The Breach with Jehovah
Judges 2:6 – 3:7
Judges 2:6 – 3:7
Joshua Dies, the Next Generation Passes (2:6-10)
6 And Joshua dismissed the people, and the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land. 7 And the people served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders whose days were prolonged after Joshua, who had seen all the great works of Jehovah, which he had done for Israel. v.7 If Joshua is a picture of the Lord Jesus, the elders might represent the apostles. After the apostles passed on the Church slid downhill rapidly.
8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, a hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-Heres, in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not Jehovah, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
Israel Forsakes Jehovah and Serves Baal and Ashtoreth (2:11-13)
11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baals. v.11 Idolatry always succeeds worldliness.
12 And they forsook Jehovah the God of their fathers, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked Jehovah to anger. 13 And they forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
Jehovah’s Anger and Resolve to Not Dispossess the Remaining Nations (2:14-23)
14 And the anger of Jehovah was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about; and they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as Jehovah had said, and as Jehovah had sworn unto them; and they were greatly distressed. 16 And Jehovah raised up judges, and they saved them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. 17 But they did not even hearken to their judges, for they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves to them; they turned quickly out of the way that their fathers had walked in, obeying the commandments of Jehovah; they did not so. 18 And when Jehovah raised them up judges, then Jehovah was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it repented Jehovah because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and crushed them. 19 And it came to pass when the judge died, that they turned back and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them: they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. 20 And the anger of Jehovah was hot against Israel; and he said, Because this nation hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and hath not hearkened unto my voice, 21 I also will not henceforth dispossess from before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died; 22 that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Jehovah to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 23 Therefore Jehovah left those nations, without dispossessing them hastily, neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.
List of the Nations that Jehovah Left to Prove Israel (3:1-4)
CHAPTER 3
1 And these are the nations that Jehovah left, to prove Israel by them, all that had not known all the wars of Canaan; 2 only that the generations of the children of Israel might know war by learning it, at the least those who before had known nothing thereof: 3 five lord ships of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwell on mount Lebanon; from mount Baal-Hermon unto the entering into Hamath. 4 And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of Jehovah, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
Inter-marriage and Idolatry (3:5-7)
5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites: Hittites and Amorites and Perizzites and Hivites and Jebusites; 6 and they took their daughters as wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. 7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and forgot Jehovah their God, and served the Baals and the Asherahs.