Judges 3:1-8

Idolatry Leads to Servitude

1 ¹Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan;

2 only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly ).

3 These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and ²the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.

4 They were for ³testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.

5 ⁴The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites;

6 and ⁵they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

7 The sons of Israel did ⁶what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and ⁷forgot the LORD their God and ⁸served the Baals and the Asheroth.

8 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

Judges 3:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 3

This chapter gives an account of the nations left in Canaan to prove Israel, and who became a snare unto them, Jud 3:1-7; and of the servitude of Israel under the king of Mesopotamia for their sins, from which they were delivered by Othniel, Jud 3:8-11; and of their subjection to the Moabites, from which they were freed by Ehud, who privately assassinated the king of Moab, and then made his escape, Jud 3:12-30; and of the destruction of a large number of Philistines by Shamgar, with an ox goad, Jud 3:31.

Cross References

• 1. Judges 1:1; Judges 2:21, 22
• 2. Joshua 9:7; Joshua 11:19
• 3. Deuteronomy 8:2
• 4. Psalms 106:35
• 5. Exodus 34:15, 16; Deuteronomy 7:3, 4; Joshua 23:12
• 6. Judges 2:11
• 7. Deuteronomy 4:9
• 8. Judges 2:13

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "known"
• [b] Lit "know, to teach them"
• [c] Lit "only"
• [d] Lit "known"
• [e] Or "the entrance of Hamath"
• [f] Lit "testing by them"
• [g] Lit "hear"
• [h] Lit "by the hand of"
• [i] I.e. wooden symbol of a female deity
• [j] Heb "Aram-naharaim"