Judges 3:4

4 The LORD left those nations where they were in order to put Israel to the test. He wanted to see whether they would obey his commands. He had given those commands through Moses to their people of long ago.

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 He wanted to teach the men in Israel who had never been in battle before. He wanted them to learn how to fight.

3 So he left the five rulers of the Philistines. He left the people of Canaan and the people of Sidon. He left the Hivites who were living in the Lebanon mountains. They lived in the area that was between Mount Baal Hermon and Lebo Hamath.

4 The LORD left those nations where they were in order to put Israel to the test. He wanted to see whether they would obey his commands. He had given those commands through Moses to their people of long ago.

5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

6 They got married to the daughters of those people. They gave their own daughters to the sons of those people. And they served the gods of those people.