Judges

...is a historical narrative that likely originated with separate oral units of history that were combined into a written volume.

Judges 1:8ff: Is there confusion in Judges over whether Jerusalem was captured?

Judges 1:19: "And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." Skeptics say: "Some omnipotent God! He couldn't even drive out people with iron chariots!" What's the problem here? This was the same God that the Bible says parted the Red Sea, brought Ten Plagues on Egypt, and created everything. Is it really plausible to suggest that some later Biblical writer is now going to say that this same God was limited because a couple of pagans had some iron chariots? Of course not! Obviously, something else is meant here - that the "he" in question is Judah, not God, and "the Lord was with Judah" - i.e., Judah had good tidings - inasmuch as He gave them success in the mountains, but NOT enough to take on iron chariots! The Judges writer is assuring the reader that in spite of Judah's failure in the valley, the Lord was with them. (For a comparison to Joshua 17:18, see here; for why Judah did not succeed, in accord with provisos laid out in the contract of Deuteronomy, see here.)