Judges 2:3-13

3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you."
4 When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.
5 And they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the LORD.
6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land.
7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work which the LORD had done for Israel.
8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.
9 And they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Tim'nath-he'res, in the hill country of E'phraim, north of the mountain of Ga'ash.
10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the LORD or the work which he had done for Israel.
11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Ba'als;
12 and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.
13 They forsook the LORD, and served the Ba'als and the Ash'taroth.

Judges 2:3-13 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.

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.