Adonibezek

Adonibezek (meaning lord of Bezek) was a Canaanite king who ruled the city of Bezek and had subdued seventy petty kings, cutting off their thumbs and great toes and compelling them to gather scraps under his table. Following the death of Joshua, the tribes of Judah and Simeon attacked Bezek, defeated Adonibezek, and inflicted upon him the same mutilation he had practiced against his own captives. Adonibezek himself acknowledged the justice of this retribution: Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me (Judges 1:7).

He was brought to Jerusalem, where he died. The account is notable for its theological interpretation of the lex talionis — the principle that punishment corresponds to the crime — voiced by the defeated king himself. Adonibezek's confession stands as one of the rare instances in the conquest narrative where an enemy explicitly acknowledges the moral justice of Israel's God.