TRV
Translation
King James Version
¶ Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
Complete Jewish Bible
After the death of Y'hoshua, the people of Isra'el asked ADONAI, "Who will go up for us first to fight against the Kena'ani?"
Berean Standard Bible
After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the LORD, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?”
American Standard Version
And it came to pass after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel asked of Jehovah, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?
World English Bible Messianic
After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of the LORD, saying, “Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”
Geneva Bible (1599)
After that Ioshua was dead, the children of Israel asked ye Lord, saying, Who shall goe vp for vs against the Canaanites, to fight first against them?
Young's Literal Translation
And it cometh to pass, after the death of Joshua, that the sons of Israel ask at Jehovah, saying, `Who doth go up for us unto the Canaanite, at the commencement, to fight against it?'
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In the KJVVerse 6,511 of 31,102
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Commentary on Judges 1 verses 1–8
1 ¶ Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
2 And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.
3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.
4 And Judah went up; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.
5 And they found Adonibezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
6 But Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
7 And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
8 Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
Here, I. The children of Israel consult the oracle of God for direction which of all the tribes should first attempt to clear their country of the Canaanites, and to animate and encourage the rest. It was after the death of Joshua. While he lived he directed them, and all the tribes were obedient to him, but when he died he left no successor in the same authority that he had; but the people must consult the breast-plate of judgment, and thence receive the word of command; for God himself, as he was their King, so he was the Lord of their hosts. The question they ask is, Who shall go up first? Jdg 1:1. By this time, we may suppose, they were so multiplied that the places they were in possession of began to be too strait for them, and they must thrust out the enemy to make room; now they enquire who should first take up arms. Whether each tribe was ambitious of being first, and so strove for the honour of it, or whether each was afraid of being first, and so strove to decline it, does not appear; but by common consent the matter was referred to God himself, who is the fittest both to dispose of honours and to cut out work.
II. God appointed that Judah should go up first, and promised him success (Jdg 1:2): "I have delivered the land into his hand, to be possessed, and therefore will deliver the enemy into his hand, that keeps him out of possession, to be destroyed." And why must Judah be first in this undertaking? 1. Judah was the most numerous and powerful tribe, and therefore let Judah venture first. Note, God appoints service according to the strength he has given. Those that are most able, from them most work is expected. 2. Judah was first in dignity, and therefore must be first in duty. He it is whom his brethren must praise, and therefore he it is who must lead in perilous services. Let the burden of honour and the burden of work go together. 3. Judah was first served; the lot came up for Judah first, and therefore Judah must first fight. 4. Judah was the tribe out of which our Lord was to spring: so that in Judah, Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, went before them. Christ engaged the powers of darkness first, and foiled them, which animates us for our conflicts; and it is in him that we are more than conquerors. Observe, The service and the success are put together: "Judah shall go up; let him do his part, and then he shall find that I have delivered the land into his hand." His service will not avail unless God give the success; but God will not give the success unless he vigorously apply himself to the service.
III. Judah hereupon prepares to go up, but courts his brother and neighbour the tribe of Simeon (the lot of which tribe fell within that of Judah and was assigned out of it) to join forces with him, Jdg 1:3. Observe here, 1. That the strongest should not despise but desire the assistance even of those that are weaker. Judah was the most considerable of all the tribes, and Simeon the least considerable, and yet Judah begs Simeon's friendship, and prays an aid from him; the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee, for we are members one of another. 2. Those that crave assistance must be ready to give assistance: Come with me into my lot, and then I will go with thee into thine. It becomes Israelites to help one another against Canaanites; and all Christians, even those of different tribes, should strengthen one another's hands against the common interests of Satan's kingdom. Those who thus help one another in love have reason to hope that God will graciously help them both.
IV. The confederate forces of Judah and Simeon take the field: Judah went up (Jdg 1:4), and Simeon with him, Jdg 1:3. Caleb, it is probable, was commander-in-chief of this expedition; for who so fit as he who had both an old man's head and a young man's hand, the experience of age and the vigour of youth? Jos 14:10, Jos 14:11. It should seem too, by what follows (Jdg 1:10, Jdg 1:11), that he was not yet in possession of his own allotment. It was happy for them that they had such a general as, according to his name, was all heart. Some think that the Canaanites had got together into a body, a formidable body, when Israel consulted who should go and fight against them, and that they then began to stir when they heard of the death of Joshua, whose name had been so dreadful to them; but, if so, it proved they did but meddle to their own hurt.
V. God gave them great success. Whether they invaded the enemy, or the enemy first gave them the alarm, the Lord delivered them into their hand, Jdg 1:4. Though the army of Judah was strong and bold, yet the victory is attributed to God: he delivered the Canaanites into their hand; having given them authority, he here gives them ability to destroy them - put it in their power, and so tried their obedience to his command, which was utterly to cut them off. Bishop Patrick observes upon this that we meet not with such religious expressions in the heathen writers, concerning the success of their arms, as we have here and elsewhere in this sacred history. I wish such pious acknowledgments of the divine providence had not grown into disuse at this time with many that are called Christians. Now, 1. We are told how the army of the Canaanites was routed in the field, in or near Bezek, the place where they drew up, which afterwards Saul made the place of a general rendezvous (Sa1 11:8); they slew 10,000 men, which blow, if followed, could not but be a very great weakening to those that were already brought so very low. 2. How their king was taken and mortified. His name was Adoni-bezek, which signifies, lord of Bezek. There have been those that called their lands by their own names (Psa 49:11), but here was one (and there has been many another) that called himself by his land's name. He was taken prisoner after the battle, and we are here told how they used him; they cut off his thumbs, to disfit him for fighting, and his great toes, that he might not be able to run away, Jdg 1:6. It had been barbarous thus to triumph over a man in misery, and that lay at their mercy, but that he was a devoted Canaanite, and one that had in like manner abused others, which probably they had heard of. Josephus says, "They cut off his hands and his feet," probably supposing those more likely to be mortal wounds than only the cutting off of his thumbs and his great toes. But this indignity which they did him extorted from him an acknowledgment of the righteousness of God, Jdg 1:7. Here observe, (1.) What a great man this Adoni-bezek had been, how great in the field, where armies fled before him, how great at home, where kings were set with the dogs of his flock; and yet now himself a prisoner, and reduced to the extremity of meanness and disgrace. See how changeable this world is, and how slippery its high places are. Let not the highest be proud, nor the strongest secure, for they know not how low they may be brought before they die. (2.) What desolations he had made among his neighbours: he had wholly subdued seventy kings, to such a degree as to have them his prisoners; he that was the chief person in a city was then called a king, and the greatness of their title did but aggravate their disgrace, and fired the pride of him that insulted over them. We cannot suppose that Adoni-bezek had seventy of these petty princes at once his slaves; but first and last, in the course of his reign, he had thus deposed and abused so many, who perhaps were many of them kings of the same cities that successively opposed him, and whom he thus treated to please his own imperious barbarous fancy, and for a terror to others. It seems the Canaanites had been wasted by civil wars, and those bloody ones, among themselves, which would very much facilitate the conquest of them by Israel. "Judah," says Dr. Lightfoot, "in conquering Adoni-bezek, did, in effect, conquer seventy kings." (3.) How justly he was teated as he had treated others. Thus the righteous God sometimes, in his providence, makes the punishment to answer the sin, and observes an equality in his judgments; the spoiler shall be spoiled, and the treacherous dealer dealt treacherously with, Isa 33:1. And those that showed no mercy shall have no mercy shown them, Jam 2:13. See Rev 13:10; Rev 18:6. (4.) How honestly he owned the righteousness of God herein: As I have done, so God has requited me. See the power of conscience, when God by his judgments awakens it, how it brings sin to remembrance, and subscribes to the justice of God. He that in his pride had set God at defiance now yields to him, and reflects with as much regret upon the kings under his table as ever he had looked upon them with pleasure when he had them there. He seems to own that he was better dealt with than he had dealt with his prisoners; for though the Israelites maimed him (according to the law of retaliation, an eye for an eye, so a thumb for a thumb), yet they did not put him under the table to be fed with the crumbs there, because, though the other might well be looked upon as an act of justice, this would have savoured more of pride and haughtiness than did become an Israelite.
VI. Particular notice is taken of the conquest of Jerusalem, Jdg 1:8. Our translators judge it spoken of here as done formerly in Joshua's time, and only repeated on occasion of Adoni-bezek's dying there, and therefore read it, "they had fought against Jerusalem," and put this verse in a parenthesis; but the original speaks of it as a thing now done, and this seems most probable because it is said to be done by the children of Judah in particular, not by all Israel in general, whom Joshua commanded. Joshua indeed conquered and slew Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem (Jos. 10), but we read not there of his taking the city; probably, while he was pursing his conquests elsewhere, this Adoni-bezek, a neighbouring prince, got possession of it, whom Israel having conquered in the field, the city fell into their hands, and they slew the inhabitants, except those who retreated into the castle and held out there till David's time, and they set the city on fire, in token of their detestation of the idolatry wherewith it had been deeply infected, yet probably not so utterly as to consume it, but to leave convenient habitations for as many as they had to put into the possession of it.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–8. Public domain.
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Eusebius of CaesareaAD 339
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 8.1
And in the book of Joshua, son of Nave [Nun], when the land of promise was divided by lot among the other tribes, the tribe of Judah took its own portion of the land without casting lots, and first of all. And, moreover, “After the death of Joshua the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanite, leading our fighting against him? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hands.” These words, then, make it clear that God ordained the tribe of Judah to be the head of all Israel, and the account goes on … And in the book of Judges, when different persons at different times were at the head of the people, though individually the judges were of different tribes, yet speaking generally the tribe of Judah was head of the whole people; and much more so in the times of David and his successors, who belonged to the tribe of Judah and continued to rule until the Babylonian captivity, after which the leader of those who returned from Babylon to their own land was Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Judah, who also built the temple. Hence, too, the book of Chronicles, when giving the genealogies of the twelve tribes of Israel, begins with Judah. And you will see it follows from this that in the days that succeeded, the same tribe had the headship, although different individuals had temporary leadership, whose tribes it is impossible to decide with accuracy, because there is no sacred book handed down to give the history of the period from then to the time of our Savior.
Richard ChallonerAD 1781
This Book is called JUDGES, because it contains the history of what passed under the government of the judges, who ruled Israel before they had kings. The writer of it, according to the more general opinion, was the prophet Samuel.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Judges 1:1 serves as a critical narrative bridge, marking the profound transition in Israel's history from the unified leadership of Joshua to the decentralized era of the Judges. This foundational verse immediately reveals the Israelites' collective and immediate act of seeking divine counsel following Joshua's death. Faced with the formidable, unfinished task of dispossessing the remaining Canaanite inhabitants from their promised inheritance, the tribes of Israel humbly inquire of the LORD, seeking His specific direction on which tribe should initiate the next phase of the conquest. This opening passage powerfully underscores Israel's continued reliance on God's sovereignty and guidance in the absence of a central human leader, setting the stage for the challenges and spiritual struggles that define the subsequent period.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Judges 1:1 employs several potent literary devices to establish its narrative and thematic foundations. The opening phrase, Transition, immediately signals a significant shift in the historical narrative, moving from the era of unified leadership under Joshua to a new, less structured, and often chaotic period. This transition is marked by a palpable sense of Leadership Vacuum, as the direct question "Who shall go up for us... first?" powerfully underscores the absence of a clear, divinely appointed successor to Joshua, highlighting the immediate leadership void that the tribes collectively faced. The verse also utilizes Direct Question as a narrative technique, placing Israel's immediate dilemma and their reliance on divine oracle at the forefront of the story. This question serves as a potent form of Foreshadowing, hinting at the fragmented and often uncoordinated efforts of the individual tribes that will characterize the period of the Judges, where larger national unity frequently falters. Finally, the very act of "asking the LORD" functions as a crucial Thematic Introduction, immediately establishing the central theme of Israel's fluctuating faithfulness and their constant, desperate need for divine guidance throughout the tumultuous book.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Judges 1:1 powerfully illustrates the enduring principle of God's unwavering sovereignty and the absolute necessity of His people's humble dependence on Him, particularly during times of profound transition or formidable challenge. Even after the death of a great and unifying leader like Joshua, God's eternal purposes for Israel remained unchanged, and their divine mandate to possess the land was still unequivocally in effect. The Israelites' immediate and commendable response—to "ask the LORD"—demonstrates a foundational theological understanding that true success and victory come not from human strength, strategic brilliance, or charismatic leadership alone, but fundamentally from divine direction and empowering presence. This act of seeking God's will before engaging in battle sets a timeless precedent for all subsequent endeavors, profoundly reminding believers that our first recourse in any significant undertaking, whether personal or corporate, should always be to consult the Lord. It underscores that God Himself remains the constant, faithful Leader of His people, even when human leadership changes or falters, and His faithfulness to His covenant promises endures through every generation.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Judges 1:1 offers a profound and timeless lesson for believers navigating life's inevitable transitions, uncertainties, and challenges. Just as ancient Israel faced a new and daunting era without their established, unifying leader, we too frequently encounter seasons of uncertainty, new responsibilities, or the painful loss of familiar support structures and guidance. This verse powerfully calls us to emulate Israel's initial, commendable response: to immediately and instinctively turn to the Lord for guidance. It serves as a potent reminder that our very first instinct in any significant decision, daunting undertaking, or period of transition should be fervent prayer and humble seeking of God's counsel through His inspired Word and the leading of His Holy Spirit, rather than relying solely on our own limited wisdom, past experiences, or the fluctuating circumstances around us. God remains eternally faithful to His call on our lives, and His perfect wisdom is always abundantly available to those who humbly and persistently seek it. This passage deeply encourages us to persevere with unwavering faith in the tasks God has set before us, even when the path ahead seems daunting, the resources scarce, or human leadership appears unclear, knowing with certainty that He is our ultimate Guide, our unfailing Commander, and the One who empowers us to fulfill His purposes.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
How did the children of Israel "ask the LORD" in this context?
Answer: In the Old Testament, particularly during this period of Israel's history, "asking the LORD" for specific guidance on national matters, especially military ones, typically involved a formal and sacred consultation through the high priest. This was most commonly done using the Urim and Thummim, two mysterious objects kept within the breastplate of the high priest, which were utilized to discern God's "yes" or "no" or to reveal His specific will in crucial situations. This divinely sanctioned method of inquiry is explicitly mentioned in various places throughout the Pentateuch and historical books, such as in Numbers 27:21 concerning Joshua's leadership, and later in 1 Samuel 23:9-12 where David consults the ephod. It was a solemn act of national humility and profound dependence on divine revelation, often performed before the Ark of the Covenant, signifying that God Himself was their ultimate Commander, Strategist, and King.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Judges 1:1, with its poignant depiction of Israel's desperate need for a leader to continue the divinely mandated conquest, finds its ultimate and glorious fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Just as Israel sought a "first" to "go up" against their formidable earthly enemies, humanity, lost and enslaved by sin, desperately needed a divine champion to conquer the ultimate spiritual foes of sin, death, and the devil. Jesus is the true and perfect Leader, the greater Joshua (whose name, Yeshua, is the Greek equivalent of Joshua), who leads His people not merely into a physical land, but into a spiritual inheritance and eternal rest (Hebrews 4:8-10). He is the One who has already definitively "gone up" to heaven, having triumphed decisively over all principalities and powers, leading captivity captive (Ephesians 4:8-10). While ancient Israel struggled imperfectly and often failed to fully dispossess the Canaanites, Christ, by His perfect life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection, definitively conquered the spiritual enemies that held all humanity captive, delivering us from the dominion of darkness and miraculously transferring us into His glorious kingdom (Colossians 1:13). He is the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and the King who must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). Thus, the ancient question of "Who shall go up for us?" is definitively and eternally answered in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ, our victorious Commander, our faithful Guide, and the Giver of our eternal inheritance.