Judges 2:15-23

15 Every time they would go into battle, the Lord was against them, just as he had said he would be. They were in great distress.

16 Then the Lord gave the Israelites leaders who saved them from the raiders.

17 But the Israelites paid no attention to their leaders. Israel was unfaithful to the Lord and worshiped other gods. Their fathers had obeyed the Lord's commands, but this new generation soon stopped doing so.

18 Whenever the Lord gave Israel a leader, the Lord would help that leader and would save the people from their enemies as long as that leader lived. The Lord would have mercy on them because they groaned under their suffering and oppression.

19 But when the leader died, the people would return to the old ways and behave worse than the previous generation. They would serve and worship other gods, and stubbornly continue their own evil ways.

20 Then the Lord would become furious with Israel and say, "This nation has broken the covenant that I commanded their ancestors to keep. Because they have not obeyed me,

21 I will no longer drive out any of the nations that were still in the land when Joshua died.

22 I will use them to find out whether or not these Israelites will follow my ways, as their ancestors did."

23 So the Lord allowed these nations to remain in the land; he did not give Joshua victory over them, nor did he drive them out soon after Joshua's death.

Judges 2:15-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 2

This chapter gives an account of an angel of the Lord appearing and rebuking the children of Israel for their present misconduct, Jud 2:1-5; of their good behaviour under Joshua, and the elders that outlived him, Jud 2:6-10; and of their idolatries they fell into afterwards, which greatly provoked the Lord to anger, Jud 2:11-15; and of the goodness of God to them nevertheless, in raising up judges to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, of which there are many instances in the following chapter, Jud 2:16-18; and yet that how, upon the demise of such persons, they relapsed into idolatry which caused the anger of God to be hot against them, and to determine not to drive out the Canaanites utterly from them, but to leave them among them to try them, Jud 2:19-23.