THE BOOK OF
JUDGES
Judges 2 ©
The Angel of God reproves Israel at Bochim, v. 1. etc. Where they bewail their sins, 4. A relation of the state of Israel under the judges, wherein their former worship of God, in the time of Joshua, and of the pious elders is compared with the subsequent back-sliding into all manner of idolatry, for which they are ever and anon punished of God by the enemies, and being delivered by the judges, do again relapse and fall from evil to worse, 6, 7, etc. Wherefore God would not expel the heathen, to try Israel, 20.
AND an 1angel of the LORD came up from 2Gilgal to 3Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, Ia will never break my covenant with you.
And ye shall make no leagueb with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars:c but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
Wherefore I also said, Id will not drive 4them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your 5sides, and their gods shall be a snaree unto you.
And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
And they called the name of that place 6Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.
¶ 7Andf when Joshua had 8let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that 9outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being 10an hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in 11Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
¶And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served 12Baalim:
And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and 13Ashtaroth.
¶And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, andg he 14sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for 15evil, ash the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and 16they were greatly distressed.
¶Nevertheless the LORD 17raised up 18judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they 19went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies 20all the days of the judge: for it 21repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
Andi it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they 22ceased not from their own doings, nor from their 23stubborn way.
¶And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice;
I alsoj will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations 24which Joshua left when he died:
That through them I may 25prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; 26neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.