Judges 2:11–23

The Sin of the Next Generation

¹¹The people of Israel did what the Lord considered evil. They began to serve other gods—the Baals. ¹²The Israelites abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors, the God who brought them out of Egypt. They followed the other gods of the people around them. They worshiped these gods, and that made the Lord angry. ¹³They abandoned the Lord to serve the god Baal and the goddess Astarte. ¹⁴So the Lord became angry with the people of Israel. He handed them over to people who robbed them. He also used their enemies around them to defeat them. They could no longer stand up against their enemies. ¹⁵Whenever the Israelites went to war, the power of the Lord brought disaster on them. This was what the Lord said he would do in an oath. So he made them suffer a great deal. 

¹⁶Then the Lord would send judges^bto rescue them from those who robbed them. ¹⁷But the people wouldn’t listen to the judges. The Israelites chased after other gods as though they were prostitutes and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors who had obeyed the Lord’s commands. They refused to be like their ancestors. ¹⁸But when the Lord appointed judges for the Israelites, he was with each judge. The Lord rescued them from their enemies as long as that judge was alive. The Lord was moved by the groaning of those who were tormented and oppressed. ¹⁹But after each judge died, the people went back to their old ways and acted more corruptly than their parents. They followed, served, and worshiped other gods. They never gave up their evil practices and stubborn ways. 

The Lord Allows the Nations to Stay in Order to Test His People

²⁰The Lord became angry with Israel. He said, “Because the people of this nation have rejected the promise I gave their ancestors and have not obeyed me, ²¹I will no longer force out the nations Joshua left behind when he died. ²²I will test the people of Israel with these nations to see whether or not they will carefully follow the Lord’s ways as their ancestors did.” ²³So the Lord let these nations stay. He had not handed them over to Joshua or forced them out quickly.