Judges 2:6–3:6

Joshua’s Death and Burial

^6aThen Joshua sent the people away, and the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land.

⁷And the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who ¹survived Joshua, who saw all the great work of Yahweh which He had done for Israel.

⁸Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died at the age of 110.

⁹And they buried him in the territory of ^ahis inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who ^adid not know Yahweh or even the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel Serves Baals

¹¹Then the sons of Israel did ^awhat was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and ¹served the ^bBaals,

¹²and ^athey forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked Yahweh to anger.

¹³So they forsook Yahweh and ^aserved Baal and the Ashtaroth.

^14aAnd the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and ^bHe sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

¹⁵Wherever they went, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken and ^aas Yahweh had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

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.