Judges 2:21

21 also I shall not do away the folks, which Joshua left, and was dead; (yea, I shall not do away the nations, which Joshua left alive, when he died;)

Judges 2:21 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 2:21

I also henceforth will not drive out and from before them,
&c.] At least not as yet, not very soon nor hastily, as in ( Judges 2:23 ) ;

of the nations which Joshua left when he died;
that is, unsubdued; which was owing either to the infirmities of old age coming upon him, which made him incapable of engaging further in war with the Canaanites; or to the sloth and indolence of the people, being weary of war, and not caring to prosecute it; or to want of men to cultivate any more land, and people other cities, than what they were possessed of; and chiefly this was owing to the providence of God, who had an end to answer hereby, as follows.

Judges 2:21 In-Context

19 Soothly after that the judge was dead, they turned again, and did many things greater in evil than their fathers did; and they followed alien gods, and served them, and worshipped them; they left not their own findings, and the hardest way by which they were wont to go. (But after that the judge died, they returned to their old ways, and did many things even greater in evil than what their fathers did; and they followed foreign, or other, gods, and served them, and worshipped them; they did not cease from doing whatever they wanted to do, and the stubborn, or willful, ways by which they were wont to go.)

20 And the strong vengeance of the Lord was wroth against Israel, and he said, For this people hath made void my covenant which I covenanted with their fathers, and (for they) have despised to hear my voice;

21 also I shall not do away the folks, which Joshua left, and was dead; (yea, I shall not do away the nations, which Joshua left alive, when he died;)

22 that in them I assay Israel (so that through them I can test Israel), (to see) whether they keep the way of the Lord, and go therein, as their fathers kept it, either nay.

23 Therefore the Lord left alive all these nations, and he would not destroy them soon (and he would not soon destroy them), neither he betook them into the hands of Joshua.