Judges 11:23

23 So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has conquered the Amorites for the benefit of his people Israel. Do you intend to take their place?

Judges 11:23 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 11:23

So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites
from before his people Israel
It is his doing, and not the work of the Israelites; it is he that dispossessed the Amorites, and put the Israelites into the possession of their land, and therefore they enjoy it by a good tenure:

and shouldest thou possess it?
what through the blessing of God on their arms they have obtained by conquest, and he has settled them in; did they conquer, that thou should possess what they conquered? did their God put it into their hands to deliver it into thine? did they fight to recover for thee what thou hadst lost, and to put thee into the possession of it? did not they fight in their own defence, and their enemies and their land fell into their hands, and by the laws and right of nations became theirs? and canst thou expect to possess it? what reason is there for it?

Judges 11:23 In-Context

21 Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel occupied all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.

22 They occupied all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

23 So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has conquered the Amorites for the benefit of his people Israel. Do you intend to take their place?

24 Should you not possess what your god Chemosh gives you to possess? And should we not be the ones to possess everything that the Lord our God has conquered for our benefit?

25 Now are you any better than King Balak son of Zippor of Moab? Did he ever enter into conflict with Israel, or did he ever go to war with them?