Judah and Simeon Defeat Adoni-bezek at Bezek

After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel asked the Lord which tribe should go up first to fight against the Canaanites (Judges 1:1). The Lord said, "Judah shall go up." Judah invited Simeon to join in the campaign, and together they struck down ten thousand Canaanites and Perizzites at Bezek (Judges 1:4-5). They captured the cruel king Adoni-bezek and inflicted on him the same brutality he had inflicted on seventy other defeated kings — cutting off his thumbs and big toes so he could not grasp a sword or stand in battle. He himself confessed: "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has paid me back" (Judges 1:7). The campaign rolled south through Jerusalem (which they put to the sword) and into the Judean hill country, where Caleb conquered Hebron and gave his daughter Achsah to his nephew Othniel for capturing Debir (Judges 1:8-15). The lower lowlands and coast were taken in part, but the Philistine cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron remained outside Israelite control. Hormah in the Negev was also destroyed and devoted to the Lord.

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