Chapter 2
The Israelites Break the Covenant.[a] 1 An angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim[b] and said, “I brought you up from out of the land of Egypt and led you to the land that I had promised your fathers saying, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. 2 Make no covenant with the people of this land. Break down their altars.’ But you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? 3 Now I proclaim to you that I will not drive them out from before you. They will be like thorns in your sides, and their gods will become a snare to you.” 4 When the angel of the Lord said these things to the Israelites, the people wept out loud. 5 They named that place Bochim, and they offered sacrifices to the Lord there.
The Death of Joshua. 6 After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites all went to their inheritances and they took possession of the land. 7 The people served the Lord during Joshua’s lifetime and the lifetimes of the elders who survived Joshua and who had seen all of the great things that the Lord had done for Israel. 8 Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. 9 They buried him within the land that was his inheritance, at Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, to the north of Mount Gaash.
10 Infidelity of the People. When that whole generation had been gathered home to their fathers, another generation arose after them that did not know the Lord[c] or the works that he had done for Israel. 11 [d]The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, serving the Baals. 12 They abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out from the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the people who lived around them, and they worshiped them. This provoked the Lord’s anger 13 because they had abandoned him to serve Baal and the Astartes. 14 The Lord’s anger blazed out against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies living around them so that they could not stand up to them anymore. 15 Whenever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as the Lord had told them, for the Lord had promised this to them. They therefore suffered terribly.
16 Deliverance through Judges. However, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hands of those raiders. 17 Yet, they would not listen to the judges, and they prostituted themselves after other gods, worshiping them. They quickly turned away from the way in which their fathers had walked, that of obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do this. 18 When the Lord raised up judges, the Lord was with the judge. He delivered them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived, for the Lord had mercy on them when they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.
19 But when the judge died,[e] they turned back and became even worse than their fathers, following other gods, serving and worshiping them. They would not abandon their selfish, stubborn ways. 20 So the anger of the Lord blazed out against Israel and he said, “Because this people has sinned against the covenant that I gave to their fathers and they have not heeded my voice, 21 I will no longer drive out any of the nations before them that were left when Joshua died. 22 Thus, I will test Israel, to see whether or not they will keep to the way of the Lord, walking in it as their fathers did.” 23 The Lord therefore left those nations there, not hurrying to drive them out, nor delivering them into Joshua’s hands.
Footnotes
- Judges 2:1 The explanation given by the angels offers a religious interpretation of Israel’s failures; this is a later reflection by the Deuteronomist redactor as he attempts to understand the reason for the failures.
- Judges 2:1 Bochim: Hebrew for “weeper.” It was a sacred place near Gilgal.
- Judges 2:10 Did not know the Lord: we may not know why the Israelites drifted from their spiritual roots, but we do know that a faithful remnant stayed faithful to the Lord.
- Judges 2:11 Baals: lords, the gods of the country (2 Ki 17:24-33). “Baal and the Astartes” (often in the plural) is the designation frequently used in the Old Testament for the Canaanite divinities, Baal being the masculine, and Astarte, the goddess of love and fruitfulness; the name of the latter is often replaced by the Hebrew word asherah, meaning a pole (see Jdg 3:7; Ex 34:13).
- Judges 2:19 When the judge died: a cycle of unfaithfulness to the Lord, followed by repentance and God’s deliverance, marked the time of the judges who led the Israelites temporarily but effectively.