Judges 2:13-23

13 And they provoked the Lord, and forsook him, and served Baal and the Astartes.
14 And the Lord was very angry with Israel; and he gave them into the hands of the spoilers, and they spoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, and they could not any longer resist their enemies,
15 among whomsoever they went; and the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord spoke, and as the Lord sware to them; and he greatly afflicted them.
16 And the Lord raised up judges, and the Lord save them out of the hands of them that spoiled them: and yet they hearkened not to the judges,
17 for they went a whoring after other gods, and worshipped them; and they turned quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked to hearken to the words of the Lord; they did not so.
18 And because the Lord raised them up judges, so the Lord was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved at their groaning by reason of them that besieged them and afflicted them.
19 And it came to pass when the judge died, that they went back, and again corrupted worse than their fathers to go after other gods to serve them an to worship them: they abandoned not their devices nor their stubborn ways.
20 And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and said, Forasmuch as this nation has forsaken my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not hearkened to my voice,
21 therefore I will not any more cast out a man of the nations before their face, which Joshua the son of Naue left in the land. And left ,
22 to prove Israel with them, whether they would keep the way of the Lord, to walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or no.
23 So the Lord will leave these nations, so as not to cast them out suddenly; and he delivered them not into the hand of Joshua.

Judges 2:13-23 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.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. repented. This word seems generally to stand for ???.
  • [b]. left.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.