Judges 2 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Roughly the 14th to 12th centuries BC, spanning the death of Joshua and the generations that followed
Location
Bokim, a place near Bethel or Gilgal whose name means weeping, and then the settled land generally; Joshua is buried at Timnath Heres in the hills of Ephraim
Audience
Israelites of a much later period reading an explanation for why their national history kept repeating the same collapse
Situation
A messenger from the Lord confronts the people for making treaties with the inhabitants of the land, and they weep. The chapter then records Joshua's death and states the pattern that governs the rest of the book: the people abandon the Lord, an enemy oppresses them, God raises up a deliverer, and after that deliverer dies they go back to worse behavior than before.
Key Background
This chapter is the book's own preface, laying out the cycle before any individual story is told, which is why it reads as commentary rather than narrative. Baal and Ashtoreth were the storm god and the goddess associated with fertility in Canaanite religion, and worshiping them was the practical religion of farmers who wanted rain and healthy flocks, so the pull was economic as much as spiritual. The Hebrew word translated judge means a leader who delivers and rules rather than someone who presides over a courtroom, and these leaders were regional and temporary, not a line of national kings.
The of Yahweh went up from to and said, "I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give your ancestors. I said, 'I will never break my with you,
and you must not make a with the people living in this land. You must tear down their But you haven't listened to me. What have you done?
So now I'm telling you: I will not drive them out ahead of you. They will become in and their gods will become a for you."
When the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people wept out loud.
So they named that place and they offered to Yahweh there.
After Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites each went to claim their
The people Yahweh throughout Joshua's lifetime and throughout the lifetime of the who outlived Joshua — those who had seen all the great things Yahweh had done for Israel.
Joshua son of Nun, the of died at the age of one hundred and ten.
They buried him in the territory of his allotted land at in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
That entire generation was also to their After them, another generation grew up who didn't Yahweh and hadn't seen what he had done for Israel.
Then the Israelites did what was in They served the
and Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They chased after other gods — the gods of the peoples around them — and down to them. They provoked Yahweh to anger.
They abandoned Yahweh and served Baal and the
Yahweh's against Israel, and he them to raiders who plundered them. He them to their enemies all around them, and they could no longer stand and fight against their enemies.
Everywhere they went, was them to bring disaster, just as Yahweh had warned them and sworn to them. They were in terrible
Then Yahweh raised up who them from the hands of those who were plundering them.
But they wouldn't even listen to their leaders. They to other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned away from the path their ancestors had walked — the path of obeying Yahweh's commands. They didn't follow it.
Whenever Yahweh raised up a leader for them, Yahweh was with that leader and rescued them from their enemies throughout that leader's lifetime. Yahweh was by their under those who oppressed and crushed them.
But when the leader died, the people went right back to their — even worse than their ancestors. They chased after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They refused to give up any of their practices or their
So Yahweh's anger burned against Israel. He said, "Because this nation has the I made with their ancestors and hasn't listened to me,
I will no longer out ahead of them any of the nations that Joshua left behind when he died.
I will use them to Israel and see whether or not they will keep to Yahweh's and walk in it, as their ancestors did."
So Yahweh those in He didn't drive them out quickly, and he hadn't handed them over to Joshua.