Judges 3:5

5 And the {Israelites} lived in the midst of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Judges 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:5

And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites
As if they had been only sojourners with them, and not conquerors of them; and dwelt by sufferance, and not as proprietors and owners; such were their sloth and indolence, and such the advantage the inhabitants of the land got over them through it, and through their compliances with them; and this was the case not only of one sort of them, the Canaanites, but of the rest:

the Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and
Jebusites;
who all had cities in the several parts of the land, with whom the children of Israel were mixed, and with whom they were permitted to dwell.

Judges 3:5 In-Context

3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon up to Lebo-Hamath.

4 They were [left] for testing Israel, to know [whether] they would keep the commands of Yahweh that he commanded their ancestors through the hand of Moses.

5 And the {Israelites} lived in the midst of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

6 And they took their daughters as wives for themselves, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.

7 The {Israelites} did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They forgot Yahweh their God, and they served the Baals and the Asheroth.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [b] Hebrew "Canaanite"
• [c] Hebrew "Hittite"
• [d] Hebrew "Amorite"
• [e] Hebrew "Perizzite"
• [f] Hebrew "Hivite"
• [g] Hebrew "Jebusite"