Commentaria in Judices
Chapter 1. Synopsis of the Chapter
After Josue, the tribe of Juda first begins the war, and storms the remaining cities of the Chanaanites. Secondly, verse 15, Caleb gives to Othoniel, for the capture of Cariath Sepher, his daughter Axa as wife, and gives her, when she asks, the upper and the nether watery ground. Thirdly, verse 21 and following, the other tribes do not exterminate the Chanaanites, as God had commanded, but make them tributaries, and were therefore afflicted by them.
1. After the death of Josue, the children of Israel consulted the Lord, saying: Who shall go up before us against the Chanaanite, and shall be the leader of the war? 2. And the Lord said: Juda shall go up; behold I have delivered the land into his hands. 3. And Juda said to Simeon his brother: Come up with me into my lot, and fight against the Chanaanite, that I also may go with thee into thy lot. And Simeon went with him. 4. And Juda went up, and the Lord delivered the Chanaanite and the Pherezite into their hands; and they slew in Bezec ten thousand men. 5. And they found Adonibezec in Bezec, and fought against him, and they smote the Chanaanite and the Pherezite. 6. But Adonibezec fled: and they pursued after him and took him, and cut off his thumbs and the great toes of his feet. 7. And Adonibezec said: Seventy kings, having their thumbs and the great toes of their feet cut off, gathered up the leavings of their meat under my table: as I have done, so hath God requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. 8. Then the children of Juda, besieging Jerusalem, took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, setting the whole city on fire. 9. And afterwards they went down and fought against the Chanaanite that dwelt in the mountains, and in the south, and in the plains. 10. And Juda going against the Chanaanite that dwelt in Hebron (the name whereof was anciently Cariath-arbe), he slew Sesai, and Ahiman, and Tholmai: 11. and departing from thence he went to the inhabitants of Dabir, the ancient name of which was Cariath-sepher, that is, the city of letters. 12. And Caleb said: He that shall smite Cariath-sepher, and take it, to him will I give Axa my daughter to wife. 13. And Othoniel the son of Cenez, the younger brother of Caleb, took it, and he gave him Axa his daughter to wife. 14. And as she went on the way, her husband admonished her that she should ask a field of her father. And as she sighed as she sat on her ass, Caleb said to her: What aileth thee? 15. But she answered: Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a southern and dry land, give me also a watery land. And Caleb gave her the upper watery ground and the nether watery ground. 16. Now the children of the Cinite, the kinsman of Moses, went up from the city of palms with the children of Juda, into the desert of his lot, which is at the south of Arad, and they dwelt with him. 17. And Juda went with Simeon his brother, and they together defeated the Chanaanite that dwelt in Sephaath, and slew him. And the name of the city was called Horma, that is, Cursing. 18. And Juda took Gaza with its confines, and Ascalon, and Accaron with their confines. 19. And the Lord was with Juda, and he possessed the hill country: but was not able to destroy the inhabitants of the valley, because they abounded with chariots armed with scythes. 20. And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said: who destroyed out of it the three sons of Enac. 21. And the children of Benjamin did not destroy the Jebusite, the inhabitant of Jerusalem: and the Jebusite dwelleth with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day. 22. The house of Joseph also went up to Bethel: and the Lord was with them. 23. For when they besieged the city, which before was called Luza, 24. they saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him: Shew us the entrance into the city, and we will shew mercy to thee. 25. And when he had shewn them, they smote the city with the edge of the sword: but that man and all his kindred they let go. 26. Who being sent away, went into the land of Hetthim, and built there a city, and called it Luza: which is so called unto this day. 27. Manasses also did not destroy Bethsan, and Thanach with their villages, and the inhabitants of Dor, and Jeblaam, and Mageddo with their villages: and the Chanaanite began to dwell with them. 28. But after Israel was grown strong, he made them tributaries, and would not destroy them. 29. Ephraim also did not slay the Chanaanite that dwelt in Gazer, but dwelt with him. 30. Zabulon did not destroy the inhabitants of Cetron and Naalol: but the Chanaanite dwelt in the midst of him, and became tributary to him. 31. Aser also did not destroy the inhabitants of Accho, and Sidon, Ahalab, and Achazib, and Helba, and Aphec, and Rohob: 32. and he dwelt in the midst of the Chanaanite, the inhabitant of that land, and did not slay him: 33. Nephthali also did not destroy the inhabitants of Bethsames, and Bethanath: and he dwelt among the Chanaanite, the inhabitant of the land, and the Bethsamites and Bethanites were tributary to him. 34. And the Amorrhite straitened the children of Dan in the mountain, and did not give them place to go down to the plain: 35. and he dwelt in the mountain Hares, which is interpreted Potsherd, in Aialon and Salebim. And the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy upon him, and he became tributary to him. 36. And the border of the Amorrhite was from the ascent of the Scorpion, the rock, and the higher places.
1. AFTER THE DEATH OF JOSUE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CONSULTED THE LORD, etc. WHO SHALL BE THE LEADER OF THE WAR?—As if to say: Since, Josue our leader being dead, we have none to succeed him in the command, but the princes of the tribes and the council of the Sanhedrim administer the Commonwealth, and now all the tribes have grown so numerous as to suffice to conquer, inhabit and cultivate the remaining land of Chanaan, which before they were not permitted to do on account of their fewness, according to the decree of the Lord, Exod. 23:29, who shall be our leader of the war, that is, which tribe shall first pursue the war begun by Josue against the Chanaanites, to conquer those who remain in its lot, and give to the other tribes the example and the beginning of exterminating the Chanaanites remaining in their lots? This is plain from the Hebrew. For they do not seek a leader who should preside over the whole army and all the tribes, but one who should begin a partial war in his own tribe, whose victory, fame and glory would strike terror into the rest of the Chanaanites, so that the other tribes, each by a partial war attacking in like manner the Chanaanites still remaining in the land and lot, might more easily overcome and expel them.
THEY CONSULTED—the oracle and answer of God through the High Priest, whether Eleazar or, if he was dead, through Phinees, as Josephus says, book V, chap. 1, his son and successor, clothed with the Rational and the Urim and Thummim, as God had commanded, Num. 27:21. This was done in Silo, for there the tabernacle with the ark still abode. So Josephus, who adds that after Josue Israel lacked a prince for eighteen years, after which, on account of the invasion of the king of Mesopotamia, God designated Othoniel prince. Then, therefore, the elders, namely the princes of the tribes, and the council of the Sanhedrim governed the Commonwealth. The Hebrews report the same in the Seder Olam. These eighteen years of the interregnum, however, are included in the forty years of Othoniel, as I shall show in chap. 4, verse 9. So Salianus and others.
Tropologically, let Princes and others learn here to undertake neither war nor anything else arduous unless first they have consulted God, as David, Josaphat, Judas Machabeus did, and above all Moses and Josue, as I said on Josue chap. 2, verses 2 and 9;
for the happy success of every affair, its progress and its issue, depend on God.