Judges, 2

¹ Then Jehovah’s angel went up from Gilʹgal to Boʹchim and said: “I brought you up out of Egypt into the land about which I swore to your forefathers. Furthermore, I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.

² For your part, you must not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land and you should pull down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?

³ That is why I also said, ‘I will not drive them away from before you, and they will ensnare you, and their gods will lure you away.’”

⁴ When Jehovah’s angel spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people began to weep loudly.

⁵ So they named that place Boʹchim,^*1 and they sacrificed there to Jehovah.

⁶ When Joshua sent the people away, each of the Israelites went to his inheritance to take possession of the land.

⁷ The people continued to serve Jehovah all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and who had seen all of Jehovah’s great deeds in behalf of Israel.

⁸ Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of 110.

⁹ So they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timʹnath-heʹres, in the mountainous region of Eʹphra·im, north of Mount Gaʹash.

¹⁰ All that generation were gathered to their ancestors,^*1 and another generation arose after them that did not know Jehovah or what he had done for Israel.

¹¹ So the Israelites did what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah and served^*1 the Baʹals.

¹² Thus they abandoned Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods, the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and they bowed down to them and offended Jehovah.

¹³ They abandoned Jehovah and served Baʹal and the Ashʹto·reth images.

¹⁴ At this Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel, so he handed them over to plunderers who pillaged them. He sold them into the hand of the enemies around them, and they were no longer able to hold their own against their enemies.

¹⁵ Wherever they went, the hand of Jehovah was against them, bringing disaster on them, just as Jehovah had said and just as Jehovah had sworn to them, and they were in great distress.

¹⁶ So Jehovah would raise up judges who would save them from the hand of their plunderers.

¹⁷ But they refused to listen even to the judges and would prostitute themselves to other gods and bow down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way in which their forefathers had walked, those who had obeyed the commandments of Jehovah. They failed to do that.

¹⁸ Whenever Jehovah did raise up judges for them, Jehovah would be with the judge and save them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for Jehovah was moved to pity^*1 over their groaning caused by those who oppressed them and those who were treating them abusively.

¹⁹ But when the judge died, they would again act more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not abandon their practices and their stubborn behavior.

²⁰ Finally Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel, and he said: “Because this nation has violated my covenant that I commanded their forefathers and they have disobeyed me,

²¹ I for my part will not drive out from before them even one of the nations that Joshua left behind when he died.

²² This is to test whether Israel will keep Jehovah’s way by walking in it as their fathers did.”

²³ So Jehovah allowed these nations to remain. He did not drive them out quickly, and he did not give them into Joshua’s hand.