Judges 2:15–3:4

15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against themu to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.v

16 Then the Lord raised up judges,c w who savedx them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostitutedy themselves to other godsz and worshiped them.a They quickly turnedb from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands.c 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and savedd them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relentede because of their groaningf under those who oppressed and afflictedg them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupth than those of their ancestors,i following other gods and serving and worshiping them.j They refused to give up their evil practices and stubbornk ways.

20 Therefore the Lord was very angryl with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenantm I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive outn before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to testo Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” 23 The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.p

3 These are the nations the Lord left to testq all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the fiver rulers of the Philistines,s all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivitest living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermonu to Lebo Hamath.v 4 They were left to testw the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.