Judges 3:1

1 These are the nations the Lord did not force to leave. He wanted to test the Israelites who had not fought in the wars of Canaan.

Judges 3:1 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:1

Now these [are] the nations which the Lord left to prove
Israel by them
Which are later mentioned, ( Judges 3:3 Judges 3:5 ) ;

[even] as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
those that Joshua, and the people of Israel under him, had with the Canaanites, when they first entered the land and subdued it; being then not born, or so young as not to have knowledge of them, at least not able to bear arms at that time.

Judges 3:1 In-Context

1 These are the nations the Lord did not force to leave. He wanted to test the Israelites who had not fought in the wars of Canaan.

2 (The only reason the Lord left those nations in the land was to teach the descendants of the Israelites who had not fought in those wars how to fight.)

3 These are the nations: the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the people of Sidon, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath.

4 Those nations were in the land to test the Israelites -- to see if they would obey the commands the Lord had given to their ancestors by Moses.

5 The people of Israel lived with the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.