Judges 3:1-6

Some Nations Remain in the Land

1 These [are] the nations that Yahweh left, to test Israel by them ([that is, to test] all those who {had not experienced} any of the wars of Canaan,

2 in order that the generations of Israel would know war, to teach those {who had not experienced it} before):

3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon up to Lebo-Hamath.

4 They were [left] for testing Israel, to know [whether] they would keep the commands of Yahweh that he commanded their ancestors through the hand of Moses.

5 And the {Israelites} lived in the midst of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

6 And they took their daughters as wives for themselves, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "did not know"
• [b]. Literally "who had not known it"
• [c]. Hebrew "Canaanite"
• [d]. Hebrew "Sidonian"
• [e]. Hebrew "Hivite"
• [f]. Or "fathers"
• [g]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [h]. Hebrew "Canaanite"
• [i]. Hebrew "Hittite"
• [j]. Hebrew "Amorite"
• [k]. Hebrew "Perizzite"
• [l]. Hebrew "Hivite"
• [m]. Hebrew "Jebusite"
• [n]. Or "worshiped their gods"