Judges 3:1-6

1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Yisra'el by them, even as many [of Yisra'el] as had not known all the wars of Kana`an;

2 only that the generations of the children of Yisra'el might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it:

3 [namely], the five lords of the Pelishtim, and all the Kana`anim, and the Tzidonim, and the Hivvi who lived on Mount Levanon, from Mount Ba`al-Hermon to the entrance of Hamat.

4 They were [left], to prove Yisra'el by them, to know whether they would listen to the mitzvot of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by Moshe.

5 The children of Yisra'el lived among the Kana`anim, the Hitti, and the Amori, and the Perizzi, and the Hivvi, and the Yevusi:

6 and they took their daughters to be their wives, and 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.