Judges 2:1-10

The Angel of the LORD at Bokim

1 The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,

2 and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?

3 And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’ ”

4 When the angel of the LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud,

5 and they called that place Bokim.^[a] There they offered sacrifices to the LORD.

Disobedience and Defeat

6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance.

7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.

8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.

9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres^[b] in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.

Judges 2:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 2

This chapter gives an account of an angel of the Lord appearing and rebuking the children of Israel for their present misconduct, Jud 2:1-5; of their good behaviour under Joshua, and the elders that outlived him, Jud 2:6-10; and of their idolatries they fell into afterwards, which greatly provoked the Lord to anger, Jud 2:11-15; and of the goodness of God to them nevertheless, in raising up judges to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, of which there are many instances in the following chapter, Jud 2:16-18; and yet that how, upon the demise of such persons, they relapsed into idolatry which caused the anger of God to be hot against them, and to determine not to drive out the Canaanites utterly from them, but to leave them among them to try them, Jud 2:19-23.

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 16:7; Judges 6:11
• 2. S Deuteronomy 11:30
• 3. ver 5
• 4. Exodus 20:2; Judges 6:8
• 5. Genesis 17:8
• 6. S Leviticus 26:42-44; Deuteronomy 7:9
• 7. S Exodus 23:32; S Exodus 34:12; Deuteronomy 7:2
• 8. S Exodus 23:24; Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 2 Chronicles 14:3
• 9. Jeremiah 7:28
• 10. Joshua 23:13
• 11. S Numbers 33:55
• 12. S Exodus 10:7; Deuteronomy 7:16; Judges 3:6; Psalms 106:36
• 13. S Genesis 27:38; S Numbers 25:6; 2 Kings 17:13
• 14. ver 1
• 15. ver 17
• 16. Joshua 1:1
• 17. S Joshua 19:50
• 18. S Exodus 5:2; 1 Samuel 2:12; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Galatians 4:8

Footnotes

• [a]. "Bokim" means "weepers."
• [b]. Also known as "Timnath Serah" (see Joshua 19:50 and 24:30)