Judges 2:11-23

11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.
12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the LORD’s anger
13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
14 In his anger against Israel the LORD gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
16 Then the LORD raised up judges,[a] who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.
17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the LORD’s commands.
18 Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.
19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
20 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me,
21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.
22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their ancestors did.”
23 The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

Judges 2:11-23 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 36

  • 1. 1 Kings 15:26
  • 2. Judges 3:12; Judges 4:1; Judges 6:1; Judges 10:6
  • 3. Judges 3:7; Judges 8:33; 1 Kings 16:31; 1 Kings 22:53; 2 Kings 10:18; 2 Kings 17:16
  • 4. S Deuteronomy 32:12; Psalms 106:36
  • 5. S Deuteronomy 31:16; Judges 10:6
  • 6. S Numbers 11:33
  • 7. Deuteronomy 4:25; Psalms 78:58; Psalms 106:40
  • 8. 1 Samuel 7:3; 1 Kings 11:5,33; 2 Kings 23:13
  • 9. Judges 3:7; Judges 5:8; Judges 6:25; Judges 8:33; Judges 10:6; 1 Samuel 31:10; Nehemiah 9:26; Psalms 78:56; Jeremiah 11:10
  • 10. S Deuteronomy 31:17
  • 11. Nehemiah 9:27; Psalms 106:41
  • 12. Psalms 44:10; Psalms 89:41; Ezekiel 34:8
  • 13. S Deuteronomy 32:30; S Judges 3:8
  • 14. S Deuteronomy 28:25
  • 15. Ruth 1:13; Job 19:21; Psalms 32:4
  • 16. Genesis 35:3; 2 Samuel 22:7; 2 Chronicles 15:4; Job 5:5; Job 20:22; Psalms 4:1; Psalms 18:6
  • 17. Ruth 1:1; 1 Samuel 4:18; 1 Samuel 7:6,15; 2 Samuel 7:11; 1 Chronicles 17:10; Acts 13:20
  • 18. 1 Samuel 11:3; Psalms 106:43
  • 19. S Exodus 34:15; S Numbers 15:39
  • 20. S Psalms 4:2
  • 21. Nehemiah 9:28; Psalms 106:36
  • 22. Deuteronomy 9:12
  • 23. ver 7
  • 24. 1 Samuel 7:3; 2 Kings 13:5; Isaiah 19:20; Isaiah 43:3,11; Isaiah 45:15,21; Isaiah 49:26; Isaiah 60:16; Isaiah 63:8
  • 25. S Deuteronomy 32:36; Joshua 1:5
  • 26. S Exodus 2:23; Psalms 106:44
  • 27. S Numbers 10:9
  • 28. S Genesis 6:11; S Deuteronomy 4:16; Judges 3:12
  • 29. Deuteronomy 32:17; Nehemiah 9:2; Psalms 78:57; Jeremiah 44:3,9
  • 30. Judges 4:1; Judges 8:33
  • 31. S Exodus 32:9
  • 32. ver 14; S Deuteronomy 31:17; Joshua 23:16
  • 33. S Joshua 7:11; S 2 Kings 17:15
  • 34. S Joshua 23:5; Joshua 23:13
  • 35. S Genesis 22:1; S Exodus 15:25; Deuteronomy 8:2,16; Judges 3:1,14
  • 36. Judges 1:1

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or "leaders" ; similarly in verses 17-19
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