Judges 2

Israel's Disobedience

1 Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: a "I led you up from Egypt and b brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and c I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you. 2 'And d you shall make no 1 covenant with the inhabitants of this land; e you shall tear down their altars.' f But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? 3 "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be g thorns 2 in your side, and h their gods shall 3 be a i snare to you.' " 4 So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5 Then they called the name of that place 4 Bochim; 5 and they sacrificed there to the LORD.

The Death of Joshua

6 And when j Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land. 7 k So 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 of the LORD which He had done for Israel. 8 Now l Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. 9 m And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at n Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 10 When all that generation had 6 been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who o did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel's Unfaithfulness

11 Then the children of Israel did p evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; 12 and they q forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed r other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they s bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They forsook the LORD t and served 7 Baal and the 8 Ashtoreths. 8 14 u And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He v delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and w He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they x could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had y sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

The Lord Raises Up Judges

16 Nevertheless, z the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they a played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so. 18 And when the LORD raised up judges for them, b the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; c for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. 19 And it came to pass, d when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. 20 Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, "Because this nation has e transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, 21 "I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua f left when he died, 22 "so g that through them I may h test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not." 23 Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

  1. Cross References
    Exodus 20:2
    I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
    Judges 6:8
    That the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage.
    Judges 6:9
    And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.
  2. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 1:8
    'See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers - to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - to give to them and their descendants after them.'
  3. Cross References
    Genesis 17:7
    And I will establish My covenant between Me and...
    Genesis 17:8
    "Also I give to you and your descendants after ...
    Leviticus 26:42
    Then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, an...
    Leviticus 26:44
    Yet for all that, when they are in the land of ...
    Deuteronomy 7:9
    Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is Go...
    Psalms 89:34
    My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the wor...
  4. Cross References
    Exodus 23:32
    You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
    Deuteronomy 7:2
    And when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
  5. Cross References
    Exodus 34:12
    Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst.
    Exodus 34:13
    But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
    Deuteronomy 12:3
    And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 106:34
    They did not destroy the peoples, Concerning whom the LORD had commanded them.
  7. Cross References
    Numbers 33:55
    But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.
    Joshua 23:13
    Know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.
  8. Cross References
    Judges 3:6
    And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.
  9. Cross References
    Exodus 23:33
    "They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."
    Deuteronomy 7:16
    Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
    Psalms 106:36
    They served their idols, Which became a snare to them.
  10. Cross References
    Joshua 22:6
    So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.
    Joshua 24:28 - 31
    So Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.
  11. Cross References
    Joshua 24:31
    Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the LORD which He had done for Israel.
  12. Cross References
    Joshua 24:29
    Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
  13. Cross References
    Joshua 24:30
    And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
  14. Cross References
    Joshua 19:49
    When they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun.
    Joshua 19:50
    According to the word of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked for, Timnath Serah in the mountains of Ephraim; and he built the city and dwelt in it.
  15. Cross References
    Exodus 5:2
    And Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.
    1 Samuel 2:12
    Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the LORD.
    Galatians 4:8
    But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.
    Titus 1:16
    They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
  16. Cross References
    Judges 3:7
    So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.
    Judges 3:12
    And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
    Judges 4:1
    When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.
    Judges 6:1
    Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years.
  17. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 31:16
    And the LORD said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
    Judges 8:33
    So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made BaalBe'rith their god.
    Judges 10:6
    Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.
  18. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 6:14
    You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you
  19. Cross References
    Exodus 20:5
    You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.
  20. Cross References
    Judges 10:6
    Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.
    Psalms 106:36
    They served their idols, Which became a snare to them.
  21. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 31:17
    "Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'
    Judges 3:8
    Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of CushanRishatha'im king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served CushanRishatha'im eight years.
    Psalms 106:40 - 42
    Therefore the wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people, So that He abhorred His own inheritance.
  22. Cross References
    2 Kings 17:20
    And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight.
  23. Cross References
    Isaiah 50:1
    Thus says the LORD: "Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.
  24. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:37
    They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
    Joshua 7:12
    Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.
    Joshua 7:13
    "Get up, sanctify the people, and say, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: " There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you."
  25. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:14 - 26
    But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments.
    Deuteronomy 28:15 - 68
    But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
  26. Cross References
    Judges 3:9
    When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
    Judges 3:10
    The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered CushanRishatha'im king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over CushanRishatha'im.
    Judges 3:15
    But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
    Psalms 106:43 - 45
    Many times He delivered them; But they rebelled in their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity.
  27. Cross References
    Exodus 34:15
    Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice.
  28. Cross References
    Joshua 1:5
    No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.
  29. Cross References
    Genesis 6:6
    And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
  30. Cross References
    Judges 3:12
    And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
  31. Cross References
    Joshua 23:16
    "When you have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you."
  32. Cross References
    Joshua 23:4
    See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea westward.
    Joshua 23:5
    And the LORD your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God promised you.
    Joshua 23:13
    Know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.
  33. Cross References
    Judges 3:1
    Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan
    Judges 3:4
    And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
  34. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 8:2
    And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
    Deuteronomy 8:16
    Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end -
    Deuteronomy 13:3
    You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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