Judges 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Judges, the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, a sacred text in Judaism and Christianity. With the exception of the first verse, scholars have long recognised and studied the parallels between chapter 1 of Judges and chapters 13 to 19 in the preceding Book of Joshua. Both provide similar accounts of the purported conquest of Canaan by the ancient Israelites. Judges 1 and Joshua 15–19 present two accounts of a slow, gradual, and only partial conquest by individual Israelite tribes, marred by defeats, in stark contrast with the 10th and 11th chapters of the Book of Joshua, which portray a swift and complete victory of a united Israelite army under the command of Joshua. Text This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 36 verses. Textual witnesses Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including XJudges (XJudg, X6, 4QJudg?; 50 BCE) with extant verses 10–12. Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century). Analysis Content Overview Judges 1 narrates how the Tribe of Judah, which would later establish the southern Kingdom of Judah, took the initiative and was most successful in conquering lands from the Canaanites, while especially those tribes who later formed the northern Kingdom of Israel experienced several failures, with the Canaanites repelling Israelite attacks on their cities. Verses 17–36 of Judges 1 include a list of Canaanite cities which were or were not captured as a result of the failures and successes of the military campaigns of the various Israelite tribes in their attempts to conquer Canaan. In most cases of failure, Judges 1 says that the Israelite tribes later subjugated the Canaanites into forced labour. According to Judges 2:1–5 and onwards, the Israelite god Yahweh inflicted the later tribulations in Judges upon the (northern) Israelites partially because they failed to completely extinguish the Canaanite race despite his somewhat genocidal command to the contrary. Compared to the other tribes, the Judahites are