Judges 2

2 ¹ The messenger of our Father went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt into the land I swore to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, ² You shall make no covenant with this land's people; tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What have you done? ³ So now I say: I won't drive them out before you; they'll be thorns in your sides, their gods a trap to you."

⁴ When the messenger of our Father spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud. ⁵ And they named that place Bochim, and there they sacrificed to our Father. ^a a 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 Israelites each went to claim their own land inheritance. ⁷ The people served our Father throughout the days of Joshua and the elders who outlived him, having seen all the great work our Father did for Israel. ⁸ Joshua son of Nun, servant of our Father, died at one hundred ten years old. ⁹ They buried him in his inheritance land at Timnath-heres, in Ephraim's hill country, north of Mount Gaash.

A Generation Forgets the Father

¹⁰ That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors, and another generation rose after them who did not know our Father or the work he did for Israel. ¹¹ Israel's people did evil in our Father's sight and served the Baals. ¹² They abandoned our Father, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods of the surrounding peoples, bowed to them, and provoked our Father to anger. ¹³ They abandoned our Father and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ So our Father's anger flared against Israel, and he handed them to raiders who plundered them, selling them to surrounding enemies, so they could no longer stand against them. ¹⁵ Everywhere they marched out, our Father's hand was against them for harm, as he had said and sworn to them. They were in dire distress.

¹⁶ Then our Father raised up judges who saved them from the hand of their raiders. ¹⁷ But they would not listen even to their judges. They prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed to them, quickly turning from the way their fathers walked, who had obeyed our Father's commands; they would not do the same. ¹⁸ When our Father raised up judges, he was with each judge and rescued them from their enemies all that judge's days; for our Father was moved to compassion by their groaning under their oppressors. ¹⁹ But when the judge died, they turned back and grew more corrupt than their fathers, following other gods to serve and bow down to them. They abandoned none of their practices or stubborn ways.

²⁰ So our Father's anger flared against Israel: "Because this nation has broken my covenant that I commanded their fathers, and has not obeyed my voice, ²¹ I will no longer drive out any nation Joshua left when he died," ²² to test Israel by them: whether they'd keep our Father's way, walking in it as their fathers did, or not.

²³ So our Father left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and did not give them into Joshua's hand.