Judges 2:11

11 And the children of Israel wrought evil before the Lord, and served Baalim.

Judges 2:11 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 2:11

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,
&c.] Openly and publicly, boldly and impudently, in the very face of God, and amidst all the good things they received from him, which were aggravating circumstances of their sins; what the evil was they did is next observed:

and served Baalim;
the idol Baal, as the Arabic version, of which there were many, and therefore a plural word is used; to which the apostle refers ( 1 Corinthians 8:5 ) ; for the word signifies "lords", and there were Baalpeor, Baalzebub, Baalberith and who seem to have their name from Bal, Bel, or Belus, a king of Babylon after Nimrod, and who was the first monarch that was deified, the Jupiter of the Heathens. Theophilus of Antioch ^F16 says, that, according to the history of Thallus, Belus the king of the Assyrians, whom they worshipped, was older than the Trojan war three hundred twenty two years; and that some call Cronus or Saturn Bel and Bal; by the Assyrians called Bel, and in the Punic or Phoenician language Bal ^F17.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Ad Autolyc. l. 3. p. 138, 139. Vid. Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 23.
F17 Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. 1. prope finem.

Judges 2:11 In-Context

9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance, in Thamnathares, in mount Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaas.

10 And all that generation were laid to their fathers: and another generation rose up after them, who knew not the Lord, nor yet the work which he wrought in Israel.

11 And the children of Israel wrought evil before the Lord, and served Baalim.

12 And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and walked after other gods, of the gods of the nations round about them; and they worshipped them.

13 And they provoked the Lord, and forsook him, and served Baal and the Astartes.