1After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, “Which of our tribes should attack the Canaanites first?”
2“Judah!” the Lord answered. “I'll help them take the land.”
3The people of Judah went to their relatives, the Simeon tribe, and said, “Canaanites live in the land God gave us. Help us fight them, and we will help you.”
Troops from Simeon came to help Judah.
4-5Together they attacked an army of 10,000 Canaanites and Perizzites at Bezek, and the Lord helped Judah defeat them. During the battle, Judah's army found out where the king of Bezek was, and they attacked there.
6The king tried to escape, but soldiers from Judah caught him. They cut off his thumbs and big toes,
7and he said, “I've cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 kings and made those kings crawl around under my table for scraps of food. Now God is paying me back.”
The army of Judah took the king of Bezek along with them to Jerusalem, where he died.
8They attacked Jerusalem, captured it, killed everyone who lived there, and then burned it to the ground.
9Judah's army fought the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, the Southern Desert, and the foothills to the west.
10After that, they attacked the Canaanites who lived at Hebron, defeating the three clans called Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. At that time, Hebron was called Kiriath-Arba.
11From Hebron, Judah's army went to attack Debir, which at that time was called Kiriath-Sepher.
12Caleb told his troops, “The man who captures Kiriath-Sepher can marry my daughter Achsah.”
13Caleb's nephew Othniel captured Kiriath-Sepher, so Caleb let him marry Achsah. Othniel was the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz.
14Right after the wedding, Achsah started telling Othniel that he ought to ask her father for a field. She went to see her father, and while she was getting down from her donkey, Caleb asked, “What's bothering you?”
15She answered, “I need your help. The land you gave me is in the Southern Desert, so please give me some spring-fed ponds for a water supply.”
Caleb gave her a couple of small ponds named Higher Pond and Lower Pond.
16The people who belonged to the Kenite clan were the descendants of the father-in-law of Moses. They left Jericho with the people of Judah and settled near Arad in the Southern Desert of Judah not far from the Amalekites.
17Judah's army helped Simeon's army attack the Canaanites who lived at Zephath. They completely destroyed the town and renamed it Hormah.
18-19The Lord helped the army of Judah capture Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and the land near those towns. They also took the hill country. But the people who lived in the valleys had iron chariots, so Judah was not able to make them leave or to take their land.
20 clans and took over the town.
The Benjamin Tribe Does Not Capture Jerusalem21 were getting ready to attack Bethel, which at that time was called Luz. And the Lord helped them when they sent spies to find out as much as they could about Bethel.
24While the spies were watching the town, a man came out, and they told him, “If you show us how our army can get into the town, we will make sure that you aren't harmed.”
25The man showed them, and the two Israelite tribes attacked Bethel, killing everyone except the man and his family. The two tribes made the man and his family leave,
26so they went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a town. He named the town Luz, and that is still its name.
Israel Does Not Get Rid of All the Canaanites27-28 were strong enough to keep the tribe of Dan from settling in the valleys, so Dan had to stay in the hill country.
35The Amorites on Mount Heres and in Aijalon and Shaalbim were also determined to stay. Later on, as Ephraim and Manasseh grew more powerful, they forced those Amorites into slave labor.
The Amorite-Edomite Border36The old Amorite-Edomite border used to go from Sela through Scorpion Pass into the hill country.
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