Judges 2:6–3:6

Joshua Dies

^6aWhen Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land.

⁷The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who ¹survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

⁸Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten.

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

¹⁰All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who ^adid not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel Serves Baals

¹¹Then the sons of Israel did ^aevil in the sight of the Lord and ¹served the ^bBaals,

¹²and ^athey forsook the Lord, 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 the Lord to anger.

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

^14aThe anger of the Lord 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 the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken and ^aas the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

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

¹⁷Yet they did not listen to their judges, 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 the Lord; they did not do as their fathers.

¹⁸When the Lord raised up judges for them, ^athe Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was ^bmoved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them.

¹⁹But it came about 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 the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice,

^21aI also will no longer drive out 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 the Lord to walk in it as their fathers ¹did, or not.”

²³So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

Chapter 3

Idolatry Leads to Servitude

^1aNow these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not ¹experienced any of the wars of Canaan;

²only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might ¹be taught war, ²those who had not ³experienced 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.

⁴They were for ^1atesting Israel, to find out if they would ²obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers ³through Moses.

^5aThe 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.