Judges 2:3

3 So now I tell you, I won't drive them out before you, but they'll be a problem for you, and their gods will be a trap for you."

Judges 2:3 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 2:3

Wherefore I also said
Supposing, or on condition of their being guilty of the above things, which was foreseen they would:

I will not drive them out from before you;
the seven nations of the Canaanites entirely, and which accounts for the various instances related in the preceding chapter; where it is observed, that they could not, or did not, drive the old inhabitants out of such and such places, because they sinned against the Lord, and he forsook them, and would not assist them in their enterprises, or them to their sloth and indolence:

but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides:
very troublesome and afflicting, see ( Numbers 33:55 ) ; or for straits, as the Septuagint, or be such as would bring them into tribulation, and distress them, as the Targum; so they often did:

and their gods shall be a snare unto you;
which they suffered to continue, and did not destroy them, as they ought to have done; they would be, as they proved, ensnaring to them, and whereby they were drawn to forsake the worship of the true God, and bow down to them, as we read in some following verses.

Judges 2:3 In-Context

1 The LORD's messenger came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, "I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,

2 and you are not to make a covenant with those who live in this land. You should break down their altars.' But you didn't obey me. What have you done?

3 So now I tell you, I won't drive them out before you, but they'll be a problem for you, and their gods will be a trap for you."

4 When the LORD's messenger spoke these words to all the Israelites, they raised their voices and cried out loud.

5 So they named that place Bochim, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD there.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb uncertain