Judges 2–3

Israel’s Disobedience

2Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: ^a“I led you up from Egypt and ^bbrought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and ^cI said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. ²And ^dyou shall make no ¹covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ^eyou shall tear down their altars.’ ^fBut you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? ³Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be ^gthorns ²in your side, and ^htheir gods shall ³be a ⁱsnare to you.’ ” ⁴So it was, when the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

⁵Then they called the name of that place ⁴Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the Lord. ⁶And when ^jJoshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.

Death of Joshua

^7kSo the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which He had done for Israel. ⁸Now ^lJoshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. ^9mAnd they buried him within the border of his inheritance at ⁿTimnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰When all that generation had ⁵been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who ^odid not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness

¹¹Then the children of Israel did ^pevil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; ¹²and they ^qforsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed ^rother gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they ^sbowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³They forsook the Lord ^tand served ⁶Baal and the ⁷Ashtoreths. ^14uAnd the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He ^vdelivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and ^wHe sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they ^xcould no longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had ^ysworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

¹⁶Nevertheless, ^zthe Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. ¹⁷Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they ^aplayed the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so. ¹⁸And when the Lord raised up judges for them, ^bthe Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; ^cfor the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. ¹⁹And it came to pass, ^dwhen the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.

²⁰Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has ^etransgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, ²¹I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua ^fleft when he died, ²²so ^gthat through them I may ^htest Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.” ²³Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

The Nations Remaining in the Land

3Now these are ^athe nations which the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not ¹known any of the wars in Canaan ²(this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), ³namely, ^bfive lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. ⁴And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to ²know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

^5cThus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁶And ^dthey took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.

Othniel

⁷So the children of Israel did ^eevil in the sight of the Lord. They ^fforgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and ³Asherahs. ⁸Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He ^gsold them into the hand of ^hCushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years. ⁹When the children of Israel ⁱcried out to the Lord, the Lord ^jraised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: ^kOthniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ^10lThe Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim. ¹¹So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Ehud

^12mAnd the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened ⁿEglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and ^oAmalek, went and ⁴defeated Israel, and took possession of ^pthe City of Palms. ¹⁴So the children of Israel ^qserved Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵But when the children of Israel ^rcried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a ^sleft-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab. ¹⁶Now Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. ¹⁷So he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.) ¹⁸And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹But he himself turned back ^tfrom the ⁵stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

He said, “Keep silence!” And all who attended him went out from him.

²⁰So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” So he arose from his seat. ²¹Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²²Even the ⁶hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out. ²³Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

²⁴When he had gone out, ⁷Eglon’s servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, “He is probably ^uattending ⁸to his needs in the cool chamber.” ²⁵So they waited till they were ^vembarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master, fallen dead on the floor.

²⁶But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the ⁹stone images and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷And it happened, when he arrived, that ^whe blew the trumpet in the ^xmountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and ¹he led them. ²⁸Then he said to them, “Follow me, for ^ythe Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him, seized the ^zfords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. ²⁹And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped. ³⁰So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And ^athe land had rest for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹After him was ^bShamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines ^cwith an ox goad; ^dand he also delivered ^eIsrael.