Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 1:8

"And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire." — Judges 1:8 (ASV)

Now. —Rather, And.

Had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it. —Our version here most unjustifiably interpolates the word “had,” perhaps intending it as a kind of explanatory gloss to imply that the conquest took place before the fact mentioned in the last verse.

If we are right in assuming that these chapters refer in greater or lesser detail to events already mentioned in the Book of Joshua, we must then supplement this brief account with Joshua 12:8-10; Joshua 15:63. From these passages, it appears that although the people of Jerusalem were slaughtered, the king conquered, and the city burned, the Jebusites either secured the citadel (as Josephus implies) or succeeded in recovering the city.

In Judges 19:11-12, the city is called Jebus (with the remark, “which is Jerusalem”), and the Levite expressly refuses to enter it because it is a “city of the Jebusites,” “the city of a stranger.”

With the edge of the sword. —Literally, with the mouth of the sword (Genesis 34:26; Joshua 8:24; Joshua 10:28. Compare to Judges 4:15; Judges 20:37). It seems to mean that no quarter was given.

Set the city on fire. —Literally, sent the city into fire, as in Judges 20:48; 2 Kings 8:12; Psalms 74:7. The phrase does not occur elsewhere. At a later period, Josephus tells us that the siege occupied a long time, due to the strength of the position (2 Samuel 5:7).