Judges 2:6–3:9
6 And when jJoshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.
7 kSo 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. 8 Now lJoshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. 9 mAnd they buried him within the border of his inheritance at nTimnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 10 When 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.
11 Then the children of Israel did pevil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; 12 and 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. 13 They forsook the Lord tand served 6Baal and the 7Ashtoreths. 14 uAnd 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. 15 Wherever 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.
16 Nevertheless, zthe Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet 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. 18 And 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. 19 And 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.
20 Then 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, 21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua fleft when he died, 22 so 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.” 23 Therefore 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
3 Now 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), 3 namely, 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. 4 And 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.
5 cThus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 6 And dthey took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.
7 So the children of Israel did eevil in the sight of the Lord. They fforgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and 3Asherahs. 8 Therefore 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. 9 When 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.