2
📚And the angel of the LORD 📖 came up from Gilgal 📖 to Bochim, and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt, and led you to the land which I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you; 2 📚and you must make no treaty with the inhabitants of this land 📖. You must throw down their altars 📖. But you have not obeyed 📖 my voice. Why have you acted like this? 3 📚Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you 📖; but they will be like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare 📖 to you”.4 📚And it came about, when the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people raised their voice and wept. 5 📚And they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the LORD.
2:4-5 Their tears did not change God’s mind. The Hebrew word Bochim means “weepers”.⚜
A new generation falls into evil ways
6 📚And when Joshua let the people go, each one of the children of Israel went to his inheritance to possess the land. 7 📚And 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 works that the LORD did for Israel.
8 📚And Joshua the son of Nun, the LORD’s servant, died, being a hundred and ten years old. 9 📚And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the northern side of the hill Gaash.
2:6-9 These verses take the story back to Josh 24:28-31. They serve to introduce what follows.⚜
10 📚And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers 📖; and there arose another generation after them, which did not know the LORD 📖, or even the deeds which he had done for Israel 📖. 11 📚And the children of Israel did evil 📖 in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals 📖, 12 📚and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, some of the gods 📖 of the people who were around them, and bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger 📖. 13 📚And they forsook the LORD and served Baal and Ashtaroth 📖. 14 📚And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
15 📚Wherever they went, the hand of the LORD was against them to make things go wrong, just as the LORD had said and just as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.
2:15 What chance of victory can there be, either in the physical or spiritual realm, if the hand of God is against His people? There is only one thing that will bring the hand of God against them – sin; and only one way to cause the hand of God to work for them again – repentance and faith (2 Chron 7:14; Ps 32:4-5; Isa 55:7).⚜
16 📚However, the LORD raised up judges 📖 who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 📚But still they would not listen to their judges, but prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned out of the way in which their fathers 📖 walked, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not do so. 18 📚And when the LORD raised up judges for them, then the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to compassion 📖 because of their groanings on account of those who oppressed them and troubled them. 19 📚And it came about when the judge was dead, that they went back and corrupted themselves 📖 more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They did not stop their practices or their stubborn 📖 ways.
2:16-19 This is the brief story of the book of Judges and, for that matter, in some measure, the story of the whole Old Testament. And though we live in other places, other times than Israel, we would make a big mistake if we thought we were superior to them by nature. The Bible teaches the truth that all are sinners, by nature all are rebellious against the true God, all are disobedient to His Word. God did not give us the history of Israel that we could learn how bad they were, but that we might realize to some extent what we are and what He is and what He wants us to be.
In this book it is said that God raised up twelve judges. Othniel was the first and Samson the last named. The last judge and the greatest was Samuel, whose story is in the book of 1 Samuel. The judges were from different tribes (Othniel – Judah; Ehud – Benjamin; Shamgar – unknown; Deborah – unknown, but probably Ephraim; Gideon – Manasseh; Tola – Issachar; Jair – Manasseh; Jephthah – Manasseh; Ibzan – either Judah or Zebulun; Elon – Zebulun; Abdon – Ephraim; Samson – Dan; Samuel – Levi).
The enemies they faced were from all sides of Israel: northeast, southeast, east, south, west, north. In other words, people of Israel in all parts of the country were involved in the testing and teaching of Jud 2:22; and 3:2 (see notes there). “LORD raised up” (v 16) – this was God’s grace at work toward an unworthy people.⚜
20 📚And the anger 📖 of the LORD burned against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have broken my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice,
God allows some Canaanites to survive
21 📚from now on I will not drive out from before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,
2:21 Note at v 3.⚜
22 📚so that through them I may test 📖 Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not”. 23 Therefore the LORD left those nations, not driving them out speedily; and he did not deliver them into the hands of Joshua.