The tribes of Judah and Simeon
1After Joshua died, the Israelites asked the Lord: ‘Which tribe must go first to start the war_against the Canaanite people?’
2The Lord said: ‘The Judah tribe must go first. I will help them to defeat the Canaanites and to take their land.’
3The people of the Judah tribe went to the people of the Simeon tribe and said: ‘Brothers, come with us to the land that must become our land and help us to go to war_against the Canaanite people, then later on we will help you when you go to war to get your land.’
The Simeon tribe then went with the Judah tribe to war. 4The Lord helped them defeat the Canaanites and the Perizzite people and they killed 10 000 men in the town of Bezek.
5In Bezek they found King Adoni-Bezek and they made war_against his people. They defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzite people. 6King Adoni-Bezek fled but the people of Judah and Simeon followed him and caught him. They cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7King Adoni-Bezek said: ‘God has punished me now because I did the same to 70 kings. I also cut off their thumbs and big toes and they had to eat the crumbs of bread that fell from my table.’ The people of Judah and Simeon took Adoni-Bezek to Jerusalem and he died there. 8Then the people of Judah attacked Jerusalem. They killed the people and took the city and burnt it.
9Then the people of Judah attacked the Canaanite people who lived in the hill_country, the Negev and the lowlands. 10They also made war_against the Canaanite people in the city of Hebron (the old name of Hebron was Kiriath-Arba). The people of Judah defeated the people of Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
11Then the people of Judah attacked the people in the town of Debir (the old name of Debir was Kiriath-Sepher). 12Caleb said: ‘The man who defeats the town of Kiriath-Sepher and takes it can marry my daughter Aksah.’
13Othniel came and he defeated the town. He was the son of Caleb's younger brother, Kenaz. Then Caleb gave his daughter Aksah to Othniel.
14Othniel married Aksah and on the same day she told Othniel to ask her father for land. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her if she wanted something. 15She told him: ‘You gave me land in the Negev. Now can you please give me land with water-wells?’
Caleb gave her land with 2 water-wells.
16The Kenite people were descendants of Moses' father-in-law. They came from the city of Jericho, the city with many palm trees. They lived with the people of Judah in the Judah Desert in the Negev near the town of Arad.
17The Judah tribe went with the Simeon tribe and they defeated the Canaanite people in the town of Zephath. They killed all the people and the animals and destroyed the town. Then they gave the town a new name and named it Hormah.
18The people of Judah also defeated the towns of Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron. They took the towns and the land around the towns. 19The Lord helped the people of Judah to defeat the people who lived in the hills, but they could not win against the people who lived in the valleys because those people had war-chariots of iron to help them.
20The Judah tribe gave the city of Hebron to Caleb. Caleb defeated the Anakite people and he chased them away from Hebron.
The other tribes do not chase all the Canaanite people away
21The Benjamin tribe did not defeat the Jebusite people who lived in Jerusalem. The Jebusite people still live with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem.
22The descendants of Joseph also made war_against the Canaanite people and the Lord helped them to defeat them. 23They sent spies to look and see how they could come into the town of Bethel (the old name of Bethel was Luz). 24The spies saw a man who came from the town and they said to him: ‘If you tell us how we can get into the town, we will be good to you.’
25The man then showed them how to get into the town and the descendants of Joseph defeated the people of the town and they killed the people in the town. But they did not kill the man who helped them or his family. 26That man went to the land of the Hittite people. He lived and built a town there. He named the town Luz and that is still the name of the town.
27The Manasseh tribe did not defeat the people of the towns of Beth-Shan, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam or Megiddo and the villages around the towns, and the Canaanite people did not go away from those towns. 28When the Israelites became a big and strong nation, they made the Canaanite people work for them, but they did not chase them away.
29The Ephraim tribe also did not defeat the Canaanites people in the land of Gezer. The Canaanites lived in Gezer with the people of Ephraim.
30The Zebulun tribe did not defeat the people of the towns of Kitron and Nahalol. The Canaanite people stayed there with the Zebulon people, but they had to work hard for them.
31The Asher tribe also did not defeat the people who lived in the towns of Akko, Sidon, Ahlab, Akzib, Helba, Aphek and Rehob. 32The people of Asher did not chase away the Canaanite people in the land and the Canaanite people stayed there with them.
33The Naphtali tribe did not defeat the people of the towns of Beth-Shemesh and Beth-Anath, but they made the people of Beth-Shemesh and Beth-Anath work hard for them.
34The Amorites did not let the people of Dan defeat them and take their towns in the valleys and they stayed there. The people of Dan had to stay in the mountains and hills. 35The Amorites did not go away from the towns Har-Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim. Later when the Joseph tribes became big and strong, they made the Amorites work hard for them. 36The border of the land of the Amorites starts in the Scorpion Pass at the rock and from there it goes up the mountain.
