Index: Bible in Basic English

 

Judges 1

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1:1 Now after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel made request to the Lord, saying, Who is to go up first to make war for us against the Canaanites?

1:2 And the Lord said, Judah is to go up: see, I have given the land into his hands.

1:3 Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my heritage, so that we may make war against the Canaanites; and I will then go with you into your heritage. So Simeon went with him.

1:4 And Judah went up; and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands; and they overcame ten thousand of them in Bezek.

1:5 And they came across Adoni-zedek, and made war on him; and they overcame the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

1:6 But Adoni-zedek went in flight; and they went after him and overtook him, and had his thumbs and his great toes cut off.

1:7 And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table: as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there.

1:8 Then the children of Judah made an attack on Jerusalem, and took it, burning down the town after they had put its people to the sword without mercy.

1:9 After that the children of Judah went down to make war on the Canaanites living in the hill-country and in the south and in the lowlands.

1:10 And Caleb went against the Canaanites of Hebron: (now in earlier times Hebron was named Kiriath-arba:) and he put Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai to the sword.

1:11 And from there he went up against the people of Debir. (Now the name of Debir in earlier times was Kiriath-sepher.)

1:12 And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it.

1:13 And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife.

1:14 Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it?

1:15 And she said to him, Give me a blessing; because you have put me in a dry south-land, now give me springs of water. So Caleb gave her the higher spring and the lower spring.

1:16 Now Hobab the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, had come up out of the town of palm-trees, with the children of Judah, into the waste land of Arad; and he went and was living among the Amalekites;

1:17 And Judah went with Simeon, his brother, and overcame the Canaanites living in Zephath, and put it under the curse; and he gave the town the name of Hormah.

1:18 Then Judah took Gaza and its limit, and Ashkelon and its limit, and Ekron and its limit.

1:19 And the Lord was with Judah; and he took the hill-country for his heritage; but he was unable to make the people of the valley go out, for they had war-carriages of iron.

1:20 And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said; and he took the land of the three sons of Anak, driving them out from there.

1:21 And the children of Judah did not make the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem go out; the Jebusites are still living with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem.

1:22 And the family of Joseph went up against Beth-el, and the Lord was with them.

1:23 So they sent men to make a search round Beth-el. (Now the name of the town in earlier times was Luz.)

1:24 And the watchers saw a man coming out of the town, and said to him, If you will make clear to us the way into the town, we will be kind to you.

1:25 So he made clear to them the way into the town, and they put it to the sword; but they let the man and all his family get away safe.

1:26 And he went into the land of the Hittites, building a town there and naming it Luz: which is its name to this day.

1:27 And Manasseh did not take away the land of the people of Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, or of Taanach and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Ibleam and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, driving them out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land.

1:28 And whenever Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, without driving them out completely.

1:29 And Ephraim did not make the Canaanites who were living in Gezer go out; but the Canaanites went on living in Gezer among them.

1:30 Zebulun did not make the people of Kitron or the people of Nahalol go out; but the Canaanites went on living among them and were put to forced work.

1:31 And Asher did not take the land of the people of Acco, or Zidon, or Ahlab, or Achzib, or Helbah, or Aphik, or Rehob, driving them out;

1:32 But the Asherites went on living among the Canaanites, the people of the land, without driving them out.

1:33 Naphtali did not take the land of the people of Beth-shemesh or of Beth-anath, driving them out; but he was living among the Canaanites in the land; however, the people of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were put to forced work.

1:34 And the children of Dan were forced into the hill-country by the Amorites, who would not let them come down into the valley;

1:35 For the Amorites would go on living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the children of Joseph became stronger than they, and put them to forced work.

1:36 And the limit of the Edomites went from the slope of Akrabbim from Sela and up.