Judges 2:16–3:11

Yahweh Raises Up Judges

^16aThen Yahweh raised up judges ¹who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them.

¹⁷Yet they did not listen to their judges either, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way ^ain which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of Yahweh; they did not do as their fathers.

¹⁸Now when Yahweh raised up judges for them, ^aYahweh was with the judge and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for Yahweh was ^bmoved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and suppressed them.

¹⁹But it happened when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.

^20aSo the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has trespassed against My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice,

^21aI also will no longer dispossess before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,

²²in order to ^atest Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk in it as their fathers ¹did, or not.”

²³So Yahweh allowed those nations to rest, not dispossessing them quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

CHAPTER 3

Yahweh Tests Israel

^1aNow these are the nations which Yahweh allowed to remain, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not known any of the wars of Canaan;

²¹however, God tested them in order that the generations of the sons of Israel would know war, by learning war, ²especially those who had not known it formerly).

³These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and ^athe Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as ¹Lebo-hamath.

⁴And they were for ^1atesting Israel, to know if they would ²obey the commandments of Yahweh, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

^5aNow the sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites;

⁶and ^athey took their daughters for themselves as wives and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods.

Yahweh Raises Up Othniel

⁷Thus the sons of Israel did ^awhat was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and ^bforgot Yahweh their God and ^cserved the Baals and the ¹Asheroth.

⁸Then the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of ¹Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

⁹Then the sons of Israel cried to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up a savior for the sons of Israel to save them, ^aOthniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

^10aAnd the Spirit of Yahweh came upon him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to war, and Yahweh gave Cushan-rishathaim king of ¹Mesopotamia into his hand. So his hand was strong against Cushan-rishathaim.

¹¹Then the land was quiet for forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.