Judges 3:1-6

Nations Left to Test Israel

1 These are the nations that the LORD left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan,

2 if only to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel, especially to those who had not known it formerly:

3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.

4 These nations were left to test the Israelites, to find out whether they would keep the commandments of the LORD, which He had given their fathers through Moses.

5 Thus the Israelites continued to live among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

6 And they took the daughters of these people in marriage, gave their own 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.