(9) Went down to fight.--"Went up" is the phrase applied to military expeditions (see Judges 1:2); "went down" is the phrase for special battles (1Samuel 26:10; 1Samuel 29:4), like the Latin descendere in aciem. No doubt the phrase arose from the custom of always encamping on hills when it was possible to do so.

In the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley.--These are three marked regions of Palestine--the "hill-country" (ha-Har, Joshua 9:1), in which were Hebron and Debir (Judges 1:10-11); the south or Negeb (Joshua 15:21), in which were Arad and Zephath; and the valley, or rather low lands (Shephelah, Joshua 11:16; Joshua 15:33), in which were the three Philistian towns of Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron (Judges 1:18). The Har is the central or highland district of Palestine, which runs through the whole length of the country, broken only by the plain of Jezreel. The Negeb, derived from a root which means "dry," was the region mainly occupied by the tribe of Simeon. The Shephelah, or low maritime plains (of which the root is perhaps also found in Hi-Spalis, Seville--see Stanley, Sin. and Pal. 485), is Palestine proper, i.e., the region of Philistia, the sea-coast south of the Plain of Sharon. In the E.V. the name is sometimes rendered as here, "the valley" (Deuteronomy 1:7; Joshua 9:1, &c.), sometimes we find it as "the plain" (Obadiah 1:19, &c.), or "the low plains" (1Chronicles 27:28).

Verse 9. - The valley, i.e. the Shephelah, or lowlands, between the mountains and the coast of the Mediterranean, occupied by the Philistines.

1:9-20 The Canaanites had iron chariots; but Israel had God on their side, whose chariots are thousands of angels, Ps 68:17. Yet they suffered their fears to prevail against their faith. About Caleb we read in Jos 15:16-19. The Kenites had settled in the land. Israel let them fix where they pleased, being a quiet, contented people. They that molested none, were molested by none. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.And afterwards the children of Judah,.... After the taking of Bezek, and the king of it, having him to Jerusalem, where he died: they

went down; from Jerusalem; which was on high ground:

to fight against the Canaanites that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley; into which several parts the lot of the tribe of Judah was divided; in each of which they had cities, and some, as it seems, yet unsubdued, and in the hands of the Canaanites; of these several parts, and the cities in them, see Joshua 15:21.