Judges - Chapter 2

¹ The Angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bethel and said, 'I have brought you out of Egypt and led you into this country, which I promised on oath to your ancestors. I said, "I shall never break my covenant with you.

² You for your part must make no covenant with the inhabitants of this country; you will destroy their altars." But you have not listened to my voice. What is the reason for this?

³ Very well, I now say this, "I am not going to drive these nations out before you. They will become your oppressors, and their gods will be a snare for you."

⁴ When the angel of Yahweh had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people began to wail at the top of their voices.

⁵ And they called the place Bochim, and offered sacrifices to Yahweh there.

⁶ Joshua having dismissed the people, the Israelites then went away, each one to his own heritage, to occupy the country.

⁷ The people served Yahweh throughout the lifetime of Joshua and throughout the lifetime of those elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the great deeds which Yahweh had done for the sake of Israel.

⁸ Joshua son of Nun, servant of Yahweh, was a hundred and ten years old when he died.

⁹ He was buried on the estate which he had received as his heritage at Timnath-Heres in the highlands of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰ And when that whole generation had been gathered to its ancestors, another generation followed it which knew neither Yahweh nor the deeds which he had done for the sake of Israel.

¹¹ The Israelites then did what is evil in Yahweh's eyes and served the Baals.

¹² They deserted Yahweh, God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt, and they followed other gods, from those of the surrounding peoples. They bowed down to these; they provoked Yahweh;

¹³ they deserted Yahweh to serve Baal and Astartes.

¹⁴ Then Yahweh's anger grew hot against Israel. He handed them over to pillagers who plundered them; he delivered them to the enemies surrounding them, and they were no longer able to resist their enemies.

¹⁵ Whenever they mounted an expedition, Yahweh's hand was there to foil them, as Yahweh had told them and as Yahweh had sworn to them, so that they were in dire distress.

¹⁶ Yahweh then appointed them judges, who rescued them from the hands of their plunderers.

¹⁷ But even to their judges they refused to listen. They prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down before these. Very quickly they left the path which their ancestors had trodden in obedience to the orders of Yahweh; they did not follow their example.

¹⁸ When Yahweh appointed judges for them, Yahweh was with the judge and rescued them from the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived, since Yahweh relented at their groans under their persecutors and oppressors.

¹⁹ But once the judge was dead, they relapsed into even worse corruption than their ancestors. They followed other gods; they served them and bowed before them and would not give up the practices and stubborn ways of their ancestors at all.

²⁰ Yahweh's anger then blazed out against Israel, and he said, 'Since this people has broken the covenant which I laid down for their ancestors, since they have not listened to my voice,

²¹ in future I shall not drive before them any one of those nations which Joshua left when he died,

²² in order, by means of them, to put Israel to the test, to see whether or not they would tread the paths of Yahweh as once their ancestors had trodden them.'

²³ Hence, Yahweh allowed these nations to remain; he did not hurry to drive them out, and did not deliver them into the hands of Joshua.

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