.

Then the LORD raised up chieftains who delivered them from those who plundered them.

But they did not heed their chieftains either; they went astray after other gods and bowed down to them. They were quick to turn aside from the way their fathers had followed in obedience to the commandments of the LORD; they did not do right.

When the LORD raised up chieftains for them, the LORD would be with the chieftain and would save them from their enemies during the chieftain’s lifetime; for the LORD would be moved to pity by their moanings because of those who oppressed and crushed them.

But when the chieftain died, they would again act basely, even more than the preceding generation^-f—following other gods, worshiping them, and bowing down to them; they omitted none of their practices and stubborn ways.

Then the LORD became incensed against Israel, and He said, “Since that nation has transgressed the covenant that I enjoined upon their fathers and has not obeyed Me,

I for My part will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.”

For it was in order to test Israel by them—[to see] whether or not they would faithfully walk in the ways of the LORD, as their fathers had done—

that the LORD had left those nations, instead of driving them out at once, and had not delivered them into the hands of Joshua.

These are the nations that the LORD left so that He might test by them all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars of Canaan,

so that succeeding generations of Israelites might be made to experience war—but only those who had not known the former wars:^-b

the five principalities of the Philistines and all the Canaanites, Sidonians, and Hivites who inhabited the hill country of the Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.

These served as a means of testing Israel, to learn whether they would obey the commandments which the LORD had enjoined upon their fathers through Moses.

The Israelites settled among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites;

they took their daughters to wife and gave their own daughters to their sons, and they worshiped their gods.

The Israelites did what was offensive to the LORD; they ignored the LORD their God and worshiped the Baalim and the Asheroth.

The LORD became incensed at Israel and surrendered them to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim; and the Israelites were subject to Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

The Israelites cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised a champion for the Israelites to deliver them: Othniel the Kenizzite, a younger kinsman of Caleb.

The spirit of the LORD descended upon him and he became Israel’s chieftain. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram into his hands. He prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim,

and the land had peace for forty years.
When Othniel the Kenizzite died,

the Israelites again did what was offensive to the LORD. And because they did what was offensive to the LORD, the LORD let King Eglon of Moab prevail over Israel.

[Eglon] brought the Ammonites and the Amalekites together under his command, and went and defeated Israel and occupied the City of Palms.

The Israelites were subject to King Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.

Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up a champion for them: the Benjaminite Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed man. It happened that the Israelites sent tribute to King Eglon of Moab through him.

So Ehud made for himself a two-edged dagger, a gomed in length, which he girded on his right side under his cloak.

He presented the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Now Eglon was a very stout man.

When [Ehud] had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had conveyed the tribute.

But he himself returned from Pesilim, near Gilgal, and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.” [Eglon] thereupon commanded, “Silence!” So all those in attendance left his presence;

and when Ehud approached him, he was sitting alone in his cool upper chamber. Ehud said, “I have a message for you from God”; whereupon he rose from his seat.

Reaching with his left hand, Ehud drew the dagger from his right side and drove it into [Eglon’s] belly.

The fat closed over the blade and the hilt went in after the blade—for he did not pull the dagger out of his belly—and the filth came out.

Stepping out into the vestibule, Ehud shut the doors of the upper chamber on him and locked them.

After he left, the courtiers returned. When they saw that the doors of the upper chamber were locked, they thought, “He must be relieving himself in the cool chamber.”

They waited a long time; and when he did not open the doors of the chamber, they took the key and opened them—and there their master was lying dead on the floor!

But Ehud had made good his escape while they delayed; he had passed Pesilim and escaped to Seirah.

When he got there, he had the ram’s horn sounded through the hill country of Ephraim, and all the Israelites descended with him from the hill country; and he took the lead.

“Follow me closely,” he said, “for the LORD has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hands.” They followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites; they let no one cross.

On that occasion they slew about 10,000 Moabites; they were all robust and brave men, yet not one of them escaped.

On that day, Moab submitted to Israel; and the land was tranquil for eighty years.

After him came Shamgar son of Anath,^-g who slew six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too was a champion of Israel.