Judges 2

2 ¹ Now the messenger of our Father went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, ² and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? ³ So now I tell you, I will not drive them out before you; they will become thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you."

⁴ As soon as the messenger of our Father had spoken these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. ⁵ And they named that place Bochim, and there they sacrificed to our Father. ¹ 1 v5 Bochim means "weepers" — the people named the place for the weeping that broke out when they heard how far they had drifted from their Father.

Joshua's Generation Passes

⁶ When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his own inheritance to take possession of the land. ⁷ And the people served our Father all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that our Father had done for Israel.

⁸ And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of our Father, died at the age of one hundred and ten years. ⁹ And they buried him within the territory of his inheritance at Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

A Generation Forgets the Father

¹⁰ And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know our Father or the work that he had done for Israel. ¹¹ And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of our Father and served the Baals.

¹² They abandoned our Father, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, and bowed down to them, and they provoked our Father to anger. ¹³ They abandoned our Father and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ So the anger of our Father was kindled against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵ Whenever they marched out, the hand of our Father was against them for harm, just as he had said and just as he had sworn to them. And they were in dire distress.

The Father Raises Up Rescuers

¹⁶ Then our Father raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

¹⁷ Yet they would not listen even to their judges, but prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of our Father; they did not do as their fathers had done.

¹⁸ Whenever our Father raised up judges for them, he was with the judge and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of that judge; for our Father was moved to compassion by their groaning under those who afflicted and oppressed them. ¹⁹ But when the judge died, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

²⁰ So the anger of our Father was kindled against Israel, and he said, "Because this nation has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers, and has not obeyed my voice, ²¹ I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,"

²² in order to test Israel by them, whether they would keep the way of our Father by walking in it, as their fathers had kept it, or not.

²³ So our Father left those nations, not driving them out at once, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.