Judges 2
1 The Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land I swore to give your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.
2 As for you, make no covenant with the people who live in this land; tear down their altars.’ But you did not listen to me. What have you done?
3 So I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’”
4 When the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people raised their voices and wept.
5 They named that place Bochim, and there they offered sacrifices to the LORD.
6 Joshua dismissed the people, and the Israelites went, each to his own inheritance, to take possession of the land.
7 The people served the LORD throughout Joshua’s lifetime and throughout the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua and had seen all the great work the LORD had done for Israel.
8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten.
9 They buried him within the territory of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10 That whole generation was also gathered to its ancestors. After them another generation arose, one that did not know the LORD or the work he had done for Israel.
11 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
12 They abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, among the gods of the peoples around them, bowed down to them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
13 They abandoned the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
14 The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to raiders, who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, and they could no longer stand against their enemies.
15 Whenever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, just as the LORD had said and sworn to them. They were in great distress.
16 Then the LORD raised up judges, who rescued them from the hands of those who plundered them.
17 But they would not listen to their judges. They prostituted themselves by following other gods and bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying the LORD’s commands. They did not do as their ancestors had done.
18 Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, he was with the judge and rescued them from the hands of their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime, because the LORD had compassion on them when they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.
19 But when the judge died, they turned back and became more corrupt than their ancestors, following other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their practices or their stubborn ways.
20 The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he said, “Because this nation has broken the covenant I commanded their ancestors to keep and has not listened to me,
21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left behind when he died.
22 I will use these nations to test Israel, to see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their ancestors did, or not.”
23 So the LORD allowed these nations to remain, without driving them out quickly, and he did not hand them over to Joshua.
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