Judges 2:11–23

¹¹Then the Israelites did evil^g in the eyes of the Lord^h and served the Baals.^{i 12}They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods^j of the peoples around them.^k They aroused^l the Lord’s anger^{m 13}because they forsookⁿ him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.^{o 14}In his anger^p against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands^q of raiders who plundered^r them. He sold them^s into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.^{t 15}Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them^u to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.^v

¹⁶Then the Lord raised up judges,^cw who saved^x them out of the hands of these raiders. ¹⁷Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted^y themselves to other gods^z and worshiped them.^a They quickly turned^b 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 saved^d them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented^e because of their groaning^f under those who oppressed and afflicted^g them. ¹⁹But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt^h than those of their ancestors,ⁱ following other gods and serving and worshiping them.^j They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn^k ways.

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