¹⁴The Lord became angry with Israel. So he handed them over to robbers. The robbers stole everything from them. He gave them over to their enemies who were all around them. Israel wasn’t able to fight against them anymore and win. ¹⁵When Israel went out to fight, the Lord’s power was against them. He let their enemies win the battle over them. The Lord had warned them with an oath that it would happen. And now they were suffering terribly.

¹⁶Then the Lord gave them leaders. The leaders saved them from the power of those robbers. ¹⁷But the people wouldn’t listen to their leaders. They weren’t faithful to the Lord. They joined themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They didn’t obey the Lord’s commands as their people before them had done. They quickly turned away from the path their people had taken.

¹⁸When the Lord gave them a leader, he was with that leader. He saved the people from the power of their enemies. He did it as long as the leader lived. He was very sorry for the people. They groaned because of what their enemies did to them. The enemies beat them down. They treated them badly.

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