Judges 2:6–3:6

Disobedience and Defeat

2:6–9pp—Jos 24:29–31

⁶After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. ⁷The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.^c

⁸Joshua son of Nun,^d the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. ⁹And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres^be in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.^{f 11}Then 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

3These are the nations the Lord left to test^q 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): ³the five^r rulers of the Philistines,^s all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites^t living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon^u to Lebo Hamath.^{v 4}They were left to test^w the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.

⁵The Israelites lived^x among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,^y Hivites and Jebusites.^{z 6}They took their daughters^a in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.^b