The Tribes of Judah and Simeon Capture Adonibezek

¹After Joshua's death the people of Israel asked the Lord, “Which of our tribes should be the first to go and attack the Canaanites?”

²The Lord answered, “The tribe of Judah will go first. I am giving them control of the land.”

³The people of Judah said to the people of Simeon, “Go with us into the territory assigned to us, and we will fight the Canaanites together. Then we will go with you into the territory assigned to you.” So the tribes of Simeon

⁴and Judah went into battle together. The Lord gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.

⁵They found Adonibezek there and fought him.

⁶He ran away, but they chased him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

⁷Adonibezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. God has now done to me what I did to them.” He was taken to Jerusalem, where he died.

The Tribe of Judah Conquers Jerusalem and Hebron

⁸The people of Judah attacked Jerusalem and captured it. They killed its people and set fire to the city.

⁹After this they went on to fight the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the foothills, and in the dry country to the south.

¹⁰They marched against the Canaanites living in the city of Hebron, which used to be called Kiriath Arba. There they defeated the clans of Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

Othniel Conquers the City of Debir

¹¹From there the men of Judah marched against the city of Debir, at that time called Kiriath Sepher.

¹²One of them, called Caleb, said, “I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage to the man who succeeds in capturing Kiriath Sepher.”

¹³Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz, captured the city, so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage.

¹⁴On the wedding day Othniel urged her to ask her father for a field. She got down from her donkey, and Caleb asked her what she wanted.

¹⁵She answered, “I want some water holes. The land you have given me is in the dry country.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

The Victories of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin

¹⁶The descendants of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite, went on with the people of Judah from Jericho, the city of palm trees, into the barren country south of Arad in Judah. There they settled among the Amalekites.

¹⁷The people of Judah went with the people of Simeon, and together they defeated the Canaanites who lived in the city of Zephath. They put a curse on the city, destroyed it, and named it Hormah.

^18-19The Lord helped the people of Judah, and they took possession of the hill country. But they did not capture Gaza, Ashkelon, or Ekron, with their surrounding territories. These people living along the coast had iron chariots, and so the people of Judah were not able to drive them out.

²⁰As Moses had commanded, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove out of the city the three clans descended from Anak.

²¹But the people of the tribe of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem, and the Jebusites have continued to live there with the people of Benjamin ever since.

The Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh Conquer Bethel

^22-23The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh went to attack the city of Bethel, at that time called Luz. The Lord helped them. They sent spies to the city,

²⁴who saw a man leaving and said to him, “Show us how to get into the city, and we won't hurt you.”

²⁵So he showed them, and the people of Ephraim and Manasseh killed everyone in the city, except this man and his family.

²⁶He later went to the land of the Hittites, built a city there, and named it Luz, which is still its name.

People Who Were Not Driven Out by the Israelites

²⁷The tribe of Manasseh did not drive out the people living in the cities of Beth Shan, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo, and the nearby towns; the Canaanites continued to live there.

²⁸When the Israelites became stronger, they forced the Canaanites to work for them, but still they did not drive them all out.

²⁹The tribe of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites living in the city of Gezer, and so the Canaanites continued to live there with them.

³⁰The tribe of Zebulun did not drive out the people living in the cities of Kitron and Nahalal, and so the Canaanites continued to live there with them and were forced to work for them.

³¹The tribe of Asher did not drive out the people living in the cities of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphek, and Rehob.

³²The people of Asher lived with the local Canaanites, since they had not been driven out.

³³The tribe of Naphtali did not drive out the people living in the cities of Beth Shemesh and Bethanath. The people of Naphtali lived with the local Canaanites, but forced them to work for them.

³⁴The Amorites forced the people of the tribe of Dan into the hill country and did not let them come down to the plain.

³⁵The Amorites continued to live at Aijalon, Shaalbim, and Mount Heres, but the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh kept them under their rule and forced them to work for them.

³⁶North of Sela, the Edomite border ran through Akrabbim Pass.

The Angel of the Lord at Bochim

¹The angel of the Lord went from Gilgal to Bochim and said to the Israelites, “I took you out of Egypt and brought you to the land that I promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.

²You must not make any covenant with the people who live in this land. You must tear down their altars.’ But you have not done what I told you. You have done just the opposite!

³So I tell you now that I will not drive these people out as you advance. They will be your enemies, and you will be trapped by the worship of their gods.”

⁴When the angel had said this, all the people of Israel began to cry,

⁵and that is why the place is called Bochim. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

The Death of Joshua

⁶Joshua sent the people of Israel on their way, and each man went to take possession of his own share of the land.

⁷As long as Joshua lived, the people of Israel served the Lord, and even after his death they continued to do so as long as the leaders were alive who had seen for themselves all the great things that the Lord had done for Israel.

⁸The Lord's servant Joshua son of Nun died at the age of a hundred and ten.

⁹He was buried in his own part of the land at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰That whole generation also died, and the next generation forgot the Lord and what he had done for Israel.

Israel Stops Worshiping the Lord

¹¹Then the people of Israel sinned against the Lord and began to serve the Baals.

¹²They stopped worshiping the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God who had brought them out of Egypt, and they began to worship other gods, the gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and made the Lord angry.

¹³They stopped worshiping the Lord and served the Baals and the Astartes.

¹⁴And so the Lord became furious with Israel and let raiders attack and rob them. He let the enemies all around overpower them, and the Israelites could no longer protect themselves.

¹⁵Every time they would go into battle, the Lord was against them, just as he had said he would be. They were in great distress.

¹⁶Then the Lord gave the Israelites leaders who saved them from the raiders.

¹⁷But the Israelites paid no attention to their leaders. Israel was unfaithful to the Lord and worshiped other gods. Their fathers had obeyed the Lord's commands, but this new generation soon stopped doing so.

¹⁸Whenever the Lord gave Israel a leader, the Lord would help that leader and would save the people from their enemies as long as that leader lived. The Lord would have mercy on them because they groaned under their suffering and oppression.

¹⁹But when the leader died, the people would return to the old ways and behave worse than the previous generation. They would serve and worship other gods, and stubbornly continue their own evil ways.

²⁰Then the Lord would become furious with Israel and say, “This nation has broken the covenant that I commanded their ancestors to keep. Because they have not obeyed me,

²¹I will no longer drive out any of the nations that were still in the land when Joshua died.

²²I will use them to find out whether or not these Israelites will follow my ways, as their ancestors did.”

²³So the Lord allowed these nations to remain in the land; he did not give Joshua victory over them, nor did he drive them out soon after Joshua's death.

The Nations Remaining in the Land

¹So then, the Lord left some nations in the land to test the Israelites who had not been through the wars in Canaan.

²He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before.

³Those left in the land were the five Philistine cities, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Hamath Pass.

⁴They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses.

⁵And so the people of Israel settled down among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

⁶They intermarried with them and worshiped their gods.

Othniel

⁷The people of Israel forgot the Lord their God; they sinned against him and worshiped the idols of Baal and Asherah.

⁸So the Lord became angry with Israel and let King Cushan Rishathaim of Mesopotamia conquer them. They were subject to him for eight years.

⁹Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent someone to free them. This was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz.

¹⁰The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel's leader. Othniel went to war, and the Lord gave him the victory over the king of Mesopotamia.

¹¹There was peace in the land for forty years, and then Othniel died.

Ehud

¹²The people of Israel sinned against the Lord again. Because of this the Lord made King Eglon of Moab stronger than Israel.

¹³Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they defeated Israel and captured Jericho, the city of palm trees.

¹⁴The Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.

¹⁵Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he sent someone to free them. This was Ehud, a left-handed man, who was the son of Gera, from the tribe of Benjamin. The people of Israel sent Ehud to King Eglon of Moab with gifts for him.

¹⁶Ehud had made himself a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long. He had it fastened on his right side under his clothes.

¹⁷Then he took the gifts to Eglon, who was a very fat man.

¹⁸When Ehud had given him the gifts, he told the men who had carried them to go back home.

¹⁹But Ehud himself turned back at the carved stones near Gilgal, went back to Eglon, and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.” So the king ordered his servants, “Leave us alone!” And they all went out.

²⁰Then, as the king was sitting there alone in his cool room on the roof, Ehud went over to him and said, “I have a message from God for you.” The king stood up.

²¹With his left hand Ehud took the sword from his right side and plunged it into the king's belly.

²²The whole sword went in, handle and all, and the fat covered it up. Ehud did not pull it out of the king's belly, and it stuck out behind, between his legs.

²³Then Ehud went outside, closed the doors behind him, locked them,

²⁴and left. The servants came and saw that the doors were locked, but they only thought that the king was inside, relieving himself.

²⁵They waited as long as they thought they should, but when he still did not open the door, they took the key and opened it. And there was their master, lying dead on the floor.

²⁶Ehud got away while they were waiting. He went past the carved stones and escaped to Seirah.

²⁷When he arrived there in the hill country of Ephraim, he blew a trumpet to call the people of Israel to battle; then he led them down from the hills.

²⁸He told them, “Follow me! The Lord has given you victory over your enemies, the Moabites.” So they followed Ehud down and captured the place where the Moabites were to cross the Jordan; they did not allow anyone to cross.

²⁹That day they killed about ten thousand of the best Moabite soldiers; none of them escaped.

³⁰That day the Israelites defeated Moab, and there was peace in the land for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹The next leader was Shamgar son of Anath. He too rescued Israel, and did so by killing six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.

Elimelech and His Family Move to Moab

^1-2Long ago, in the days before Israel had a king, there was a famine in the land. So a man named Elimelech, who belonged to the clan of Ephrath and who lived in Bethlehem in Judah, went with his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion to live for a while in the country of Moab. While they were living there,

³Elimelech died, and Naomi was left alone with her two sons,

⁴who married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. About ten years later

⁵Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons.

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

⁶Some time later Naomi heard that the Lord had blessed his people by giving them good crops; so she got ready to leave Moab with her daughters-in-law.

⁷They started out together to go back to Judah, but on the way

⁸she said to them, “Go back home and stay with your mothers. May the Lord be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died.

⁹And may the Lord make it possible for each of you to marry again and have a home.” So Naomi kissed them good-bye. But they started crying

¹⁰and said to her, “No! We will go with you to your people.”

¹¹“You must go back, my daughters,” Naomi answered. “Why do you want to come with me? Do you think I could have sons again for you to marry?

¹²Go back home, for I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought there was still hope, and so got married tonight and had sons,

¹³would you wait until they had grown up? Would this keep you from marrying someone else? No, my daughters, you know that's impossible. The Lord has turned against me, and I feel very sorry for you.”

¹⁴Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye and went back home, but Ruth held on to her.

¹⁵So Naomi said to her, “Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go back home with her.”

¹⁶But Ruth answered, “Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

¹⁷Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried. May the Lord's worst punishment come upon me if I let anything but death separate me from you!”

¹⁸When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.

¹⁹They went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town became excited, and the women there exclaimed, “Is this really Naomi?”

²⁰“Don't call me Naomi,” she answered; “call me Marah, because Almighty God has made my life bitter.

²¹When I left here, I had plenty, but the Lord has brought me back without a thing. Why call me Naomi when the Lord Almighty has condemned me and sent me trouble?”

²²This, then, was how Naomi came back from Moab with Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley harvest was just beginning.

In Praise of Living in Peace

¹How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God's people to live together in harmony!

²It is like the precious anointing oil running down from Aaron's head and beard, down to the collar of his robes.

³It is like the dew on Mount Hermon, falling on the hills of Zion. That is where the Lord has promised his blessing— life that never ends.