Judges 3:1

Nations remaining in the land

1 These are the nations that the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had no firsthand knowledge of the wars of Canaan.

Judges 3:1 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:1

Now these [are] the nations which the Lord left to prove
Israel by them
Which are later mentioned, ( Judges 3:3 Judges 3:5 ) ;

[even] as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
those that Joshua, and the people of Israel under him, had with the Canaanites, when they first entered the land and subdued it; being then not born, or so young as not to have knowledge of them, at least not able to bear arms at that time.

Judges 3:1 In-Context

1 These are the nations that the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had no firsthand knowledge of the wars of Canaan.

2 They survived only to teach war to the generations of Israelites who had no firsthand knowledge of the earlier wars:

3 the five rulers of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, Sidonians, and Hivites who lived in the highlands of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.

4 They were to be the test for Israel, to find out whether they would obey the LORD's commands, which he had made to their ancestors through Moses.

5 So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.