2 Now the angel of Adonai came up from Gilgal to Bokhim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt, led you to the land I swore to your fathers and said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you; 2 you, for your part, are not to make any covenant with the inhabitants of this land but must tear down their altars.’ However, you have paid no attention to what I said. What is this you have done? 3 This is why I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will be on your flanks, and their gods will become a snare for you.’” 4 When the angel of Adonai spoke these words to all the people of Isra’el, they began crying and wailing at the top of their voices. 5 So they called the name of that place Bokhim [crying] and sacrificed there to Adonai.
6 When Y’hoshua had sent the people away, the people of Isra’el had gone each one to his assigned property in order to take possession of the land. 7 The people served Adonai throughout Y’hoshua’s life and throughout the lives of all the older men who outlived Y’hoshua and who had seen all the great work of Adonai which he had done for Isra’el. 8 When Y’hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of Adonai, died, he was 110 years old; 9 and they buried him near the boundary of his property in Timnat-Heres, in the hills of Efrayim, north of Mount Ga‘ash.
10 When that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither Adonai nor the work he had done for Isra’el. 11 Then the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective and served the ba‘alim. 12 They abandoned Adonai, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made Adonai angry. 13 They abandoned Adonai and served Ba‘al and the ‘ashtarot. 14 The anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; and he handed them over to pillagers, who plundered them, and to their enemies around them; so that they could no longer resist their enemies. 15 Whenever they launched an attack, the power of Adonai was against them, so that things turned out badly — just as Adonai had said would happen and had sworn to them. They were in dire distress.
16 But then Adonai raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who were plundering them. 17 Yet they did not pay attention to their judges, but made whores of themselves to other gods and worshipped them; they quickly turned away from the path on which their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying Adonai’s mitzvot — they failed to do this. 18 When Adonai raised up judges for them, Adonai was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of their enemies throughout the lifetime of the judge; for Adonai was moved to pity by their groaning under those oppressing and crushing them. 19 But after the judge died, they would relapse into worse behavior than that of their ancestors, following other gods to serve and worship them; they abandoned none of their practices or stubborn ways. 20 So the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; he said, “Because this nation violates my covenant, which I ordered their fathers to obey; and they don’t pay attention to what I say; 21 in the future, I will not expel ahead of them any of the nations that Y’hoshua left when he died. 22 This is how I will test Isra’el, to see whether or not they will keep the way of Adonai, living according to it, as their ancestors did.” 23 So Adonai allowed those nations to remain where they were, without quickly driving them out; he did not hand them over to Y’hoshua.