Judges 3:4

4 Those nations were in the land to test the Israelites -- to see if they would obey the commands the Lord had given to their ancestors by Moses.

Judges 3:4 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:4

And they were to prove Israel by them
They were left in the land, as to inure them to war, and try their courage, so to prove their faithfulness to God:

to know whether they would hearken to the commandments, of the Lord,
which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses;
even all the commandments of the Lord delivered to them by Moses, moral, civil, and ceremonial, and particularly those that concerned the destruction of the Canaanites, their altars, and their idols, ( Deuteronomy 7:1 Deuteronomy 7:5 ) .

Judges 3:4 In-Context

2 (The only reason the Lord left those nations in the land was to teach the descendants of the Israelites who had not fought in those wars how to fight.)

3 These are the nations: the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the people of Sidon, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath.

4 Those nations were in the land to test the Israelites -- to see if they would obey the commands the Lord had given to their ancestors by Moses.

5 The people of Israel lived with the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

6 The Israelites began to marry the daughters of those people, and they allowed their daughters to marry the sons of those people. Israel also served their gods. Othniel, the First Judge