Judges Chapter 2

The Angel of the Lord Comes to Bokim

¹ The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said,

“I brought you up from Egypt to this land that I swore to give your ancestors. I said, ‘I’ll never break my covenant with you. ² Don’t make any covenant with the people here. Tear down their altars.’ But you haven’t obeyed me. ³ So I won’t drive them out. They’ll become adversaries, and their gods will be a snare to you.”

⁴ When the angel of the LORD told the people that, they “cried” out loud. ⁵ They called the place Bochim and sacrificed to the LORD there.

The Death of Joshua

⁶ When Joshua dismissed the people to their inheritances, ⁷ they served the LORD while he was alive and the elders that outlived him, who’d seen the LORD’s great work for Israel. ⁸ He died at 110. ⁹ They buried him in his inheritance in Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ That whole generation passed on to their ancestors, and another generation grew up that hadn’t known the LORD or seen his work for Israel.                                                                                                                             Jud 2:1-10

Disobedience and Defeat

            ¹¹ The people did sin and served the images of Baal ¹³ and Ashtoreth ¹² and forsook their ancestors’ God. They worshiped the gods of people around them. That made the LORD angry; ¹⁴ so he let plunderers sell them to their enemies so they couldn’t stand against them any longer. ¹⁵ Whenever they marched out, he opposed them like he’d sworn. They were in dire straits.

¹⁶ Then the LORD raised up judges to save them from their plunderers, ¹⁷ but they wouldn’t listen to them. They carried on prostitution with other gods and soon turned aside from the way their ancestors lived. ¹⁸ Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with him and saved them as long as the judge was alive. He took pity on their groaning. ¹⁹ But whenever the judge died, they’d turn back and do worse than their ancestors and wouldn’t quit. ²⁰ The LORD was angry and said,

“They’ve sinned against my covenant like their ancestors. ²¹ From now on, I won’t drive out any nation Joshua left when he died. ²² I’ll use them to test Israel to see if they’ll follow me like their ancestors.” [ ²³ ]        Jud 2:11-23