Judges 3:4

4 They were to be the test for Israel, to find out whether they would obey the LORD's commands, which he had made to their ancestors through Moses.

Judges 3:4 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:4

And they were to prove Israel by them
They were left in the land, as to inure them to war, and try their courage, so to prove their faithfulness to God:

to know whether they would hearken to the commandments, of the Lord,
which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses;
even all the commandments of the Lord delivered to them by Moses, moral, civil, and ceremonial, and particularly those that concerned the destruction of the Canaanites, their altars, and their idols, ( Deuteronomy 7:1 Deuteronomy 7:5 ) .

Judges 3:4 In-Context

2 They survived only to teach war to the generations of Israelites who had no firsthand knowledge of the earlier wars:

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

4 They were to be the test for Israel, to find out whether they would obey the LORD's commands, which he had made to their ancestors through Moses.

5 So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

6 But the Israelites intermarried with them and served their gods.