Episode 84: Adonibezek's thumbs and big toes

(Judges 1-2)

God delivers 10,000 Canaanites and Perizzites

1 ¹ After Joshua died, the Israelites asked God, saying,

Who will help us fight the Canaanites?

² God said,

The people of Judah will lead the fight. I've delivered the land into their hands.

⁴ So the people of Judah fought the Canaanites. God delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and 10,000 Canaanites were killed.

Adonibezek's thumbs and big toes

⁶ Adonibezek fled, but they caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. ⁷ He said,

I cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 kings who ate meat under my table. God is punishing me for that.

They brought him to Jerusalem where he died.

The Jerusalem massacre

⁸ The people of Judah killed everyone in Jerusalem and set the city on fire.

Four Canaanite cities are destroyed

^16-18 The inhabitants of Zephath, Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron were killed, and the cities were destroyed.

Iron chariots

¹⁹ God was with Judah when he drove out the mountain people, but God couldn't drive out the valley people since they had chariots of iron.

The Bethel massacre

^23-24 The tribe of Joseph sent spies to Bethel, who saw a man leaving the city. They said to him,

Show us the city entrance and we'll show you mercy.

²⁵ The man showed them the entrance, and they killed everyone in Bethel, except for the man and his family.

Those who couldn't be driven out

^27-34 The Israelites couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of seventeen Canaanite cites.

An angel rebukes the Israelites (for being too tolerant of other religious beliefs)

2 ¹ An angel said,

² I told you to make no treaties with the inhabitants of this land, and to destroy their altars, but you didn’t obey me.

³ So I won’t drive them out.

⁴ When all the Israelites heard the angel words, they cried out loud and wept.

God sells the Israelites to their enemies

¹⁴ God's anger was hot against Israel and he sold them to their enemies.

¹⁵ Wherever the Israelites went, the hand of God was against them, and they were greatly distressed.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, God selected judges who delivered the Israelites from the people he'd sold them to.

¹⁷ But the Israelites didn't listen to the judges, and when whoring after other gods.

¹⁸ God was with the judges, and he delivered the Israelites out of their enemies hand. God repented because the Israelites groaned so much.

¹⁹ As soon as a judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt by following other gods.

²⁰ And so God became angry again and said,

²¹ Because these people haven't listened to me, I won't drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.

²² That way I find out if they will keep my ways or not.

²³ So God didn't drive out the nations that were still around when Joshua died.