Judges 2

1The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you into the land I had promised on oath to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2and you must make no covenant with the people who live in this land; you must tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed me. What is this that you have done? 3So now I declare: I will not drive them out before you. They will become thorns in your sides, and their gods a trap for you.” 4As soon as the angel of the LORD finished speaking these words to all the Israelites, the people cried aloud and wept. 5They named that place Bochim, and they offered sacrifices there to the LORD.

6Joshua had sent the people away, and the Israelites had gone, each to their own inheritance, to take possession of the land. 7The people served the LORD all through Joshua’s lifetime, and through the lifetime of the elders who lived on after him and had seen every great deed the LORD had done for Israel. 8Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at 110 years of age. 9They buried him within the borders of his own inheritance, at Timnath-heres, north of Mount Gaash in the hill country of Ephraim. 10That whole generation also died and was gathered to their ancestors, and after them another generation grew up who did not know the LORD or what he had done for Israel.

11Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. 12They abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, gods of the peoples who lived around them, and bowed down to them, and so they made the LORD angry. 13They abandoned the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. 14Then the anger of the LORD blazed against Israel, and he gave them into the power of raiders, who plundered them. He sold them into the power of the enemies who surrounded them, and they could no longer hold their ground against their enemies. 15Every time they went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring them disaster, just as the LORD had warned and had sworn to them. They were in great distress. 16Then the LORD raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who plundered them. 17Yet they would not listen even to their judges. They gave themselves like prostitutes to other gods and bowed down to them. They were quick to turn from the path their ancestors had walked, the path of obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do as their ancestors had done. 18Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, the LORD was with that judge and saved them from the power of their enemies as long as the judge lived. For the LORD was moved to pity when they groaned under those who oppressed and tormented them. 19But when the judge died, they would turn back and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They gave up none of their practices or their stubborn ways. 20Then the anger of the LORD blazed against Israel, and he said, “Since this nation has broken my covenant, which I commanded their ancestors to keep, and has not obeyed me, 21I in turn will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, 22so that through them I may test Israel, to see whether they will keep to the way of the LORD and walk in it as their ancestors did, or not.” 23So the LORD let these nations remain. The LORD did not drive them out quickly, nor had he handed them over to Joshua.