Chapter 3
1Now these are the nations that the LORD left to test Israel by them, all who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan,
2only that the generations of the sons of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.
3The five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwell in the hill country of Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.
4They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5So the sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
6They took their daughters as wives for themselves, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.
2
Judges
Israel's Apostasy and the Rise of Oppressors
Judges 2:6-3:6
Key words in this passage
In this passage
Cross-references
Study notes
After the eyewitness generation dies, Israel turns at once to the Baals and abandons the God who brought their fathers from Egypt. The LORD hands them to plunderers yet also raises judges who rescue them while each judge lives. Compassion prompts the rescue, but the people refuse to listen and return to deeper corruption once the judge dies. The LORD therefore leaves the surrounding nations in place, declaring that they will test whether Israel will keep the way commanded through Moses. Living among those peoples leads to intermarriage and service of their gods, so the test becomes the daily pattern of Israel's life rather than a single event.
What is Israel's Apostasy and the Rise of Oppressors about?
Joshua dismisses the people to their inheritances after the initial settlement efforts. The sons of Israel depart, each to his own portion. The following verses trace what unfolds once Joshua and the elders who outlived him are gone. Joshua himself dies at one hundred and ten and is buried at Timnath-heres. With that entire generation gathered to their fathers, another rises that does not know the LORD or the work he performed for Israel.
This new generation turns immediately to the Baals. They abandon the God who brought their fathers out of Egypt and serve the gods of the surrounding peoples, bowing down to them. The LORD’s anger burns against Israel; he hands them over to plunderers and sells them into the power of enemies on every side. Whenever they march out, his hand works against them, leaving them in great distress.
Yet the LORD also raises judges who rescue them during each judge’s lifetime. The pattern repeats: after the judge dies, the people return to worse corruption than before. The LORD therefore declares that he will no longer drive out the remaining nations. Those nations stay to test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD as their fathers did. The account thus opens by framing the recurring failure that shapes everything that follows.
Where does this passage sit in Judges?
The rebuke delivered at Bokim ends with the people offering sacrifice, after which the account immediately returns to Joshua sending the people away to their inheritances. This return to the dismissal scene places the death of Joshua and the elders directly after the angel's words, so that the new generation's ignorance of the LORD stands as the immediate sequel to the incomplete conquest reported in chapter 1. The transition therefore moves the reader from a single moment of warning to the long-term result of that warning's disregard.
Within the book's larger arrangement, these verses introduce the judges as a recurring response to Israel's distress while already recording that the people refused to listen to them. The pattern of raising a judge, granting deliverance during that judge's lifetime, and then deeper corruption after the judge's death is stated once here so that each later story can be read against it. The same verses also name the nations that remain, preparing for the specific oppressors who will appear once the first judge cycle begins with Othniel.
The language of testing that surfaces in 2:22 and 3:1-4 connects backward to the nations Joshua left and forward to the accounts of warfare that follow. Rather than resolving the tension created by the angel at Bokim, the section leaves the nations in place and lets the subsequent narratives display whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD. This choice keeps the focus on the mechanism of testing rather than on any single episode, allowing the book to move from the general statement of failure into the concrete stories of Cushan-rishathaim, Eglon, and the later oppressors without further introductory summary.
How is the passage structured?
Joshua sent the people away to their inheritances, and the account immediately anchors the following events in the service rendered during his lifetime and that of the elders who outlived him. Those elders are defined by their firsthand knowledge of the LORD’s work, creating a bounded period of fidelity that ends with Joshua’s death at one hundred and ten and his burial at Timnath-heres. The next sentence marks the decisive break: the entire generation is gathered to their fathers, and another rises that does not know the LORD or his deeds.
From that generational shift the narrative moves without interruption into the sons of Israel doing evil and serving the Baals. The description of abandonment is repeated and expanded, first naming the LORD as the God who brought them from Egypt, then specifying Baal and the Ashtaroth. The LORD’s anger follows at once, expressed through three successive actions: handing them to plunderers, selling them to surrounding enemies, and opposing them whenever they go out. Verse 16 introduces the counter-movement when the LORD raises judges who save them, yet the very next verse records that the people refuse to listen and turn aside from the way their fathers walked.
The pattern is then compressed into a recurring cycle. While a judge lives, the LORD remains with that judge and grants deliverance because of compassion on their groaning. Upon the judge’s death the people return and act more corruptly than their fathers, refusing to abandon their deeds or their stubborn way. This escalation prompts the LORD’s renewed anger and a direct speech declaring that the covenant has been transgressed and that he will no longer drive out the nations Joshua left. The stated purpose is to test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD.
The list of those nations follows, framed as the instrument of testing for generations that have not known war. The section closes by recording the concrete outcome: the sons of Israel live among the listed peoples, contract marriages in both directions, and serve their gods.
What is the historical background?
Joshua’s burial inside the border of his own inheritance at Timnath-heres follows the pattern of land tenure that assigned portions to families and kept those holdings within the tribe across generations. The hill country of Ephraim provided the setting for this particular plot, north of Mount Gaash, a location that later readers would recognize as part of the central highland territory allotted to the Joseph tribes. The elders who prolonged days after Joshua are presented as eyewitnesses to the great work performed for Israel; their continued presence supplied living memory of the events that shaped the covenant obligations.
The Baals and the Ashtaroth named in the account belong to the religious landscape of the remaining Canaanite populations. Local Baal figures functioned as patron deities tied to specific towns or agricultural districts, while Ashtaroth were associated with fertility and royal power. Serving these deities involved the same vocabulary of bowing down and offering service that the text applies to the LORD, indicating direct competition for the allegiance of the same households.
The nations listed in chapter 3—the five Philistine lords along the coast, the Canaanites, Sidonians, and Hivites stretching from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath—represent the groups whose territories were never fully cleared. These populations continued to occupy fortified cities and fertile valleys adjacent to Israelite settlements. Living among them created routine contact through trade, shared water sources, and seasonal labor. Intermarriage, described as taking daughters and giving daughters, formed ordinary social bonds that carried religious consequences when the incoming families adopted the worship already practiced by the wife’s or husband’s household.
The judges raised by the LORD operated as ad hoc deliverers rather than a standing institution. Their authority lasted only while the immediate threat persisted and while the particular judge remained alive. Once that figure died, the pattern of return to earlier practices resumed without any established mechanism for transmitting loyalty to the next generation. The covenant language in 2:20 refers to the obligations given through Moses, which included the command to drive out the inhabitants and to maintain exclusive allegiance; failure on both counts left the remaining nations in place as a continuing test of obedience.
What does this passage teach about God?
The LORD’s anger burns against Israel precisely because the people have abandoned the God who brought their fathers out of Egypt and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. This anger produces concrete action: he gives them into the hands of plunderers and sells them into the power of enemies so that they can no longer stand. The same LORD who acts in judgment also raises judges who save them from those hands. The ground for this saving intervention is stated directly: the LORD has compassion on them because of their groan before their oppressors. Thus judgment and deliverance both flow from the one who remains committed to the people even while they transgress the covenant he commanded their fathers.
The pattern that emerges after each judge dies reveals a deeper claim about human response. The people return and act corruptly more than their fathers, going after other gods and refusing to turn from their stubborn way. They do not listen to the judges, and their turning aside happens quickly once the immediate deliverance ends. The text therefore presents repeated failure not as isolated lapses but as a persistent refusal to walk in the way their fathers kept. At the same time, the LORD’s decision to leave the nations is framed as a deliberate test: he will no longer drive them out in order to know whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD by walking in it. The test concerns obedience to the commandments given through Moses, and the presence of the surrounding peoples becomes the arena in which that obedience is either confirmed or exposed.
Intermarriage with the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites leads directly to the service of their gods. The passage presents this outcome as the result of living among the nations rather than driving them out. The theological tension lies in the fact that the same LORD who swore to give the land now withholds complete possession so that the next generations might know war and face the question of covenant loyalty. The nations remain not merely as punishment but as the means by which the LORD examines whether Israel will obey his voice.
What are the interpretive difficulties?
One question centers on the dual statements about the nations left in the land. Judges 2:22 presents them as a test of whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD as their fathers did, while 3:2 adds that the generations might know war and learn to fight. The text does not rank these purposes or explain how military experience would serve covenant obedience. Readers must weigh whether the testing of faithfulness remains primary or whether the second purpose modifies the first once the initial generation has passed.
A second issue concerns the claim in 2:10 that the new generation did not know the LORD or the work he had done for Israel. The verse follows immediately after the burial of Joshua and the elders who had seen the great work. Nothing in the surrounding verses clarifies whether this ignorance means the stories were never told or whether the people simply refused to order their lives by what they had heard. The narrative silence leaves both possibilities open.
The repeated description of the judges also invites reflection. The LORD raises them and shows compassion because of Israel’s groan (2:18), yet the people turn aside as soon as each judge dies (2:19). The passage records both the divine rescue and the people’s swift return to other gods without commenting on why the judges’ presence produced only temporary restraint. It therefore does not settle whether the judges were intended to produce lasting reform or simply to provide periodic relief.
Finally, the closing verses note intermarriage with the listed peoples and service to their gods (3:5-6). The text presents this outcome as the result of living among the nations but does not specify whether the marriages preceded or followed the decision to serve the local deities. The sequence remains open, and the passage offers no further verdict on how the two actions reinforced each other.
Movement by movement
Joshua's Dismissal and the Passing of His Generation2:6-10
Joshua sent the people away, and the sons of Israel went, each man to his inheritance, to possess the land. The verses that follow define the period of service by the days of Joshua and the elders who prolonged days after him, men distinguished by their direct sight of the LORD's great work for Israel. That eyewitness generation supplied the living memory that sustained obedience. Joshua himself died at one hundred and ten years, and they placed his body inside the border of his inheritance at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. With the gathering of that whole generation to their fathers, another generation rose that lacked knowledge of the LORD or the deeds he had performed. The text presents this shift without additional explanation, allowing the subsequent account of turning to the Baals to stand as the direct consequence of that generational break. The burial notice anchors Joshua's end in the land he helped distribute, while the description of the new generation's ignorance sets the condition for the covenant breach that follows.
The Turn to the Baals and the LORD's First Anger2:11-15
The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. This turn follows directly from the rise of a generation that did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. They abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them; they bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger. The account repeats the abandonment in plainer terms: they abandoned the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; he sold them into the hands of their enemies from around, and they were no longer able to stand before their enemies. Whenever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, just as the LORD had spoken and just as the LORD had sworn to them, and they were in great distress. The verbs move from the people's choice to serve foreign gods to the LORD's active response of handing them over, so that the same power once used to bring them out of Egypt now works against them in their own land.
Judges Raised and the Repeated Return to Corruption2:16-19
The LORD raised up judges who saved Israel from the hand of those who plundered them. These deliverers acted under the LORD’s direct presence, and the saving continued throughout each judge’s lifetime because the LORD felt compassion at the people’s groan under their oppressors. The pattern of rescue therefore rested entirely on the LORD’s initiative rather than on any change in Israel’s conduct. Yet the people did not listen even to their judges. Instead they prostituted themselves after other gods, bowed down to them, and quickly turned aside from the way their fathers had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commandments. When each judge died the people returned at once to worse behavior than their fathers had shown, serving and bowing to other gods without turning aside from their deeds or their stubborn way. The repeated cycle makes clear that the judges’ presence restrained outward collapse only while they lived; their deaths exposed how little the rescues had altered the nation’s direction. The text records no lasting reform and offers no indication that later generations improved on earlier ones.
The Covenant Broken and Nations Left for Testing2:20-3:4
The anger of the LORD burns against Israel because this nation has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and has not obeyed my voice. In direct response he declares that he will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. The stated aim is to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the LORD by walking in it as their fathers kept it, or not. That purpose stands alongside a second stated reason: the generations of the sons of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. The LORD therefore leaves those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he does not give them into the hand of Joshua. The nations themselves are named—the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwell in the hill country of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. They remain for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. The text presents both the covenant test and the acquisition of military experience without indicating how the two purposes relate or which takes precedence once the generation that knew the LORD’s work has passed.
Living Among the Peoples and Taking Their Gods3:5-6
The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. These six groups mark the concrete population that remained after the LORD chose not to drive every nation out before Joshua. The verse lists them without qualification, showing Israel settled directly inside territories already occupied rather than separated from them. Intermarriage follows at once: they took their daughters as wives for themselves, and their own daughters they gave to their sons. The phrasing records ordinary family alliances that crossed the boundary the covenant had drawn. Once those ties formed, the same sentence states the result: they served their gods. No separate stage of decision appears between the marriages and the worship. The pattern matches the earlier description of the new generation that did not know the LORD or the work he had done for Israel, now expressed in daily life rather than abstract failure. The nations listed in 3:3 supplied the immediate setting for this outcome, and the marriages turned the test announced in 2:22 into lived disobedience.
Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.
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