Judges 3:1-7

1 These are the nations the LORD left behind to test all the Israelites who had not experienced any war in Canaan.

2 The LORD left them to teach Israel's descendants about war, at least those who had known nothing about it in the past.

3 He left the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon to the border of Hamath.

4 These nations were left to test the Israelites, to find out if they would obey the commands the LORD had given their ancestors through Moses.

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

6 The Israelites allowed their sons and daughters to marry these people. Israel also served their gods.

7 The people of Israel did what the LORD considered evil. They forgot the LORD their God and served other gods and goddesses--the Baals and the Asherahs.

Judges 3:1-7 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.