This page offers Bible study questions for Judges 1, with leader’s notes for each one. It is written for a small group, a Sunday school class, or personal study. Judges 1 records how the tribes of Israel took up the work of conquest after Joshua’s death, and it shows both real victories and troubling gaps in their obedience.
Judges 1 at a Glance
The chapter opens with Israel asking the LORD which tribe should lead the fight, and Judah is chosen. Judah’s campaign brings success in Bezek, Jerusalem, Hebron and Debir, and Caleb’s family story adds a human thread to the military account. The tone then shifts as tribe after tribe, including Benjamin, Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan, fails to drive out the Canaanite populations in their territories.
The chapter closes without a clear verdict, but the pattern of partial obedience sets up the cycle of the book. A leader can read the chapter in order and let the questions below move from what happened, to why it matters, to what it asks of us.
Observation Questions
Use this set first, before anyone offers an opinion. Ask the group to point to the words on the page, and keep the discussion close to what the chapter actually reports. Let quieter members answer first, and resist the urge to explain too early.
Judges 1:1-2
1 After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of the LORD, saying, “Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” 2 The LORD said, “Judah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.”
(WEB)
Read these verses at the start of the session to establish the setting after Joshua’s death. Their emphasis on asking the LORD first frames the whole chapter and gives the group a reason to begin with prayer.
Judges 1:19
The LORD was with Judah; and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
(WEB)
This verse holds the central tension of the chapter, affirming God’s presence alongside the failure to drive out the valley people. Reading it aloud invites the group to wrestle with that tension before they interpret it.
Judges 1:20
They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove the three sons of Anak out of there.
(WEB)
Caleb’s inheritance of Hebron shows a promise kept and a faithful man rewarded. Reading it helps the group see the contrast between Caleb and the tribes described elsewhere in the chapter.
Judges 1:27-28
27 Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. 28 When Israel had grown strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.
(WEB)
These verses name Manasseh’s failure and Israel’s choice of forced labor over full obedience. Hearing them together lets the group see how the pattern of partial success develops across the chapter.
Judges 1:14-15
14 When she came, she got him to ask her father for a field. She got off her donkey; and Caleb said to her, “What would you like?” 15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing; because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” Then Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
(WEB)
Achsah’s request for springs gives the session a warm, personal moment after the many accounts of conflict. Reading it aloud makes space for the group to talk about asking boldly for what sustains life.
Memory Verse for Judges 1
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you as a group that wants to be faithful in the places you have given us. Thank you that you went before Judah and gave Israel a place to begin. Forgive us for the areas where we have settled for less than you asked, and for the battles we have quietly left unfinished. Give us the clarity to seek your guidance first, the steadiness of Caleb, and the honesty to ask for the springs we need. Be with each person in this room as they go back to their everyday lives. Amen.
