Shofetim 2:19

19 And it came to pass, when the Shofet was dead, that they turned again, and corrupted themselves more than their avot, in following acharei elohim to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their derech hakashah (stubborn way).

Shofetim 2:19 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 2:19

And it came to pass, when the judge was dead
Any one of them, the first and so all succeeding ones:

[that] they returned;
to their evil ways and idolatrous practices, from which they reformed, and for which they showed outward repentance during the life of the judge; but he dying, they returned again to them:

and corrupted [themselves] more than their fathers;
in Egypt and in the wilderness; or rather than their fathers that lived in the generation after the death of Joshua; and so in every generation that lived before a judge was raised up to deliver them out of the evils brought upon them; the children of those in every age successively grew worse than their fathers:

in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them;
not content with the idols their fathers served, they sought after and found out others, and were more constant and frequent in their worship and service of them, and increased their sacrifices and acts of devotion to them:

they ceased not from their own doings;
or, "did not let them fall" ^F2; but retained them, and continued in the practice of them, being what they were naturally inclined unto and delighted in:

nor from their stubborn way;
which they were bent upon, and determined to continue in: or "their hard way" ^F3; which their hard hearts had chosen, and they obstinately persisted in, being obdurate and stiffnecked; and which, in the issue, they would find hard, troublesome, and distressing to them, though at present soft and agreeable, and in which they went on smoothly; but in time would find it rough and rugged, offensive, stumbling, and ruinous; or it may signify a hard beaten path, a broad road which multitudes trod in, as is the way of sin.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (wlyph al) "non Cadere faciebant", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius.
F3 (hvqh Mkrdm) "de via sua dura", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Drusius.

Shofetim 2:19 In-Context

17 And yet they would not pay heed unto their Shofetim, but they went a-whoring after acharei elohim, and bowed themselves unto them; they turned quickly from HaDerech which their Avot walked in, the Way of obedience to the mitzvot Hashem; but they did not so.

18 And when Hashem raised them up Shofetim, then Hashem was with the Shofet, and saved them out of the yad of their enemies all the days of the Shofet; for it relented Hashem because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and afflicted them.

19 And it came to pass, when the Shofet was dead, that they turned again, and corrupted themselves more than their avot, in following acharei elohim to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their derech hakashah (stubborn way).

20 And the Af Hashem was hot against Yisroel; and He said, Because this people hath violated My brit (covenant) which I commanded their Avot, and have not paid heed unto My voice;

21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the Goyim which Yehoshua left when he died;