Judges 1:4-21

4They attacked the Canaanites and the Perizzites at Bezek. The Lord helped them to win against 10,000 Canaanite and Perizzite fighters.

5In the battle, they found King Adoni-Bezek and they attacked him there.

6The king ran away, but the Israelites caught him. They cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

7King Adoni-Bezek said, ‘God has punished me because I did the same thing to 70 other kings. I cut off their thumbs and big toes. I made them pick up bits of food to eat under my table.’ The Israelites took King Adoni-Bezek back to Jerusalem. He died there.

8Judah's army then attacked Jerusalem. They took the city for themselves. They killed the people who lived there and they burnt down the buildings.

9Then they went to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negev and in the low hills in the west.

10They attacked the people who lived in Hebron. They won the fight against the clans of Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai. Hebron was called Kiriath Arba at that time.

11Then they went to attack the people who lived in Debir. It was called Kiriath Sepher at that time.

12Caleb said, ‘If a brave man attacks and takes Kiriath Sepher, he can marry my daughter, Acsah.’

13Othniel attacked the city and he took it. He was the son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz. So Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to Othniel, to be his wife.

14After this, Acsah told Othniel that they should ask her father to give them some land. She went to see her father, Caleb. As she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, ‘What would you like me to do for you?’

15She replied, ‘Please be kind and give me a special gift. You have given me some land in the Negev desert. Now please give me a place with springs so that I have water for the land.’ So Caleb gave her some land with springs, on high land and on low land.

16The Kenites were descendants of Moses' wife's father. They left Jericho with Judah's people to live in the region of Arad, in the Negev desert.

17Then Judah's men joined with their cousins, Simeon's men, to attack the Canaanites who lived in Zephath. They completely destroyed the city. They gave it a new name, ‘Hormah’.

18Judah's men also took for themselves the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron, as well as the land around those cities.

19The Lord helped the men of Judah so that they took the towns in the hill country for themselves. But they could not win against the people who lived on the lower land near the sea. Those people had iron chariots to help them fight.

20Caleb received Hebron for his family, as Moses had promised him. Caleb had chased out the three clans of Anak who lived there.

21The men of Benjamin's tribe could not chase out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. As a result, the Jebusites continue to live in Jerusalem with the people of Benjamin.