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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Commentary

2 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

and they fought against him

on Judges 1:5-8

The captured king of Bezek passes sentence on himself, as I have done, so God hath requited me, and he is the one Canaanite in the book given a line of theology. Seventy kings had gathered their food under his table with their thumbs and great toes cut off, a mutilation that leaves a man unable to grip a sword or run. Thumb and great toe are named together elsewhere in Scripture only in the consecration of the priests and the cleansing of the leper, at Exodus 29:20, Leviticus 8:23 and Leviticus 14:14, where blood is put on both. Verse 8 says Judah took Jerusalem and burned it, and verse 21 says the Jebusites were still living there when this was written, so the city was struck rather than held.

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.

Hebrew	Sound	Meaning	Word study	In the Bible
וַֽ֠יִּמְצְאוּ	vaiyimtzeu	and they found	H4672 →	455 times
אֶת־	ʾet-	<obj.>	H853 →	10935 times
אֲדֹנִ֥י	ʾadoni	Adoni-	H137 →	6 times
בֶ֙זֶק֙	vezek	Bezek	H137 →	6 times
בְּבֶ֔זֶק	bevezek	at Bezek	H966 →
וַיִּֽלָּחֲמ֖וּ	vaiyilachamu	and they fought	H3898 →	177 times
בּ֑וֹ	bo	against <the> him
וַיַּכּ֕וּ	vaiyaku	and they defeated	H5221 →	499 times
אֶת־	ʾet-	<obj.>	H853 →	10935 times
הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֖י	hakenaani	the Canaanite[s]	H3669 →	73 times
וְאֶת־	veet	and <obj.>	H853 →	10935 times
הַפְּרִזִּֽי׃	haperizi	the Perizzite[s]	H6522 →	23 times