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Judges 1:5

in Judges 1

And there they found Adoni-bezek and fought against him, striking down the Canaanites and Perizzites.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they smote the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

KJV

And they found Adoni–bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

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This verse in Judges 1

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

And they found Adoni-bezek - The word מצא matsa, “he found,” is used to express a hostile encounter between two parties; to attack, surprise, etc. This is probably its meaning here. Adoni-bezek is literally the lord of Bezek. It is very probable that the different Canaanitish tribes were governed by a sort of chieftains, similar to those among the clans of the ancient Scottish Highlanders. Bezek is said by some to have been in the tribe of Judah. Eusebius and St. Jerome mention two villages of this name, not in the tribe of Judah, but about seventeen miles from Shechem.

This site's exposition

found Adoni-bezek and fought against him

on Judges 1:5-8

The captured king sentences himself, "As I have done to them, so God has repaid me". He is the one Canaanite in the book given a line of theology. Jerusalem burns at verse 8, yet verse 21 finds the Jebusites still there, so the city was struck and not held.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Adoni-bezek - The Lord or king of Bezek; as his name signifies. In Bezek - Whither he fled when he lost the field. Against him - That is, against the city wherein he had encamped himself, and the rest of his army.
And they found Adonibezek in Bezek,.... Who was king of, the place, and whose name signifies lord of Bezek; not that they took him there, for he is afterwards said to make his escape from thence, but here he was when they came against that city, and into which they rushed upon him, and fell upon him as follows: and they fought against him; entering the city with their forces: and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites: that were in it, or about it, even to the number of ten thousand, as before related, Jdg 1:4.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַֽ֠יִּמְצְאוּand they found

    vaiyimtzeuH4672 →455 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • אֲדֹנִ֥יAdoni-

    ʾadoniH137 →6 times

  • בֶ֙זֶק֙Bezek

    vezekH137 →6 times

  • בְּבֶ֔זֶקat Bezek

    bevezekH966 →

  • וַיִּֽלָּחֲמ֖וּand they fought

    vaiyilachamuH3898 →177 times

  • בּ֑וֹagainst <the> him

    bo

  • וַיַּכּ֕וּand they defeated

    vaiyakuH5221 →499 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֖יthe Canaanite[s]

    hakenaaniH3669 →73 times

  • וְאֶת־and <obj.>

    veetH853 →10935 times

  • הַפְּרִזִּֽי׃the Perizzite[s]

    haperiziH6522 →23 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Judges

Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Judges: the study guide →Read Judges 1 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth.

Read on in Judges 1 →