Judges 2:22

22 in order to try Israel by them, whether they are keeping the way of Jehovah, to go in it, as their fathers kept [it] or not.'

Judges 2:22 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 2:22

That through them I may prove Israel
Afflict them by them, and so prove or try them, their faith and patience, which are tried by afflictions; and such were the Canaanites to them, as afflictions and temptations are to the spiritual Israel of God; or rather, whether they would keep in the ways of God, or walk in those the Canaanites did, as follows:

whether they will keep the way of the Lord, as their fathers did keep
[it], or not;
whether they would worship the true God their fathers did, or the gods of the Canaanites; not that the Lord was ignorant of what they would do, and so made the experiment; but that the sincerity and faithfulness, or insincerity and unfaithfulness of their hearts, might appear to themselves and others.

Judges 2:22 In-Context

20 And the anger of Jehovah doth burn against Israel, and He saith, `Because that this nation have transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened to My voice --

21 I also continue not to dispossess any from before them of the nations which Joshua hath left when he dieth,

22 in order to try Israel by them, whether they are keeping the way of Jehovah, to go in it, as their fathers kept [it] or not.'

23 And Jehovah leaveth these nations, so as not to dispossess them hastily, and did not give them into the hand of Joshua.