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 10:36 And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:
Joshua 11:21 And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of…
Joshua 15:13-20 And unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a part among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, even the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 1:9-20
We have here a further account of that glorious and successful campaign which Judah and Simeon made. 1. The lot of Judah was pretty well cleared of the Canaanites, yet not thoroughly. Those that dwelt in the mountain (the mountains that were round about Jerusalem) were driven out (Jdg 1:9, Jdg 1:19), but those in the valley kept their ground against them, having chariots of iron, such as we read of, Jos 17:16. Here the men of Judah failed, and thereby spoiled the influence which otherwise their example hitherto might have had on the rest of the tribes, who followed them in this instance of their cowardice, rather than in all the other instances of their courage. They had iron chariots, and t…
Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it--The capture of this important city, which ranks among the early incidents in the war of invasion (Jos 15:63), is here noticed to account for its being in the possession of the Judahites; and they brought Adoni-bezek thither [Jdg 1:7], in order, probably, that his fate being rendered so public, might inspire terror far and wide. Similar inroads were made into the other unconquered parts of Judah's inheritance [Jdg 1:9-11]. The story of Caleb's acquisition of Hebron is here repeated (Jos 15:16-19). [See on Jos 15:16.]
John Gill on Judges 1:9
And afterwards the children of Judah,.... After the taking of Bezek, and the king of it, having him to Jerusalem, where he died: they
went down; from Jerusalem; which was on high ground:
to fight against the Canaanites that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley; into which several parts the lot of the tribe of Judah was divided; in each of which they had cities, and some, as it seems, yet unsubdued, and in the hands of the Canaanites; of these several parts, and the cities in them, see Joshua 15:21.
Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 1:8-15
After his defeat, Judah and Simeon went against Jerusalem, and conquered this city and smote it, i.e., its inhabitants, with the edge of the sword, or without quarter (see Gen 34:26), and set the city on fire. בּאשׁ שׁלּח, to set on fire, to give up to the flames, only occurs again in Jdg 20:48; Kg2 8:12, and Psa 74:7. Joshua had already slain the king of Jerusalem and his four allies after the battle at Gibeon (Jos 10:3, Jos 10:18-26), but had not conquered Jerusalem, his capital. This was not done till after Joshua's death, when it was taken by the tribes of Judah and Simeon. But even after this capture, and notwithstanding the fact that it had been set on fire, it did not come into the so…
The Church Fathers
And Caleb said: "Whosoever beats the City of letters and takes it, and I will give my daughter Acsa for a wife." This was also mentioned in the book of Joshua Nave (Cf Jos 15,16). But one can rightly ask if this happened while still living Joshua, and it is repeated now as a recapitulation, or happened after his death, when it had already been said: Judah will go up, and Judah had already begun to make war on the Canaanites , in whose war all these things are narrated as happened. But it is more likely that it happened after the death of Joshua, and then this is mentioned, as other things are also, by prolepsis, that is, by anticipation. Now, in exposing the actions of the tribe of Judah against the Canaanites, the order of the narrative remains thus among the remaining warlike acts of Judah, of whom the Lord had said after the death of Joshua: Judah will rise. And then the sons of Judah went down to attack the Canaanites who lived in the mountain and in the south and in the field. And Judah marched against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron, and Hebron came forth from the opposite side-the name of Hebron before was Cariatharbocsepher-and defeated Shesi and Akiman and Kolmi, sons of Enac. From there they went up against the inhabitants of Dabir - the name of Dabir was before City of letters. And Caleb said: "Whoever defeats the City of letters and takes it, and I will give my daughter Acsa for a woman" (Jc 1.9-12). It is in this clear order of events that these events took place after the death of Joshua. But then, when mentioning the cities given to Caleb, the narrator, advancing as the opportunity presents itself, anticipates what happened next. For the rest, I think that the Scripture has not intended to mention without reason twice the fact that Caleb was willing to give his daughter as a prize to the winner.
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
Achsah — Anklet, Caleb’s only daughter (1 Chr. 2:49). She was offered in marriage to the man who would lead an attack on the city of Debir, or Kirjath-sepher. This was done by Othniel (q.v.), who accordingly…
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…
Hobab — Beloved, the Kenite, has been usually identified with Jethro (q.v.), Ex. 18:5, 27; comp. Num. 10:29, 30. In Judg. 4:11, the word rendered “father-in-law” means properly any male relative by marriage…
Plain — (1.) Heb. ‘abel (Judg. 11:33), a “grassy plain” or “meadow.” Instead of “plains of the vineyards,” as in the Authorized Version, the Revised Version has “Abel-cheramim” (q.v.), comp. Judg. 11:22; 2…
Vale, Valley — It is hardly necessary to state that these words signify a hollow sweep of ground between two more or less parallel ridges of high land. The structure of the greater part of the holy land does not…
Achsah · General references — General references
Canaanites · Not expelled — Not expelled
Canaanites, The · Partially subdued by Israel — Partially subdued by Israel
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
Judah, The Tribe Of · First and most vigorous in driving out the Canaanites — First and most vigorous in driving out the Canaanites
Simeon · .Inheritance allotted to — .Inheritance allotted to
They set [literally 'sent'] fire. They sent the fire12By igniting it. This follows the literal meaning of שׇלְחוּ, ‘thy sent’. (Metzudas Tzion) Afterward, the B’nei Yehudah went down to wage war with the Canaanites dwelling in the hills, the Negev, and the lowlands. throughout it.
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).
