Isra’el’s Failure to Conquer the Land
1:1 to 3:6
ADONAI, the Judge
These verses form a two-part introduction to the book (to see link click Ai – The Failures of the Southern Tribes) and (Aj – The Failures of the Northern Tribes). It tells us how the Israelites fared as they tried to complete the conquest of Canaan by occupying the areas that had been allotted to them by Joshua (see the commentary on Joshua Bq – The Settlement of the Land). Like the biblical accounts of the careers of Sha’ul, Solomon, and Uzziah, it begins well but ends badly. It begins with Isra’el wholeheartedly seeking the LORD. The Israelites asked ADONAI, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites.” God replied: Judah will go up; behold, I have handed the Land over to him (1:1-2), and it ends with them weeping before Him (see Al – The Angel of ADONAI Confronts Isra’el). The intervening verses recount the activities, successes, and failures of the individual tribes, beginning with Judah and Simeon in 1:9, and ending with Dan in 1:34.
Of particular interest is the strategic repetition of the Hebrew verb ala, to go up in 1:1 to 2:5 as a whole. In 1:1-2 the Israelites asked: Who will be the first to go up? The account of the fortunes of the southern tribes begins when Judah “goes up” in 1:4. The corresponding sections dealing with the northern tribes begins when Joseph “goes up” in 1:22, and the conclusion is reached when the Angel of ADONAI “goes up” in 2:1. This is partly a simple matter of topography – a movement up into the central hill country. Then there is a subsequent “going down” in 2:9. However, the “going up” has more significance than this. The repetition of ala unifies the passage as a whole, helps to delineate its parts, and shows us that the end comes in 2:1-5 rather than at the end of Chapter 1. When the Angel of ADONAI “goes up” in 2:1, a climax is reached. All that has gone on beforehand is reviewed and evaluated, and this evaluation produces the weeping of 2:4. While there have been some successes in Chapter 1, overall it has been a chronicle of failure.5
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