The Nations That Remained
21 The children of Benjamin didn’t drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. 22 The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and Yahweh was with them. 23 The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city before that was Luz.) 24 The watchers saw a man come out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” 25 He showed them the entrance into the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go. 26 The man went into the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day. 27 Manasseh didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. 28 When Israel had grown strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and didn’t utterly drive them out. 29 Ephraim didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. 30 Zebulun didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor. 31 Asher didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob; 32 but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they didn’t drive them out. 33 Naphtali didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but he lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of Beth Anath became subject to forced labor. 34 The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; 35 but the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim. Yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor. 36 The border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.
Seven tribes are listed with the same verdict — they did not drive them out — and the compromise that replaces conquest is forced labor.
The children of Benjamin didn’t drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
The chapter's second half is a roll call of failure, and the phrase didn't drive out becomes its refrain — Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan, each with a list of towns that stayed in other hands Judges 1:27 Judges 1:29–33. The writer keeps the accounting tribe by tribe, so the pattern cannot be mistaken for one region's bad luck.
When Israel had grown strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and didn’t utterly drive them out.
This is the key sentence, and it names the substitute. Israel was not too weak — when Israel had grown strong — and with the strength it chose revenue instead of obedience. Subject peoples paid, worked and stayed, which was the profitable arrangement and the forbidden one Deuteronomy 7:2 Exodus 23:32–33. The compromise looks like realism and functions like a mortgage: the neighbors who remained became the gods who remained.
The Bethel episode shows the same instinct in miniature. A man is caught leaving the city and offered his life for the location of the entrance; he takes the deal, the city is destroyed, and they let the man and all his family go Judges 1:24–25. It is a bargain rather than a battle, and it echoes another Canaanite who was spared for helping spies Joshua 6:25 — except that this man walks off and builds a new city with the old name Judges 1:26, carrying the thing Israel was told to end.
The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;
The last tribe named suffers a reversal: instead of driving anyone out, Dan is driven in, penned into the hills by the people it was supposed to dispossess. That detail is the reason for the migration recorded in the appendix, where Dan goes looking for territory elsewhere and takes idols with it Judges 18:1 Judges 18:30–31. The chapter's failures are not merely regrettable; the book will show each of them producing something.
So the opening chapter moves from Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand Judges 1:4 to a border description of the Amorites Judges 1:36 — from what God gave to what the enemy still held. Nothing has yet gone visibly wrong. A generation has simply stopped finishing what it was given, and the next chapter explains what that costs.
held with reason What this mark means