Judges 2
1 Yahweh [appeared in the form of] an angel [and] went up from Gilgal to [a place that was later called] Bokim. He said [to the Israeli people], “I brought your [ancestors] up here from Egypt. I led them into this land that I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors. I said to them, ‘The agreement that I made with you, as for me, I will never (break it/say that it is ended).
And a messenger of Jehovah goeth up from Gilgal unto Bochim,
2 But as for you, you must never make a peace agreement with the people who live in this land. You must tear down the altars [where they make sacrifices to idols].’ But you have not obeyed me.
and saith, 'I cause you to come up out of Egypt, and bring you in unto the land which I have sworn to your fathers, and say, I do not break My covenant with you to the age; and ye — ye make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land — their altars ye break down; and ye have not hearkened to My voice — what [is] this ye have done?
3 So now, I am telling you that I will not expel [your enemies] as you advance. They will be like thorns in your sides. And [they] will try to trap you [by making you worship] their idols.”
And I also have said, I do not cast them out from your presence, and they have been to you for adversaries, and their gods are to you for a snare.'
4 After he told that to all the Israelis, the people cried loudly.
And it cometh to pass, when the messenger of Jehovah speaketh these words unto all the sons of Israel, that the people lift up their voice and weep,
5 They called that place Bokim, [which means ‘weeping’]. There they offered sacrifices to Yahweh.
and they call the name of that place Bochim, and sacrifice there to Jehovah.
6 After Joshua sent the Israeli people away, each group went to possess the land that had been allotted to them.
And Joshua sendeth the people away, and the sons of Israel go, each to his inheritance, to possess the land;
7 They served Yahweh as long as Joshua was alive, and as long as the elders, those who had seen all the great things that Yahweh had done for Israel, were alive.
and the people serve Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who prolonged days after Joshua, who saw all the great work of Jehovah which He did to Israel.
8 Then Yahweh’s servant Joshua died. He was 110 years old when he died.
And Joshua son of Nun, servant of Jehovah, dieth, a son of a hundred and ten years,
9 They buried his body in the area he had received [from Moses], at Timnath-Serah, in the area where the descendants of Ephraim lived, north of Gaash Mountain.
and they bury him in the border of his inheritance, in Timnath-Heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of mount Gaash;
10 After all the people died who lived at the same time as Joshua [EUP], a group of people grew up who did not know Yahweh, and did not know what great things he had done for the Israeli people.
and also all that generation have been gathered unto their fathers, and another generation riseth after them who have not known Jehovah, and even the work which He hath done to Israel.
11 They did things that Yahweh said were very evil. They worshiped [idols that represented the god] Baal and the goddess Astarte. They worshiped [DOU] the various gods that the people-groups around them worshiped. They stopped worshiping Yahweh, the God their ancestors worshiped, the one who had brought their ancestors out of Egypt. That caused Yahweh to be very angry.
And the sons of Israel do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and serve the Baalim,
and forsake Jehovah, God of their fathers, who bringeth them out from the land of Egypt, and go after other gods (of the gods of the peoples who [are] round about them), and bow themselves to them, and provoke Jehovah,
yea, they forsake Jehovah, and do service to Baal and to Ashtaroth.
14 So he allowed people from other groups to raid them and steal their crops and animals. They were no longer able to resist their enemies, and Yahweh allowed all their enemies around them to defeat them.
And the anger of Jehovah burneth against Israel, and He giveth them into the hand of spoilers, and they spoil them, and He selleth them into the hand of their enemies round about, and they have not been able any more to stand before their enemies;
15 Whenever the Israelis went to fight [their enemies], Yahweh [MTY] was opposing them, and allowed their enemies to defeat them, just as he had promised he would do. So the Israelis were greatly distressed.
in every [place] where they have gone out, the hand of Jehovah hath been against them for evil, as Jehovah hath spoken, and as Jehovah hath sworn to them, and they are distressed — greatly.
16 Then Yahweh gave leaders to them. These leaders rescued the Israelis from the people who were raiding them.
And Jehovah raiseth up judges, and they save them from the hand of their spoilers;
17 But the Israelis still would not pay attention to their leaders. Instead, they went to the idols, [acting like] prostitutes [who gave themselves to men who were not their husbands] [MET], and they worshiped those idols. They were not like their ancestors. Their ancestors obeyed what Yahweh commanded, but their descendants quickly stopped behaving as their ancestors had behaved.
and also unto their judges they have not hearkened, but have gone a-whoring after other gods, and bow themselves to them; they have turned aside [with] haste out of the way [in] which their fathers walked to obey the commands of Jehovah — they have not done so.
18 Whenever Yahweh gave a leader to them, he helped that leader and enabled him to rescue the people from their enemies. He helped them like that as long as that leader was alive. Yahweh pitied them as they groaned because they were being oppressed and caused to suffer.
And when Jehovah raised up to them judges — then was Jehovah with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it repenteth Jehovah, because of their groaning from the presence of their oppressors, and of those thrusting them away.
19 But after that leader died, the people went back to behaving in ways even more evil than their ancestors had behaved. They worshiped other gods and bowed down to them and did all [LIT] the things that they thought those gods wanted them to do.
And it hath come to pass, at the death of the judge — they turn back and have done corruptly above their fathers, to go after other gods, to serve them, and to bow themselves to them; they have not fallen from their doings, and from their stiff way.
20 So Yahweh was very angry with the Israeli people. He said, “These people have disobeyed the agreement I made with their ancestors. They have not done what I told them to do.
And the anger of Jehovah doth burn against Israel, and He saith, 'Because that this nation have transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened to My voice —
21 So I will no longer expel the people-groups that Joshua left in this land when he died.
I also continue not to dispossess any from before them of the nations which Joshua hath left when he dieth,
22 I will use them to test the Israeli people to see whether they will do what I want them to do, as their ancestors did.”
in order to try Israel by them, whether they are keeping the way of Jehovah, to go in it, as their fathers kept [it] or not.'
23 Yahweh had allowed those people-groups to stay in that land. He did not expel them by allowing Joshua [and his men] to defeat them.
And Jehovah leaveth these nations, so as not to dispossess them hastily, and did not give them into the hand of Joshua.
