(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Judges 1:1–8, “Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him. And Judah went up; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men. And they found Adonibezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.”
Joshua had completed his task and allocated the entire Promised Land to the Israeli tribes, as the Lord commanded. The next generation of leaders were still committed to Joshua’s task even though they had be slack during the last years of his life. Joshua passed the responsibility of taking possession of their inheritance to the tribes, individually and they had procrastinated as he got older. When Joshua was dead, the leaders had a spurt of inspiration and decided that they had better get on with the task so Judah and Simeon went in to completely take control of their inheritance. Remember, that Simeon’s inheritance was completely enclosed within Judah’s inheritance so they both had an interest in taking control of that territory. They treated the Adonibezek, the ruler of Bezek in the same way as he had treated any ruler that he had conquered.
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