Judges 2:1-9

1 And the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to the place of Weepers (And the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim), and said, I led you out of Egypt, and I brought you into the land, for which I swore to your fathers, and promised, that I should not make void my covenant with you into without end;

2 so only that ye should not smite (a) bond of peace with the dwellers of this land, and that ye destroy their altars; and you would not hear my voice. Why did ye (do) these things? (so only that ye should not make a covenant with the people of this land, and that ye destroy their altars; but you would not listen to me. Why did ye do this?)

3 Wherefore I would not do them away from your face (And so I shall not take them away from you), (so) that ye have them (as) enemies, and that their gods be to you into falling.

4 And when the angel of the Lord spake these words to all the sons of Israel, they raised [up] their voice, and wept; (And when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the Israelites, they raised up their voice, and wept;)

5 and the name of the place was called, the place of Weepers, either of tears; and they offered there sacrifices to the Lord. (and so the name of that place was called Bochim, or Tears; and they made sacrifices, or offerings, there to the Lord.)

6 Then Joshua let go the people; and the sons of Israel went forth, each man into his possession, that they should get it. (Then Joshua let the people go; and the Israelites went forth, each man to get, or to take, his possession.)

7 And they served the Lord in all the days of Joshua, and of the elder men that lived after him long time, and knew all the great works of the Lord, which he had done with Israel. (And they served the Lord in all the days of Joshua, and of the elders who lived a long time after him, and who knew of all the great works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel.)

8 Forsooth Joshua, [the] son of Nun, [the] servant of the Lord, was dead of an hundred years and ten; (But then Joshua, the son of Nun, the Lord's servant, died, when he was a hundred and ten years old;)

9 and they buried him in the ends of his possession, in Timnath of Heres, in the hill (country) of Ephraim, at the north coast of the hill Gaash (on the north side of Mount Gaash).

Judges 2:1-9 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.