And they found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him, and they smote the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
Here the war for the land narrows to one man. Judah and Simeon hunt down the ruler of Bezek and defeat his Canaanite and Perizzite forces. Commentators read the verse on two levels: a real battle won by God's power, and a lesson hidden in two names.
The name "Adoni-bezek" means the lord, or master, of Bezek. One writer finds a second sense in the word, one that turns the title upside down:
His name goes with the lesson. Bezek means "fettered," and so were these armies they destroyed. Adoni-bezek means "lord of Bezek," no doubt his chief city — but it also means, literally, "a lord in fetters." So it is with the freest, when in opposition to God, and with the mightiest, in His hand.
Commentators differ on the meaning of the name. Another reads Bezek as "lightning," which changes the picture of the enemy but not the outcome:
Bezek, meaning "lightning," looks like a fearsome enemy, but the power of God is greater.
Before the fighting began, Judah had asked his brother tribe Simeon to come with him. One writer sees that move as a small crack in his confidence:
Judah seems to mistrust his own strength. Instead of finding his resource in the God of Israel, he seeks it in Simeon, and in reality lacks confidence in the Lord. True, he does not ally himself with the enemies of God. If his faith fails, he turns to his brother Simeon, only to his brother. But still, under the excuse of pushing forward the work of God, we see in principle the first sign of human associations and alliances.
God still gave the victory. Yet the same writer sees the method leave its mark on the result:
It was not that God disowned either tribe. Verse 4 says, "the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand." But a war fought on the basis of a human alliance carries more or less the mark of where it came from.
They caught Adoni-bezek but did not kill him. They cut off his thumbs and big toes instead — the very thing he had done to others. One writer weighs this against God's command, and draws a lesson about sin in ourselves:
They captured its king, Adoni-Bezek ("lord of Bezek"), as he was fleeing. But instead of putting him to death as God had ordered, they compromised: they cut off his thumbs and big toes. … God had decreed this because of the demon worship these Canaanites had given themselves up to. That demonic influence would not be stamped out by merely maiming the ungodly king. These things teach us to show no mercy to sin. We are to "put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5).
This half-measure sets the pattern for the rest of the chapter. Another writer traces the slide step by step:
It is only a partial maiming of an enemy instead of his complete destruction. As you go on you find everything done in part only. At first they simply put the enemy to flight. Then they can no longer do that, and the enemy is driven into the mountain strongholds to live there alone. Then, a little further on, they cannot do even that; they make the enemies of God pay them tribute. … The next step shows no power even for this; they live among them. And lastly, they could not drive them out of the rich valleys, the choice pastures.
Adoni-bezek's own words explain his defeat. He had maimed other kings the same way, and he named what happened to him as God's repayment:
In Jerusalem and its people has been shown, and will yet be shown, that stern law: "whatever one sows, that will he also reap." … Such treatment of a beaten enemy seems dishonourable and cruel. But the reason for it is not hidden from us: as he had treated others, so he was treated. He at once admits that his punishment is just, and in that state of self-judgment they bring him to Jerusalem.
Another writer turns that admission on a long-standing objection:
Unbelievers have often found fault with the wiping out of the Canaanites. The confession of Adoni-Bezek answers these objections. "As I have done, so God has repaid me." Their punishment was just and well deserved.
- Promise — The Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. The win at Bezek was God's doing, not proof of Judah's strength.
- Alliance — Judah still reached for Simeon's help. God gave the victory anyway, but the way a battle is fought leaves its mark.
- Compromise — A maimed king is not a dead king. Sin left crippled but alive is sin left alive.
- Harvest — Adoni-bezek had cut off thumbs and toes; he lost his own, and said God had repaid him. He reaped what he sowed — and his own confession answers the charge that God was cruel.
- Decline — Half-finished work sets the pattern for what follows. First flight, then tribute, then living among the enemy, then losing the best of the land.
And Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
A Canaanite king runs from a lost battle. Israel's men catch him and, instead of killing him, cripple his hands and feet. Two questions follow: why this punishment, and why did Israel choose it when God had commanded something else?
His name is a title, and it ends up describing what happened to him.
In Bezek they find Adoni-bezek. They chase him down and maim him, carrying out God's judgment on him for the same kind of cruelties he had inflicted on others. He himself admits this is what it is. That is a remarkable witness to Israel of how and why God was against the Canaanites, and that He whose judgments they were carrying out was over all. His name goes with the lesson. Bezek means "fettered," and so were these armies that they destroyed. Adoni-bezek means "lord of Bezek," no doubt his chief city, but the name also means, literally, "a lord in fetters." So it is with the freest man when he stands against God, and with the mightiest man in His hand.
The mutilation looks arbitrary until you see what it took from a soldier.
In ancient times people fully recognised the special place and usefulness of the thumb of the hand and the big toe of the foot. The Bible tells us about a great king, Adoni-bezek. He lost a battle, and as he tried to escape they caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes... Without thumbs and big toes a warrior could not fight, and getting away from the enemy became very hard.
The punishment fit the crime, but it did not fit God's command.
The allies seize Adoni-bezek and "cut off his thumbs and his big toes" (v. 6). This was not what God had commanded long ago. It was not what Joshua did to the kings of Jericho, Ai, Jerusalem and Makkedah, or to all the kings of the mountain and the plain. To mutilate the enemy was simply human retaliation. Adoni-bezek had done the same to humble his own enemies. He kept them at his court, because their presence added to his glory as conqueror.
Another writer explains why maiming could never be enough.
They captured its king, Adoni-Bezek ("lord of Bezek") as he fled. God had ordered them to put him to death, but they compromised and cut off his thumbs and big toes (vv. 5-6). He had done the same to 70 kings whom he had brought under his rule, and now he says that God has repaid him in kind... God had decreed his death because of the demon worship these Canaanites had given themselves up to. Maiming this wicked king would not stamp out that demon influence. These things teach us to show no mercy to sin. We are to "put to death what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). Yet Adoni-Bezek died, so God intervened to carry out the proper sentence against him.
Half-measures at the start of the book set the pattern for everything that follows.
It is only a partial mutilation of an enemy instead of his absolute destruction. As you go on you find everything done in part only. At first they simply put the enemy to flight. Then they can no longer do even that, and they only drive the enemy into the mountain strongholds to live there alone. Then you find, a little further on, that they are not able to do even that; they actually make the enemies of God pay them tribute. The next step shows no power even for this: they live among them. Last of all, they cannot drive them out of the rich valleys, the choice pastures. The children of Israel have to live in the mountains, and the enemy has the best of all the land. What a progress that is!
The maimed king had his own explanation for what had happened to him.
Such treatment of a fallen foe seems both unchivalrous and cruel, but the reason for it is not hidden from us: as he had treated others, so was he treated. He immediately acknowledges the justice of his punishment, and in that state of self-judgment is brought to Jerusalem.
Notice who he credits for it — not Judah, and not bad luck.
Note this. Adoni-bezek went through the ordeal of having his thumbs and his big toes cut off, which left him badly crippled. He traced what had happened to him back to God: "as I have done, so God has repaid me." The boomerang he had often thrown at others had hit himself. It is always so.
- Lord in fetters — his name meant "lord of Bezek," and Bezek means "fettered." The mightiest man becomes a captive once he stands against God.
- Boomerang — he had crippled seventy kings. The weapon he threw at others came back on him, and he named God as the one repaying him.
- Compromise — God had ordered death. Israel cut off thumbs and toes instead: human retaliation in place of obedience.
- Half-measures fail — maiming leaves the evil alive. Sin in us needs the same treatment: put it to death, do not just disable it.
- The slide — this half-job starts a long decline. Israel first routs the enemy, then only taxes them, then lives among them, and ends up in the hills while the enemy keeps the best land.
And Adoni-Bezek said, Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gleaned under my table as I have done, so God has requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
Adoni-bezek was a Canaanite king, caught as he fled. His only recorded words are a confession: his punishment matched his own cruelty to seventy other kings. The verse raises two hard questions at once — was God behind this, and was Israel right to do it?
The striking thing is not the cruelty but who names God in it.
Adoni-bezek went through the ordeal of having his thumbs and his great toes cut off. It left him badly crippled. Yet he traced what had happened to him back to God — "God has repaid me." The boomerang he had often thrown at others had struck him. This is always so.
Why the thumbs and big toes? They were what a fighting man needed most:
In ancient times people knew well the special place and usefulness of the thumb of the hand and the big toe of the foot… Without thumbs and big toes a warrior could not fight, and escape from the enemy would be extremely difficult.
One commentator answers a long-standing charge against God with the words of a Canaanite himself.
Adoni-Bezek suffers the same treatment that he in his wickedness had given to others. Unbelievers have often found fault with the extermination of the Canaanites. The confession of Adoni-Bezek answers these objections: "As I have done, so God has repaid me." Their punishment was just and well deserved.
Judah and Simeon were not only winning a war. One commentator finds a witness to Israel in the whole scene, down to the king's name.
They pursue and maim him, carrying out God's judgment on him for cruelties of this same kind inflicted on others. He himself admits this is what it is. It was a remarkable witness to Israel of how and why God was against the Canaanites. It also showed that the One whose judgments they were carrying out was over all. His name goes with the lesson. Bezek means "fettered," and so were the hosts they destroyed. Adonibezek means "lord of Bezek," which was his chief city — but the name also means "a lord in fetters." So it is with the freest of men when they oppose God, and with the mightiest, in His hand.
Not everyone reads Israel's action as obedience. One writer calls the maiming a human choice, not God's command. He also finds the beaten king more open than God's own people.
This was not what God commanded long ago… To mutilate the enemy was nothing more than human retaliation. Adoni-bezek had likewise used this way of humbling his enemies. But he kept them at his court, since their presence added to his glory as conqueror. We see similar things in the history of the church. How often she has made a display of past victories to exalt herself in her own eyes and in the eyes of others. The conscience of a humbled enemy is often more open than that of the people of God in prosperity.
Another writer sees a compromise. Judah settled for less than God had ordered, and God finished what Israel left half done.
Instead of putting him to death, as God had ordered, they compromised by cutting off his thumbs and big toes. His own words in verse 7 are his condemnation… God had decreed this death because of the demon worship these Canaanites had given themselves over to. Maiming the ungodly king would never stamp out that demon influence. These things teach us that we are to show no mercy to sin… Yet Adoni-Bezek died, so God stepped in to carry out the proper sentence against him.
They take him to Jerusalem to die. That city's own history shows the same rule.
In the history of Jerusalem and its people we see that stern law shown, and it will be shown again: "whatever one sows, that will he also reap."… Such treatment of a fallen enemy seems both dishonourable and cruel. But the reason for it is not hidden from us: as he had treated others, so he was treated. He admits at once that his punishment is just. In that state of self-judgment they bring him to Jerusalem.
- Sown — Seventy maimed kings under his table were seed; the harvest came back to the sower's own hands and feet.
- Owned — He names God as the one repaying him. The condemned man agrees with his own sentence.
- Answered — A Canaanite king's own words answer the charge that God was unjust to the Canaanites.
- Fettered — "Lord of Bezek" ends as a lord in fetters. The freest and mightiest man is still in God's hand when he sets himself against Him.
- Half-done — Commentators differ on Judah's part: human retaliation, or a compromise short of God's order. Both warn that a maimed enemy left alive is no finished victory.
And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
In this verse Judah takes Jerusalem and burns it. Yet by verse 21 the Jebusites still live there — so why did this victory leave no lasting mark?
One writer ties the end of the captured king, Adoni-bezek, to the end of the city itself.
He is brought to Jerusalem, only to die there; and the city itself is struck with the sword and burnt; for the "foundation of peace" must be righteousness, and the Jebusite city is only a hypocrisy, though few may believe this now.
Another writer looks at the campaign as a whole. Something in it is unfinished.
There was victory, to be sure. But read on. You will find there was not that complete wholeness of heart which would secure fuller development and a complete triumph for God. There does not seem to be the dignity of a complete victory over the forces of Adoni-Bezek. A mutilated enemy is not one completely overthrown. He dies later on, and Jerusalem is taken and burned for the time; yet the conquest is not permanent.
How can the same book report a capture and then a Jebusite population? One writer points to the map.
Judah also fought against Jerusalem and captured it, setting the city on fire (v. 8). But this evidently covered only the southern part of the city. Jerusalem lay on the border between Judah and Benjamin. In verse 21 we read that Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem.
The gap between verse 8 and verse 21 is not only about two tribes. It shows the same people strong, and then weak.
Judah, in days of prosperity (v. 8), had struck this city with the edge of the sword, and set it on fire. But the defeated enemy's forces are skilful at regrouping. They never consider themselves beaten. Israel's low state gave them a favourable opportunity, and so "the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day."
Commentators differ here. One reads the fire as right and just. Another asks what Israel threw away by lighting it.
In the first five books of the Bible we see how God had set His heart on Jerusalem. He had chosen it as the place of His Name, and gave Israel very exact instructions about it. Later, in Judges 1:4-8, we read of the defeat of Adoni-bezek at Bezek. He was punished, and died at Jerusalem. But Israel, instead of establishing the city as God's chosen centre, set fire to it, and went off to settle on the good land for themselves! This is always the tendency. It is so with believers today. The city was not established until God raised up the King of His choice — David the son of Jesse. Man fails; but God never fails. He had chosen Jerusalem, and He must gloriously bring to pass what He chose it for.
This burning is not an isolated episode. One writer traces the same pattern through the city's whole story.
Joshua 10:1 mentions Jerusalem for the first time in the Bible, and that in connection with war. Here the sword strikes the city, and fire burns it. This has been her history over and over again, and will be again in the future, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
- Taken. Judah struck Jerusalem and burned it. A place whose name means "foundation of peace" cannot rest on anything but righteousness, and the Jebusite city was a hypocrisy.
- Partly. The capture covered only the southern part of the city. Jerusalem lay on a tribal border, and Benjamin never drove the Jebusites out.
- Briefly. A mutilated enemy is not an overthrown one — the victory was real, but the conquest was not permanent.
- Lost. Judah won the city in a day of strength. A beaten enemy took it back when Israel grew weak, and the Jebusites lived on beside Benjamin.
- Until the King. Fire alone never made the city God's centre. That waited for David, the king of God's own choosing. Man fails, but God's purpose for Jerusalem stands.
And afterwards the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the hill-country, and in the south, and in the lowland.
After Joshua's death, Israel held a land that was theirs by promise but not yet theirs in fact. Here Judah presses south against Canaanites who still held the high ground and the valleys. So why did a people already given a land have to fight for every part of it?
The book of Joshua ends with the land divided among the tribes, but not emptied of enemies. One writer explains why the record can sound like it contradicts itself:
The land was fully divided, but not yet fully conquered. This was so because Israel had to be tested. The God of their fathers put them in possession of the land by His grace, but they were to keep it as a people bound to obedience.
Another writer reads the same pattern as a picture of the believer's life. Title is one thing; enjoyment is another:
As to our title, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ, eating the grain of that land. But then the conflict begins. We hold our ground against the enemy, and we come to know the full sum of our privileges through every attack he makes on us.
The campaign in this chapter began with a question put to God, and God named the tribe. Commentators find meaning in the name itself:
The answer is "Judah shall go up," and God gives the decisive promise that He has delivered the Canaanites into Judah's hand (v. 2). Judah means "praise," and a spirit of praise to God is surely what should lead against any enemy, for it gives God the honour for winning the victory.
Before going down against the mountain, the south and the valley, Judah had asked Simeon to come along. Some writers see the first crack there. The fault was not an alliance with enemies. It was that a plain promise seemed to need help:
Judah seems to mistrust his own strength. Instead of finding his resource in the God of Israel, he seeks it in Simeon, and so he really lacks confidence in Jehovah. True, he does not join with the enemies of God; when his faith fails he turns to his brother Simeon, and only to his brother. Yet under the excuse of pushing forward the work of God, we see, in principle, the dawn of human associations and alliances.
Commentators differ on how far to press this. Another is more careful:
We may not be able to say whether or not the failure of Judah was because he sought the help of his brother Simeon. In certain circumstances it is right and proper to seek the help of our fellow believers, but we should be sure that it is the Lord's mind for us to do so.
The verse names three regions: hill country, south and lowland. The chapter goes on to tell how far Judah got in each:
However, Judah did drive out the people of the hill country, yet could not drive out the people of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron (v. 17). This was a poor excuse, for is God inferior to iron chariots? What Judah needed was the faith of a Caleb.
Another writer traces that limit back to Judah's own trust:
It seemed that chariots of iron stopped almighty power. It often does seem so, and in a sense it is even true. The removal of difficulties often depends on a simple faith, and our faith is, sadly, so seldom simple… Judah has measured the might of Jehovah, and Jehovah measures the strength He puts out for him. So God's ways are even, and Judah loses the fullness of a blessing he cannot grasp.
Judah's next victory was at Hebron, and one man stood behind it:
Caleb's energy, perseverance and faith on this occasion were such that his whole tribe bore the imprint of it… What an honour for Caleb, that Judah should have gained the victory! On the other hand, let us not forget that each one of us may help to imprint weakness on the people of God as a whole.
And what Caleb gained was not merely a hill town. Hebron carries its own meaning:
He therefore took possession of Hebron, typically possessing the communion with God to which every believer is entitled, but which many do not enjoy.
One writer turns this straight on the reader:
It may be that we, like Judah and the other tribes who had their inheritance in the land, have been content to let the enemy rob us of what God meant us to have. It takes spiritual energy to enter into what God has given us in His grace. And He has given us the full armour that makes us victorious over all our foes (Eph. 6:10-18).
- Given — God divided the land before Israel had conquered it, so He could test them in holding what grace had already given.
- Led — God named Judah, the tribe whose name means "praise," to go first, giving Him the honour for the victory.
- Weakened — Judah leaned on Simeon when God's promise needed no help. Commentators differ on whether that choice cost him later.
- Halted — Judah took the mountain but not the valley. The chariots of iron measured Judah's faith, not God's power.
- Possessed — Caleb's faith took Hebron and marked his whole tribe. One person's faith still decides how much of God's gift is enjoyed.