Judges 3:4

4 They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given 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 He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before.

3 Those left in the land were the five Philistine cities, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Hamath Pass.

4 They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses.

5 And so the people of Israel settled down among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

6 They intermarried with them and worshiped their gods.