Judges 2:22

22 I'll use them to test Israel and see whether they stay on God's road and walk down it as their parents did."

Judges 2:22 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 2:22

That through them I may prove Israel
Afflict them by them, and so prove or try them, their faith and patience, which are tried by afflictions; and such were the Canaanites to them, as afflictions and temptations are to the spiritual Israel of God; or rather, whether they would keep in the ways of God, or walk in those the Canaanites did, as follows:

whether they will keep the way of the Lord, as their fathers did keep
[it], or not;
whether they would worship the true God their fathers did, or the gods of the Canaanites; not that the Lord was ignorant of what they would do, and so made the experiment; but that the sincerity and faithfulness, or insincerity and unfaithfulness of their hearts, might appear to themselves and others.

Judges 2:22 In-Context

20 And God's anger blazed against Israel. He said, "Because these people have thrown out my covenant that I commanded their parents and haven't listened to me,

21 I'm not driving out one more person from the nations that Joshua left behind when he died.

22 I'll use them to test Israel and see whether they stay on God's road and walk down it as their parents did."

23 That's why God let those nations remain. He didn't drive them out or let Joshua get rid of them.