Judges 3:1-6

1 Now these are the Gentiles which the LORD left, to prove Israel with them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;

2 he left them only that the generations of the sons of Israel might know, and to teach them war, only for those that had known nothing before:

3 namely, five cardinals of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.

4 These, therefore, were left to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

5 And as the sons of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,

6 they took their daughters to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons and served their gods.

Judges 3:1-6 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.