Judges 2:3

3 This is why I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they will be on your flanks, and their gods will become a snare for you.'"

Judges 2:3 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 2:3

Wherefore I also said
Supposing, or on condition of their being guilty of the above things, which was foreseen they would:

I will not drive them out from before you;
the seven nations of the Canaanites entirely, and which accounts for the various instances related in the preceding chapter; where it is observed, that they could not, or did not, drive the old inhabitants out of such and such places, because they sinned against the Lord, and he forsook them, and would not assist them in their enterprises, or them to their sloth and indolence:

but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides:
very troublesome and afflicting, see ( Numbers 33:55 ) ; or for straits, as the Septuagint, or be such as would bring them into tribulation, and distress them, as the Targum; so they often did:

and their gods shall be a snare unto you;
which they suffered to continue, and did not destroy them, as they ought to have done; they would be, as they proved, ensnaring to them, and whereby they were drawn to forsake the worship of the true God, and bow down to them, as we read in some following verses.

Judges 2:3 In-Context

1 Now the angel of ADONAI came up from Gilgal to Bokhim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt, led you to the land I swore to your fathers and said, 'I will never break my covenant with you;

2 you, for your part, are not to make any covenant with the inhabitants of this land but must tear down their altars.' However, you have paid no attention to what I said. What is this you have done?

3 This is why I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they will be on your flanks, and their gods will become a snare for you.'"

4 When the angel of ADONAI spoke these words to all the people of Isra'el, they began crying and wailing at the top of their voices.

5 So they called the name of that place Bokhim [crying] and sacrificed there to ADONAI.