Judges 2:1-8

Pattern of Sin and Judgment

1 The Angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim^[a] and said, "I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land^[b] I had promised to your fathers.^[c] I also said: I will never break My covenant with you.

2 You are not to make a covenant^[d] with the people who are living in this land, and you are to tear down their altars.^[e]^[f]But you have not obeyed Me. What is this you have done?

3 Therefore, I now say: I will not drive out these people before you.^[g] They will be thorns^[h]^[i] in your sides,^[j] and their gods will be a trap to you."^[k]

4 When the Angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly.

5 So they named that place Bochim^[l] and offered sacrifices there to the Lord.

Joshua's Death

6 Joshua sent the people away, and the Israelites went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.

7 The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua's lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived^[m] Joshua. They had seen all the Lord's great works^[n] He had done for Israel.

8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110.

Read Chapter Compare

Judges 2:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 2

This chapter gives an account of an angel of the Lord appearing and rebuking the children of Israel for their present misconduct, Jud 2:1-5; of their good behaviour under Joshua, and the elders that outlived him, Jud 2:6-10; and of their idolatries they fell into afterwards, which greatly provoked the Lord to anger, Jud 2:11-15; and of the goodness of God to them nevertheless, in raising up judges to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, of which there are many instances in the following chapter, Jud 2:16-18; and yet that how, upon the demise of such persons, they relapsed into idolatry which caused the anger of God to be hot against them, and to determine not to drive out the Canaanites utterly from them, but to leave them among them to try them, Jud 2:19-23.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 14

[a]. LXX reads to the weeping place and to Bethel and to the house of Israel
[b]. Ex 6:8; Nm 14:3,8; Ezk 20:15
[c]. Nm 14:23; Dt 6:10,23; 10:11; Jos 1:6
[d]. Ex 23:32; Dt 7:2
[e]. LXX reads with those lying in wait in this land; neither are you to fall down in worship to their gods, but their carved images you must break to pieces and their altars you must destroy
[f]. Jdg 6:30-32; Ex 34:13; Dt 7:5; 12:3; 2 Ch 34:7
[g]. Ex 23:29
[h]. LXX reads affliction
[i]. Lit traps
[j]. Nm 33:55
[k]. Ex 23:33; 34:12; Dt 7:16; Jos 23:13
[l]. Or Weeping
[m]. Lit extended their days after
[n]. Dt 11:7; Jos 24:31