Judges 3:2

2 He wanted to teach the men in Israel who had never been in battle before. He wanted them to learn how to fight.

Judges 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 3:2

Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know
and teach them war
That is, the following nations were left in the land, that the young generations of Israel might by their wars and conflicts with them learn the art of war, and be inured to martial discipline; which, if none had been left to engage with, they had been ignorant of: besides, their fathers in Joshua's time, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe, had no need to learn the art of war, for God fought for them; they did not get possession of the land by their own arm, and by their sword, but by the power of God in a miraculous way; but now this was not to be expected, and the Canaanites were left among them to expel, that they might be trained up in the knowledge of warlike affairs, and so be also capable of teaching their children the military art; which they should make use of in obeying the command of God, by driving out the remains of the Canaanites, and not give themselves up to sloth and indolence; though some think that the meaning is, that God left these nations among them, that they might know what war was, and the sad effects of it; and the difference of fighting with their enemies alone, as other men, and the Lord fighting along with them, and for them, as he did for their fathers:

at least such as before knew nothing thereof;
being either unborn, or at an age incapable of bearing arms, or learning the art of war.

Judges 3:2 In-Context

1 The LORD left some nations in the land. He left them there in order to put the people of Israel to the test. He did it for all those who hadn't lived through any of the wars in Canaan.

2 He wanted to teach the men in Israel who had never been in battle before. He wanted them to learn how to fight.

3 So he left the five rulers of the Philistines. He left the people of Canaan and the people of Sidon. He left the Hivites who were living in the Lebanon mountains. They lived in the area that was between Mount Baal Hermon and Lebo Hamath.

4 The LORD left those nations where they were in order to put Israel to the test. He wanted to see whether they would obey his commands. He had given those commands through Moses to their people of long ago.

5 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.