Judges 2:6–3:6

Joshua’s Death

⁶Joshua sent the people away, and the Israelites went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. ^w7The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived ^xJoshua. They had seen all the Lord’s great works ^yHe 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, ^znorth of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord ^aor the works He had done for Israel.

¹¹The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. ^bThey worshiped the Baals ^c12and abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods from the surrounding peoples ^dand bowed down to them. They infuriated the Lord, ^e13for they abandoned Him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths. ^f

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

¹⁶The Lord raised up ^ljudges, who saved them from the power of their marauders, ¹⁷but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted ^mthemselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way ⁿof their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands. They did not do as their fathers did. ¹⁸Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with ^ohim and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. ^pThe 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 ^qthan their fathers, going after other gods to worship and bow down to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ^rways.

²⁰The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He declared, “Because this nation has violated My covenant ^sthat I made with their fathers ^tand disobeyed Me, ²¹I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left ^uwhen he died. ^v22I did this to test Israel and to see whether they would keep the Lord’s way ^wby walking in it, as their fathers had.” ^x23The 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 Israel, since the Israelites had fought none of these in ^yany of the wars with Canaan. ^z2This was to teach the future generations of the Israelites how to fight in battle, especially those who had not fought before. ^a3These nations included: the five rulers ^bof the Philistines ^cand all of the Canaanites, the Sidonians, ^dand the Hivites ^ewho lived in the Lebanese mountains ^ffrom Mount Baal-hermon as far as the entrance to Hamath. ^g4The Lord left them to test Israel, to determine if they would keep the Lord’s commands He had given their fathers through ^hMoses. ⁱ⁵But they settled among the Canaanites, Hittites, 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. ^j