Bible Strands
Judges 1:31
Asher failed to drive out the inhabitants of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the military outcome for the tribe of Asher during the initial conquest survey, immediately following the report on Zebulun in Judges 1:30. This account documents the tribe's status at the transition between Joshua's campaigns and the era of the judges.
The words — The Hebrew לֹא (loʾ) negates the verb הוֹרִישׁ (hoṛîš), literally meaning "did not dispossess," directly explaining the tribe's failure to remove the listed populations. This lexical pairing establishes the precise mechanism of incomplete conquest repeated in the surrounding verses.
The thread — The assigned territory matches the inheritance detailed in Joshua 19:24, yet the narrative in Judges 1 highlights the tribe's failure to secure it. This tension between granted land and actual occupation recurs in the tribal surveys of Joshua and Judges.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to observe that territorial allotment does not guarantee immediate possession or obedience. It demands recognition that unresolved Canaanite presence will later complicate Israel's religious and social stability.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob:
Cross-references
- Joshua 19:24 The fifth lot came out for the clans of the tribe of Asher: