The Book of Judges

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The angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to a place that the people of Israel would soon call Bokim. He said to the Israelite people, “I brought your ancestors up here from Egypt. I led them into this land that I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors. I said to them, ’I will never break the covenant I made with you.

But as for you, you must never agree to have peace with the people who live in this land. You must tear down the altars where they make sacrifices to idols.’ But you have not obeyed me.

So now, I am telling you that I will not drive out your enemies as you advance. They will be like thorns in your sides. And they will try to trap you by persuading you to worship their idols.”

After he said that to all the Israelites, the people lamented loudly.

They named that place Bokim, which means “weeping.” There they offered sacrifices to Yahweh.

Joshua’s Death and Burial

(Joshua 24:29–33)

After Joshua sent the people of Israel away, each group went to possess the land that had been permanently assigned to the people.

They obeyed Yahweh as long as Joshua was alive, and as long as the elders, those who had seen all the great things that Yahweh had done for Israel, were alive.

Then Yahweh’s servant Joshua died. He was 110 years old when he died.

They buried his body in the land that he had received from Moses, at Timnath Heres, in the area where the descendants of Ephraim lived, north of Mount Gaash.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness

(Isaiah 43:22–28; Jeremiah 2:23–37)

After all the people who lived at the same time as Joshua died, more people grew up who did not know Yahweh and had not seen him do the great things he had done for the Israelite people.

They did things that Yahweh said were very evil.

They worshiped idols that represented the god Baal and the female fertility goddess, the Ashtoreth. They worshiped the various gods that the people groups around them worshiped.

They stopped worshiping Yahweh, the God their ancestors worshiped, the one who had brought their ancestors out of Egypt. This caused Yahweh to be very angry.

Because Yahweh was angry, he allowed people from other groups to attack them and steal their crops and animals. They were no longer able to resist their enemies, and Yahweh allowed all their enemies around them to defeat them.

Whenever the Israelites went to fight their enemies, Yahweh always worked against them and allowed their enemies to defeat them, just as he had said he would do. So the Israelites were greatly distressed.

Judges Raised Up

Then Yahweh brought leaders to them. These leaders rescued the Israelites from the people who were attacking them.

But the Israelites still would not obey their leaders. Instead, they betrayed Yahweh for idols, like prostitutes to other gods and they worshiped those idols. They were not like their ancestors. Their ancestors obeyed what Yahweh commanded, but these new people quickly stopped behaving as their ancestors had behaved.

Whenever Yahweh brought a leader to them, he helped that leader and enabled him to rescue the people from their enemies. He did that as long as that leader was alive. Yahweh pitied them as they groaned because they were being oppressed and caused to suffer.

But after that leader died, the people always began behaving in more evil ways than their ancestors had behaved. They worshiped other gods and bowed down to them and did all the things that they thought those gods wanted them to do.

So Yahweh was very angry with the Israelite people. He said, “These people have disobeyed the covenant that I made with their ancestors. They have not done what I told them to do.

So I will no longer expel the people groups that Joshua left in this land when he died.

I will use them to test the Israelite people to see whether they will do what I want them to do, as their ancestors did.”

Yahweh allowed these people groups to stay in that land for a long time after the people of Israel had come. He did not expel them by allowing Joshua and his men to defeat them.

The LORD’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.

You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice. Why have you done this?

Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’”

When the LORD’s angel spoke these words to all the children of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept.

They called the name of that place Bochim,(a) and they sacrificed there to the LORD.

Joshua’s Death and Burial

(Joshua 24:29–33)

Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel each went to his inheritance to possess the land.

The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the LORD that he had worked for Israel.

Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred ten years old.

They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness

(Isaiah 43:22–28; Jeremiah 2:23–37)

After all that generation were gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who didn’t know the LORD, nor the work which he had done for Israel.

The children of Israel did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, and served the Baals.

They abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.

They abandoned the LORD, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

Wherever they went out, the LORD’s hand was against them for evil, as the LORD had spoken, and as the LORD had sworn to them; and they were very distressed.

Judges Raised Up

The LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They quickly turned away from the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the LORD’s commandments. They didn’t do so.

When the LORD raised up judges for them, then the LORD was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it grieved the LORD because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them.

But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They didn’t cease what they were doing, or give up their stubborn ways.

The LORD’s anger burned against Israel; and he said, “Because this nation transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice,

I also will no longer drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died from before them;

that by them I may test Israel, to see if they will keep the LORD’s way to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not.”

So the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily. He didn’t deliver them into Joshua’s hand.

Fußnoten

(a)2:5 “Bochim” means “weepers”.