2. “Judah!” the Lord answered. “I'll help them take the land.”
3. The people of Judah went to their relatives, the Simeon tribe, and said, “Canaanites live in the land God gave us. Help us fight them, and we will help you.”Troops from Simeon came to help Judah.
6. Bezek tried to escape, but soldiers from Judah caught him. They cut off his thumbs and big toes,
7. and he said, “I've cut off the thumbs and big toes of seventy kings and made those kings crawl around under my table for scraps of food. Now God is paying me back.”The army of Judah took the king of Bezek along with them to Jerusalem, where he died.
8. They attacked Jerusalem, captured it, killed everyone who lived there, and then burnt it to the ground.
9. Judah's army fought the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, the Southern Desert, and the foothills to the west.
18-19. The Lord helped the army of Judah capture Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and the land near those towns. They also took the hill country. But the people who lived in the valleys had iron chariots, so Judah was not able to make them leave or to take their land.
20. The tribe of Judah gave the town of Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had told them to do. Caleb defeated the three Anakim clans and took over the town.
21. The Jebusites were living in Jerusalem, and the Benjamin tribe did not defeat them or capture the town. That's why Jebusites still live in Jerusalem along with the people of Benjamin.
22-23. The Ephraim and Manasseh tribes were getting ready to attack Bethel, which at that time was called Luz. And the Lord helped them when they sent spies to find out as much as they could about Bethel.
24. While the spies were watching the town, a man came out, and they told him, “If you show us how our army can get into the town, we will make sure that you aren't harmed.”
25. The man showed them, and the two Israelite tribes attacked Bethel, killing everyone except the man and his family. The two tribes made the man and his family leave,
26. so they went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a town. He named the town Luz, and that is still its name.