Judges 1:21 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Judges 1:21
And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Benjamin
בִנְיָמִ֑ןvin.ya.Min
H1144
Binjamin · proper noun, a man's name
out
הוֹרִ֖ישׁוּho.Ri.shu
H3423
to occupy (by driving out previous tenants · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person common plural
Jebusites
הַיְבוּסִי֙hay.vu.Si
H2983
a Jebusite or inhabitant of Jebus · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
inhabited
יֹשֵׁ֣בyo.Shev
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
Jerusalem
יְרֽוּשָׁלִַ֔םye.ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · proper noun, a place name
Jebusites
הַיְבוּסִ֜יhay.vu.Si
H2983
a Jebusite or inhabitant of Jebus · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
dwell
וַיֵּ֨שֶׁבvai.Ye.shev
H3427
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
children
בְּנֵ֤יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Benjamin
בִנְיָמִן֙vin.ya.Min
H1144
Binjamin · proper noun, a man's name
Jerusalem
בִּיר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔םbi.Ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · preposition + proper noun, a place name
day
הַיּ֥וֹםhai.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 15:63 As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children…
Joshua 18:11-28 And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families: and the coast of their lot came forth between the…
Judges 1:8 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 fir…
Judges 19:10-12 But the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and there were with hi…
2 Samuel 5:6-9 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 1:21–end
We are here told upon what terms the rest of the tribes stood with the Canaanites that remained.
I. Benjamin neglected to drive the Jebusites out of that part of the city of Jerusalem which fell to their lot, Jdg 1:21. Judah had set them a good example, and gained them great advantages by what they did (Jdg 1:9), but they did not follow the blow for want of resolution.
II. The house of Joseph,
1. Bestirred themselves a little to get possession of Beth-el, Jdg 1:22. That city is mentioned in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:22. Yet it is spoken of there (Jdg 1:13) as a city in the borders of that tribe, and, it should seem, the line went through it, so that one half of it only belonged to Benjam…
the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem--Judah had expelled the people from their part of Jerusalem (Jdg 1:8). The border of the two tribes ran through the city--Israelites and natives must have been closely intermingled.
John Gill on Judges 1:21
And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem,.... That is, that part of it which belonged to them, for it lay between Judah and Benjamin; and neither of them separately, nor both conjunctly, could drive out the Jebusites from it, particularly the strong hold on the top of Mount Sion, which they held to the times of David. Abarbinel is of opinion, that Jerusalem in those times was not a city enclosed about, but was a large province, part of which belonged to the tribe of Judah, and another to the tribe of Benjamin, and another was possessed by the Jebusites; and so Jarchi says it was a province, the name of which was Jebusi:
but the Jebusites dwelt wi…
Remaining Conquests of the Combined Tribes of Judah and Simeon. - Jdg 1:17.
Zephath was in the territory of Simeon. This is evident not only from the fact that Hormah (Zephath) had been allotted to the tribe of Simeon (compare Jos 19:4 with Jos 15:30), but also from the words, "Judah went with Simeon his brother," which point back to Jdg 1:3, and express the thought that Judah went with Simeon into his territory to drive out the Canaanites who were still to be found there. Going southwards from Debir, Judah and Simeon smote the Canaanites at Zephath on the southern boundary of Canaan, and executed the ban upon this town, from which it received the name of Hormah, i.e., banning. The town has…
The Church Fathers
We ask why it is said: The sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; and the Jebusites dwelt in Jerusalem with the children of Benjamin to this day, when it is read above that that city was conquered by Judah and set on fire, killing the Jebusites in it (Cf Jc 1,8.). We must know that this city was common to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as Josué Nave's own division of the territories shows. (Cf Jos 15,63; 18,28) The city of Jebus is the same as Jerusalem (Cf Jc 19,10). Therefore, these two tribes remained by the temple of the Lord, when the others, except Levi, who was the priestly tribe, and received no territory in the division, separated from the kingdom of Judah in the time of Jeroboam. One must therefore think that Judah certainly conquered the city and burned it down, killing the people who were there, but not all the Jebusites died, either because they were outside the city, or because they were able to flee. And the children of Benjamin, together with those of the tribe of Judah, who had that city in common, lived in it together with the Jebusites that were left and which they tolerated. Therefore, the phrase: The sons of Benjamin did not expel the Jebusites, it must be understood in the sense that they could not or did not want to make them tributary. Or at least, the phrase: They did not expel the Jebusites, it means that Benjamin did not possess without them the territory that belonged to them.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agag — Flame, the usual title of the Amalekite kings, as “Pharaoh” was of the Egyptian. (1.) A king of the Amalekites referred to by Balaam (Num. 24:7). He lived at the time of the Exodus. (2.) Another king…
Jebusites — The name of the original inhabitants of Jebus, mentioned frequently among the seven nations doomed to destruction (Gen. 10:16; 15:21; Ex. 3:8, 17; 13:5, etc.). At the time of the arrival of the…
Joshua, Book Of — Named from Joshua the son of Nun, who is the principal character in it. The book may be regarded as consisting of three parts:
Benjamin · .Did not exterminate the Jebusites — .Did not exterminate the Jebusites
Canaanites · Not expelled — Not expelled
Canaanites, The · Partially subdued by Israel — Partially subdued by Israel
Jerusalem · The Jebusites: Held possession of, with Judah and Benjamin — The Jebusites: Held possession of, with Judah and Benjamin
Judah · .Commissioned by God to lead in the conquest of the promised land — .Commissioned by God to lead in the conquest of the promised land
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
But the Yevusi dwellers of Yerushalayim. There was a section of Yerushalayim24The reference here is not to members of the Yevusite nation, as Rashi explains that they were descendants of the Pelishte king Avimelech. Cf.Rashi to Yehoshua, 16:63, and Shmuel 2, 5:6. entitled Yevusi. They were descendants of Avimelech,25The Pelishite king (Bereishis, 21:32, 26:8). The patriarch Avrohom swore that he would deal kindly with him and his children and grandchildren. (Ibd, 21:23). Avrohom’s descendants were obligated by the oath as well. Cf.Midrash Rabah, Bereishis, 54:2. and they could not oust them because of the oath—until the arrival of Dovid26When Avimelech’s grandchildren no longer survived. (Ra…
