TRV
Translation
King James Version
But Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
Complete Jewish Bible
but Adoni-Bezek fled. They pursued him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
Berean Standard Bible
As Adoni-bezek fled, they pursued him, seized him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
American Standard Version
But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
World English Bible Messianic
But Adoni-Bezek fled; and they pursued him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his big toes.
Geneva Bible (1599)
But Adoni-bezek fled, and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off the thumbes of his hands and of his feete.
Young's Literal Translation
And Adoni-Bezek fleeth, and they pursue after him, and seize him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes,
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In the KJVVerse 6,516 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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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 1:6 describes the capture and brutal mutilation of Adonibezek by the combined forces of the tribes of Judah and Simeon following their pursuit of him. This act of retributive justice, where his thumbs and great toes were severed, serves as a stark illustration of the severe consequences of cruelty, directly mirroring the atrocities Adonibezek himself had inflicted upon seventy kings. The verse immediately establishes a tone of harsh justice and highlights the challenges faced by Israel in fully dispossessing the Canaanites, setting the stage for the turbulent and often violent period chronicled in the book of Judges.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The narrative in Judges 1:6 employs several potent literary devices. Retributive Justice (or lex talionis) is immediately evident, though its full explanation comes in the subsequent verse (Judges 1:7). The punishment inflicted on Adonibezek directly mirrors the atrocities he committed, creating a powerful sense of poetic justice. There is a strong element of Irony in the powerful "lord of Bezek" being reduced to a helpless, mutilated state, a victim of the very cruelty he practiced. The act of mutilation itself serves as Symbolism, representing not only the physical incapacitation of a warrior and leader but also his utter humiliation and the stripping away of his former authority and dignity. Furthermore, this opening incident serves as a form of Foreshadowing, setting a grim tone for the book of Judges, where cycles of violence, sin, and often harsh divine judgment will repeatedly manifest among the Israelites themselves.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Judges 1:6 offers a stark portrayal of justice in the ancient world, yet it resonates with enduring theological principles. The immediate and physical consequence for Adonibezek's cruelty underscores the biblical truth that actions have consequences, and that God, in His sovereignty, often allows individuals to reap what they sow. While the method of justice is severe, the narrative implicitly points to a divine hand in the outcome, as Adonibezek himself acknowledges in the subsequent verse. This passage serves as a foundational example of God's justice at work, even through human instruments, against those who practice oppression and brutality. It highlights the principle that no one, regardless of their power or position, is above divine accountability.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
While the specific act described in Judges 1:6 is culturally bound to the ancient Near East and does not serve as a model for Christian justice, its underlying principles offer profound lessons. It reminds us that injustice and cruelty, though they may seem to triumph for a time, ultimately face accountability. This passage challenges us to consider the long-term consequences of our actions, particularly how we treat others. It underscores the reality that there is a moral order to the universe, and that God, in His perfect justice, will ensure that all wrongs are ultimately made right. For believers, this should inspire both a commitment to pursuing justice and righteousness in our own lives and communities, and a deep trust in God's ultimate sovereignty over all human affairs, even when His methods are beyond our full comprehension.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What was the purpose of cutting off Adonibezek's thumbs and great toes?
Answer: The primary purpose was two-fold: incapacitation and humiliation. Cutting off the thumbs would render a warrior unable to effectively wield a sword, spear, or bow, thereby preventing him from ever fighting or leading an army again. The removal of the great toes would severely impair balance and mobility, making it difficult to run or stand firm in battle. This punishment was also a profound act of humiliation, reducing a once powerful king to a helpless state, serving as a public display of his defeat and the consequences of his cruelty. As revealed in Judges 1:7, it was a direct application of lex talionis, mirroring the exact atrocities he had inflicted upon seventy other kings.
Was this act of justice sanctioned by God?
Answer: The text itself does not explicitly state that God commanded this specific act of mutilation. However, Adonibezek's own confession in Judges 1:7 ("As I have done, so God has repaid me") strongly suggests that he perceived it as divine retribution. Within the broader narrative of Judges, God often uses human agents and even the consequences of human actions to enact His justice and discipline. While the Israelites were commanded to dispossess the Canaanites, the specific method of punishment here reflects the cultural norms of the ancient Near East and the principle of lex talionis (an eye for an eye), which was a recognized form of justice in the Mosaic Law, though often applied with nuances. The narrative frames it as a just outcome for a cruel oppressor.
How does this ancient form of justice relate to Christian ethics and Jesus' teachings?
Answer: Judges 1:6 highlights a form of retributive justice common in the ancient world, where punishment often mirrored the crime. This stands in contrast to the radical teachings of Jesus Christ, who called His followers to a higher ethic of love, forgiveness, and non-retaliation. While the Old Testament principle of "an eye for an eye" (Exodus 21:24) was intended to limit vengeance and ensure proportionate justice, Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:38-39 ("But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also") calls believers to transcend strict retribution. Christians are called to seek reconciliation, mercy, and restorative justice, reflecting God's character revealed most fully in Christ, who suffered for His enemies rather than exacting vengeance. However, this does not negate God's ultimate justice, which will be fully realized at the final judgment (Romans 12:19).
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Judges 1:6 depicts a harsh, retributive justice characteristic of the Old Testament era, it ultimately points to the superior and redemptive justice found in Jesus Christ. Adonibezek's fate, where he reaped what he sowed, foreshadows the ultimate divine judgment where all will give an account for their deeds (Romans 14:12). Yet, Jesus does not come to exact the same kind of physical retribution but to offer a path to redemption from the cycle of sin and violence. He fulfills the law's demand for justice not by inflicting punishment on others, but by bearing the full weight of God's righteous wrath against sin on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21). His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, particularly regarding "an eye for an eye" (Matthew 5:38-39), calls believers to a radical ethic of love, forgiveness, and turning the other cheek, transcending the retributive justice seen in Judges. Thus, Adonibezek's judgment, while a historical reality, serves as a backdrop against which the profound mercy and ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, shines even brighter. In Christ, justice is not merely about punishment, but about restoration and reconciliation, made possible by His atoning work.