Judges 2:6–3:6

JOSHUA’S DEATH

⁶Previously, when Joshua had sent the people away, the Israelites had gone to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.^{q 7}The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great works^r he had done for Israel.

⁸Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. ⁹They buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim,^s north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord^t or the works he had done for Israel.

¹¹The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.^u They worshiped the Baals^{v 12}and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples^w and bowed down to them. They angered the Lord,^{x 13}for they abandoned him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths.^y

¹⁴The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold^z them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies. ¹⁵Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them^aa and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them.^ab So they suffered greatly.

¹⁶The Lord raised up^ac judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders, ¹⁷but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted^ad themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way^ae of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their ancestors did. ¹⁸Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with^af him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them. ¹⁹Whenever the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly^ag than their ancestors, following other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate^ah ways.

²⁰The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he declared, “Because this nation has violated my covenant^a that I made with their ancestors^b and disobeyed me, ²¹I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left^c when he died.^{d 22}I did this to test Israel and to see whether or not they would keep the Lord’s way^e by walking in it, as their ancestors had.”^{f 23}The Lord left these nations and did not drive them out immediately. He did not hand them over to Joshua.

THE LORD TESTS ISRAEL

3These are the nations the Lord left in order to test all those in Israel who had experienced none of the wars in Canaan.^{g 2}This was to teach the future generations of the Israelites how to fight in battle, especially those who had not fought before. ³These nations included the five rulers^h of the Philistinesⁱ and all of the Canaanites, the Sidonians,^j and the Hivites^k who lived in the Lebanese mountains from Mount Baal-hermon as far as the entrance to Hamath.^{A 4}The Lord left them to test Israel, to determine if they would keep the Lord’s commands he had given their ancestors through Moses.^{l 5}But they settled among the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁶The Israelites took their daughters as wives for themselves, gave their own daughters to their sons, and worshiped their gods.^m