Judges 2:16–23

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.