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¶ NOW after the death of Joshua, the servant of the LORD, the children of Israel inquired of the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
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And the LORD said, Judah shall go up;
behold, I have delivered the land into his hands.
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And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my inheritance, that we may fight against the Canaanites;
and I likewise will go up with you into your inheritance.
So Simeon went with him.
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And Judah went up;
and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands;
and they slew ten thousand of them in Bezek.
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And they found the lord of Bezek in Bezek;
and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
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But the lord of Bezek fled;
and they pursued him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
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And the lord of Bezek said, Seventy kings, with their thumbs and great toes cut off, used to pick up bread under my table;
as I have done, so God has requited me.
And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
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And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it and smote it with the edge of the sword and set the villages thereof on fire.
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¶ And afterwards the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, who dwelt in the mountain and in the south and in the plain.
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And Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron (now the name of Hebron before was Koriath-arba);
and they slew Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the sons of the giants.
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And from thence they went against the inhabitants of Debir;
and the name of Debir before was Koriath-sephra;
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And Caleb said, He who takes Koriath-sephra, and destroys it, I will give him Achsah my daughter to wife.
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And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it;
and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife.
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And it came to pass, when she entered the city, she desired to ask of her father a field;
and she alighted from her ass;
and Caleb said to her, What troubles you, my daughter?
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And she said to him, Give me a blessing;
for you have given me a south land;
give me also pools of water;
and Caleb gave her the upper pools and the lower pools.
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And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south of Adar;
and they went and dwelt among the people.
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And Simeon went with Judah his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it.
And they called the name of the city Khirma.
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Judah also took Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.
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And the LORD was with Judah;
and they possessed the mountain;
but they could not destroy the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
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And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said;
and he destroyed from thence the three sons of giants.
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¶ But the children of Benjamin did not destroy the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem;
but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
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The house of Joseph also went out against Beth-el;
and the LORD was with them.
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And the house of Joseph spied on Beth-el.
(Now the name of the city before was Luz.)
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And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, Show us the entrance into the city, and we will have mercy on you.
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And when he had shown them the entrance into the city, they smote the city with the edge of the sword;
but they spared the man and all his family.
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And the man went to the land of the Hittites, and built a village and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.
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Neither did Manasseh destroy the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, nor Taanach and its villages, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, nor the inhabitants of Abi-naam and its villages, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages;
but the Canaanites that inhabited the land could not be subdued.
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And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, they made the Canaanites pay tribute but did not utterly destroy them.
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Neither did Ephraim destroy the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer;
but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
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Neither did Zebulun destroy the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Jahlel;
but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and paid tribute.
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Neither did Asher destroy the inhabitants of Accho nor the inhabitants of Zidon nor of Lahbel nor of Jezebel nor of Helbah nor of Aphik nor of Rehob;
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But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land;
for they did not destroy them.
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Neither did Naphtali destroy the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh nor the inhabitants of Beth-anoth;
but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land;
nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anoth paid tribute to them.
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And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain;
for they would not let them come down to the valley;
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The Amorites sought refuge in the land of Hedas in the mountain and in Aijalon and in Shaalbim;
but the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed against them, and they paid tribute.
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And the border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Ekron, from the rock and upward.