And it came to pass, when the Angel of Jehovah spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice and wept.
The whole nation has just heard God's messenger name their disobedience and say what it will cost. Their only recorded answer is tears. Was that repentance, or just grief at the sentence? Commentators differ.
The speaker whose words reduced Israel to tears was no ordinary messenger. Commentators identify Him from His own words:
The Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. This Angel is Jehovah Himself. His own words reveal this fact. In Joshua's time, after Israel had taken the land, the Angel of the Lord — Jehovah in visible form — was with them. As commander of the Lord's army, He led them on in the conquest.
Before the weeping came a question. God had kept every promise; the broken side of the agreement was Israel's.
Had God broken His covenant? Had He not accomplished all that His mouth had spoken? It was Israel who had broken the covenant. "Why have you done this?" How this question reaches and probes the conscience. Why? Because I preferred the world and its desires to the power of the Spirit of God, idols to the indescribable favour of Jehovah's face. What then was the natural heart of this people? What is ours?
Note: older translations word the Lord's question in verse 2 as "Why have you done this?"
Their silence is itself part of the record:
He asked them why? But they had no answer.
The angel travelled from Gilgal to Bochim, and the two place names carry the lesson. One writer reads the move as cause and effect:
Gilgal speaks of the self-judgment of sin in the flesh, but Israel had neglected this after settling in the land. If we too neglect the self-judgment needed for a walk with God, the result will be Bochim — "weeping."
Yet the same journey can be read from God's side:
They came at once to "Bochim," that is, tears and weeping. In Joshua they went to Gilgal instead, the place where Israel was completely separated from the world. They had crossed the Jordan, and that was death. Then the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. But the angel of the Lord went to Bochim. He did not give Israel up, though they had left Gilgal. It was grace going after them.
Commentators differ here. Some read Bochim as a place where God meets failing people. Others find no confession there at all — the crying was over the sentence, not the sin:
Many use Bochim as a picture of humiliation, where believers who have failed willingly own that failure before God. I heartily agree with that use. But taken as Scripture really gives it, there was nothing of the kind at Bochim. The Lord declared in judgment that He would no longer drive out their enemies. They wept when they heard that judgment. There was no sorrow for sin and failure, but for judgment, and they worshipped where they wept... There was no voluntary confession and humiliation at all.
Another writer traces what the tears did not stop:
They would not drive out the nations, and so He would not... The people weep and sacrifice to Jehovah, but there is no real repentance. This first step downward is soon followed by another, and that second step completes the break between them and Him.
One writer contrasts Bochim with a later gathering at Mizpah, where Israel went further than tears:
Samuel gathers the people at Mizpah, which is not merely the place of tears, but of humiliation. It was there that "they drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted on that day and said there, 'We have sinned against the LORD.'"
Even so, Bochim was not only a place of tears:
Let us individually get back to Gilgal, or let us at any rate get to Bochim, the place of weeping... Bochim, God can meet us there. You remember a holy and blessed Bochim in the New Testament. It is in the seventh of Luke. There is a poor soul that has nothing but her sins to bring to Christ, and she brings them; she pours them out in hot tears, in shame and sorrow, on His feet... There is a sacrifice at Bochim, a sacrifice that has put sin away forever from before God's face.
- Gilgal — the place of self-judgment; Israel neglected it after settling in the land.
- Bochim — leave Gilgal and you arrive at weeping. That is where the whole nation ended up.
- Tears — commentators differ on the weeping. Some say God can meet people at such a place; others say Israel mourned the sentence, not the sin, and that no confession is recorded.
- Grace — God Himself travelled from Gilgal to Bochim after them. He did not give Israel up.
- Sacrifice — the place of tears was also a place of offering. A weeping sinner with nothing but sins to bring is never turned away.
And they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to Jehovah.
God had just told Israel He would no longer drive out their enemies, so the people wept — and then they sacrificed on that same spot. Two questions follow: what were the tears about, and why did God accept worship there at all?
The name they chose recorded their own failure:
This means "weepers." It was the place near Gilgal. There an angel of the Lord charged the Israelites with disobeying God: they had made agreements with the people of the land, and they had not thrown down their altars. He told them what would follow. The people wept and sacrificed to the Lord. Judges 2:1-5. Bochim symbolically is not simply "weepers," but "weepers over disobedience."
The angel came to Bochim from Gilgal. One writer sets the two places side by side to show what Israel exchanged:
Joshua is a book of victorious power. Judges is the book of failure in faithfulness, and so that power is gone. Yet God steps in from time to time in mercy, to deliver and revive. Gilgal is exchanged for Bochim. Gilgal, the denial of the flesh, seemed of little importance, yet it was the place of power. Bochim was the place of tears, but the angel of God was there.
One writer traces the change to something Israel had stopped doing:
But Israel had neglected Gilgal — in fact, forgotten it since the days of Joshua. This is how hearts become worldly, through the absence of daily self-judgment. The angel of Jehovah, who represented divine power among the people, had stayed there alone, so to speak, with nothing to do. He was waiting for Israel to return to him. He waited long, and Israel did not return. There was nothing for it but that the angel should leave this blessed spot and go up to Bochim, the place of tears.
Verse 5 does not end with crying. An altar goes up where the tears fall:
Israel weeps and sacrifices (v. 5). How touching is the grace that provides for worship in the middle of the ruin. The place of tears is a place of sacrifice, and God accepts the offerings made at Bochim.
The same writer weighs what did not change and what Israel lost:
It is exchanged for tears. But the tears are for lost blessings. God may be worshipped in Bochim: His relationship to the people was unaltered. He accepts these tears. But what a difference! The strength and the light of Jehovah's countenance are not there.
Commentators differ about these tears. One writer reads them as sorrow over the judgment, not over the sin:
Take Bochim merely as a picture of humbling and sorrow, where believers have failed and by grace choose to own it before God: I fully agree with that. But as Scripture actually presents it, there was nothing of the kind at Bochim. The Lord declared in judgment that He would no longer drive out their enemies. They wept when they heard that judgment. There was no sorrow for sin and failure, but sorrow over judgment, and they worshipped where they wept.
Another writer, reading the chapter as a whole, notes the same short shelf life — the people weep and sacrifice, "but there is no real repentance: and this first step downward is soon followed by another."
One writer points beyond Israel, to anyone who has nothing but sin to bring:
Let us each get back to Gilgal, or at least let us get to Bochim, the place of weeping... God can meet us there. You remember a holy and blessed Bochim in the New Testament. It is in the seventh chapter of Luke. There is a poor soul who has nothing but her sins to bring to Christ, and she brings them. She pours them out in hot tears, in shame and sorrow, on His feet... There is a sacrifice at Bochim, a sacrifice that has put sin away forever from before God's face.
Another writer calls us to go there rather than avoid it:
It is sad that we have to gather there. But it is the only place where the Lord can meet us in the matter that weighs on so many hearts. If we miss Bochim we shall miss the Lord, for it is His appointed place of meeting.
- Cause — Bochim means "weepers." Not weepers in general, but weepers over disobedience: agreements made with the people of the land, altars left standing.
- Cost — Israel traded Gilgal, the place of self-judgment and so of power, for Bochim, the place of tears. Neglecting Gilgal is how it happened.
- Gift — an altar stands where the tears fall. Grace still provides worship in the middle of ruin, and God accepts the offerings made there.
- Limit — commentators differ. One reads the weeping as sorrow over the judgment, not over the sin.
- Reach — the place of tears is where God meets people still, and the sacrifice there is one that puts sin away forever.
And Joshua dismissed the people, and the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.
This verse pauses the story and looks back. Joshua's last act was to send Israel away, each man to the portion God had given him. From then on, everything rested on their own obedience. The book of Judges traces the result.
Joshua did not die with unfinished business. He gathered the nation, rehearsed God's faithfulness, and pressed a promise out of them:
Moses led them in the wilderness. Joshua led them and directed the dividing of the land. Both had now died. God had chosen them and made them fit to be the spiritual guides and teachers of the people He had just redeemed. But the rules and statutes given through Moses, which the people were to "be careful to do in the land" (Deut. 12:1), were kept in writing among them so that they could obey. Before his death Joshua gathered all the tribes to Shechem (Joshua 24). He was about to leave them, so he made them give a solemn covenant promise: "The LORD our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey."
So the sending away was a handing over:
"So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance." The responsibility now rested on Israel. They had to keep their place in that inheritance by obeying God. We can only read and re-read the solemn words of Joshua's appeal on this last day. Notice that they dodged the very point of it — putting away their idols. As we apply the same appeal to ourselves, we may open the book of Judges and trace there the result of disobedience.
The verse does not send out the nation as a block. It sends every man to his own place. God took great care in marking out those places:
Notice too, in these chapters, how carefully the Spirit of God defines the place and limits of every tribe. He does it so that each can see and know their exact share in the inheritance. It is the same now for each of us. God has given each of us a definite place and definite duties in the body of Christ. Every member of Christ is responsible to be conscious of it, and to act in keeping with it.
They went out "to take possession" — and that is where the story breaks down. The gift was complete. The taking was not:
The whole country is given to Israel, and each tribe has his share. So Jehovah Himself gave each tribe its portion in full right. He marked out their borders too, for the Spirit of God takes notice of everything when He gives out the spiritual inheritance. He gives to each according to the mind of God. There is nothing uncertain in God's arrangements. But not one tribe drove out all the enemies of God from His inheritance. Not one took possession of all that God had given him.
Israel served the Lord as long as Joshua and the elders lived. One commentator traces the reason to the man himself:
Joshua was a man who lived in the holy presence of God. God had taken full possession of his soul. So it was a simple thing for him to take possession of what was his. Let God capture my soul and I will want to capture everything for Him.
What held under Joshua did not pass on to their children. They had the truths, but not first-hand:
A second generation came in — people who had not seen the works of the Lord, who had got the truths from the elders second-hand. These truths had not come straight down to them from God. They had learned them in an indirect way — and, I might add, in their minds more than in their hearts.
The gap was short, and that was enough:
True, on the surface Israel allowed no foreign worship in Joshua's time. In his days, and in the days of the elders who outlived him, Israel mostly served the Lord. But with the next generation decline became obvious. They had not seen the great works of the Lord, and the short time that had passed was plenty for forgetfulness. "Out of sight" soon became "out of mind."
One writer sees the same pattern in the church after the apostles were gone:
All the days of Joshua and of the elders that outlived him, Israel walked before Jehovah. It is the history of the assembly. While the apostles were there, it was preserved. But Paul (Acts 20:29) and Peter (2 Peter 2) both warned the saints that unfaithfulness and rebellion would sadly follow once they were gone. These evil principles were already there.
- Given — the land was theirs by God's own gift, and He marked out every border. "There is nothing uncertain in God's arrangements."
- Handed over — when Joshua sent them away, the job of keeping that inheritance by obedience passed to the people themselves.
- Individual — every man went to his portion. God still gives each believer "a definite place and definite duties," and each must act in keeping with it.
- Unfinished — they went out to take possession, yet "not one tribe drove out all the enemies of God from His inheritance."
- Forgotten — truth held second-hand did not survive one generation. The short gap "was plenty for forgetfulness."
And the people served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders whose days were prolonged after Joshua, who had seen all the great works of Jehovah, which he had done for Israel.
This one line covers a whole generation. It reads like a high point, yet it opens a book about collapse — so what was holding Israel steady?
This picture of faithfulness opens a book that records the opposite. One writer reads the verse as a peak already tipping over:
But man always fails when he receives blessing that carries responsibility, even in the best circumstances. Israel was no exception to the rule — it was the clearest example of it. No sooner had their blessing reached its highest point than it began to ebb.
The verse ties Israel's loyalty to the lifespan of particular men. Remove the men and the loyalty goes with them:
Joshua stands for two things: the energy of the Spirit of God making Christ our leader, and the man of faith who takes hold for God in living faith. The elders and Joshua, who knew God and followed Him, held the whole nation together as long as they lived. It is a mercy when God has such people to keep His saints loyal.
The verse does not just call the elders old. It says they had seen the great work the Lord did for Israel. The generation that followed had not:
Then a second generation came in. They had not seen the works of the Lord. They had received the truths from the elders second-hand. The truths had not come straight down to them from God. They had learned them in an indirect way — and, I might add, in an intellectual way rather than in their hearts. These truths sit on your bookshelf, and you can buy them for a few pennies. But it is one thing to pay for something out of your pocket, and another to pay for it out of your soul.
Those years were hard, and the hardship is what made the men:
Times of stress and dangerous circumstances build spiritual muscle. Joshua and the elders with him were developed that way. It was a hard school, but it had ample compensations. You cannot jump into a history with God. You do not discover a good general on the parade ground or in a mock battle. You find him in the hard campaign, when the fate of empires hangs on one battle.
"Served the Lord" is real praise. But one writer asks how deep it went:
Idolatry had clearly never been fully rooted out among the children of Israel. True, Israel tolerated no foreign worship on the surface in Joshua's time. In his days and the days of the elders who outlived him, the people generally served the Lord. But with the next generation the decline became obvious. They had not seen the great works of the Lord, and the short time that had passed was enough for forgetfulness. "Out of sight" was quickly "out of mind."
If one generation knew the works of the Lord and the next did not, something failed in between. One writer places that failure in the home. God had given parents the job of telling the story:
Fathers and mothers clearly carried the responsibility of passing on to their children the great events of Israel's history and the Lord's blessings to them. So if a generation arose that did not know the Lord or His works, that implies a lapse in their teaching... because they did not know the Lord, and because they did not know His works, it was very easy for them to give up. They had nothing to hold onto.
These verses repeat the close of the book of Joshua. One writer sees the same sequence again in the early church:
Judges 2:6-9 repeats Joshua 24:26-31, tying this history of decline closely to the people's story before their fall. Elders outlived Joshua to help and encourage the people, just as the church had apostles. But in the apostles' days, as in the elders' days, principles that destroy the church were already at work.
- Seen — The elders had watched God act for Israel. That memory was the root of their service.
- Served — What they saw produced obedience. But it was firm on the surface, while idolatry was never fully rooted out.
- Second-hand — The next generation got the same truths from others, not from God. Truth sat in the head, not the heart.
- Silence — God gave parents the job of telling the children what He had done. Where that telling lapsed, the children had nothing to hold onto.
- Same again — The same pattern returned after the apostles. So this verse is not just old history. It warns every second generation.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, a hundred and ten years old.
Judges 2:8 is one line of obituary: the man who led Israel into the land dies. The whole book that follows is the aftermath, and it asks what every generation asks — what happens to faith when the people who carried it are gone?
Joshua is not named here by his office or his victories, but by his relationship to God. Scripture gives that title to others too:
Scripture often uses the word "servant" for people God commissions to carry out some special duty for Him. Among others, it uses the word of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Job, and even of the first great head of Gentile rule, Nebuchadnezzar (Gen. 26:24; Num. 12:7; Judges 2:8; 2 Sam. 7:8; Job 1:8; Jer. 25:9; Jer. 43:10). God called each of these men to serve Him in a particular way.
Behind the title lay a life. One writer explains what made Joshua able to take the land:
Joshua was a man who lived in the holy presence of God. God had taken complete possession of his soul. So it was a simple thing for him to take possession of what was his. Let God capture my soul and I will want to capture everything for Him.
Joshua's effect on Israel did not outlast the people who had watched him:
Joshua dies, and his influence lasts only to the end of his own generation — a significant limit. They bury the bones of Joseph their father at Shechem. Last of all, Eleazar dies. These three graves are a sign that the Great Deliverer has not yet come. The pictures are only the shadow, not the substance, yet faith sees them pointing on to it. Thank God, for us the Deliverer has come, though the full deliverance has not come yet.
The change did not begin with open rebellion. Faith held second-hand is not the same as faith received from God:
The second generation of any movement is a time of failure. Israel under Joshua and the elders was faithful, outwardly at least, and living in the fear of God. Then a second generation came in. They had not seen the works of the Lord. They had got the truths from the elders second-hand. Those truths had not come straight down to them from God. They had learned them in an indirect way and, I might add, with the mind rather than the heart.
Why did this happen? Commentators point to a failure of the parents, not only of the children:
But Joshua died at 110, and the older generation of Israel died with him. Another generation followed who did not follow the faith of their fathers, and did not know the Lord or the work He had done for Israel. Much of this may have come from Israel's failure to obey God's Word to teach their children carefully (Deut. 31:10-13). Israel soon began to fall apart. In the same way, the Church soon left the truth it was built on, and very sad, disastrous results have followed (Acts 20:29-30; 2 Tim. 2:16-21).
One detail is easy to miss. Commentators point to the name of Joshua's inheritance:
Here the name of Joshua's inheritance changes in a significant way, from Timnath-serah to Timnath-heres. One word is simply the other with its letters reversed. But the change of meaning is striking, if with Fuerst and others we take the second to mean not "sun," but "clay." An "abundant portion" becomes a "portion of clay." … And has the Church in its decline not lost sight of the heavenly portion, turning it, as it were, into mere earthliness?
Commentators differ here: some read heres as "clay," others as "sun."
These few verses are not a stray note of history. They set the pattern the rest of Judges will repeat:
Judges 2:6-9 repeats Joshua 24:26-31. It ties this story of decline closely to the story of the people before their fall. Elders outlived Joshua and were there to help and encourage the people, just as the church had apostles… This passage gives us a summary of the whole book of Judges. Worldliness and idolatry follow one after the other. However far our hearts go after the world, that is how far they turn away from God. From there to forsaking the Lord and following idols is only one step.
- Servant — Joshua's lasting title is not conqueror but servant of the LORD. Scripture gives that name to people God commissions for a special work.
- Soul — His public strength came from a private reality. God owned his soul, so taking the land for God was a simple thing.
- Limit — His influence reached as far as his own generation and no further. His grave is a sign that the true Deliverer had not yet come.
- Second-hand — The next generation held in the head what their fathers held in the heart. Truth learned second-hand could not hold them.
- Mirror — An "abundant portion" became a "portion of clay." Hearts that drift toward the world are one step from forsaking God.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-Heres, in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the mountain of Gaash.
Judges tells of Joshua's burial a second time. The book of Joshua has already recorded it. Here it marks the hinge: a faithful generation ends, and a forgetful one begins. The details are small: a plot of ground, a renamed town, a nearby hill. Commentators find in each a picture of what Israel was about to lose.
Joshua lies in ground he had asked for himself. He took his share last, after every tribe had theirs.
It is beautifully shown (vv. 49-50) that "according to the word of the LORD they gave him the city that he asked, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, and he rebuilt the city and settled in it." Self-seeking was not in Joshua any more than in Moses. Each had his part in what was given to their leader — the LORD's word, Joshua's request, and Israel's gift: but not until they had finished dividing the land.
In Joshua the town is called Timnath-serah. Here it is Timnath-heres — the same letters in reverse. One writer weighs the two names.
Joshua had entered this inheritance by faith, as the representative of the people of God. So the name is Timnath-serah, "an abundant inheritance." And surely God's portion is an abundant portion. And now when it is a question of the people failing and their departure from God, what is the portion where Joshua's grave is? Timnath-heres, "a portion of clay." The abundance turned into a little handful of earth. That tells us the difference between a living faith and formal profession.
Another writer explains where that second meaning comes from, and asks the same question of the church today.
One word is just the letters of the other in reverse. But the change of meaning is striking, if with Fuerst and others we take the second to mean not "sun" but "clay." An "abundant portion" becomes a "portion of clay."… And has not the Church in its decline lost sight of the heavenly portion and changed it, as it were, into mere earthliness?
The verse gives one landmark: the mountain of Gaash. The name means "shaking" (J. B. Jackson). The writer who traced the clay hears a warning in it.
This meaning comes out all the more in where the portion lies, both in Joshua and here: on the north of the hill Gaash — the mystery side of the "quaking" earth out of which the Lord rose! … That quaking of the earth has its meaning: what can be shaken can be removed. According to the apostle, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens" (Heb. 12:26-27) means the "removal of those things that are shaken."
Joshua's is not the only grave here. Joseph and Eleazar also lie in this ground, and one writer reads the three together.
Joshua dies. His influence lasted only to the end of his generation — a significant limitation. His father Joseph's bones are buried at Shechem. Last of all, Eleazar dies. These three graves are a sign that the Great Deliverer has not yet come. The types are only the shadow, not the substance — though for faith they point on towards it. Thank God, for us the Deliverer has come, although not yet the full deliverance.
Yet the burial place is not where Joshua stays.
He was buried on the border of his inheritance in the hill country of Ephraim. His dust rests there until Jesus raises him from the dead — and Joshua is such a striking picture of Him.
The grave marks the point where borrowed faith ran out.
The people served God as long as they had a man of faith to lead them, but when the time of testing came, it showed what was in their hearts, and they departed. May God make it fresh in our souls. May He keep us from dealing with truth at second hand. May He make it a living reality to us.
Commentators differ on why it faded so fast. One blames neglect at home: "Israel's negligence in obeying God's Word to diligently teach their children" (Leslie M. Grant). Another points to distance from the events: "They had not seen the great works of the Lord, and the short time that had passed was ample for forgetfulness" (Numerical Bible Notes).
- Portion asked for. Joshua's city came three ways: God's word, his own asking, Israel's gift. He took it only after every tribe had theirs.
- Portion abundant. Timnath-serah means "an abundant inheritance," the fitting name for ground entered by faith.
- Portion of clay. As the nation slides, the name flips to Timnath-heres — "a portion of clay." Abundance shrunk to a handful of earth.
- Portion shaken. The grave lies by Gaash, "shaking" — and what can be shaken is what will be removed.
- Portion kept. His dust rests there until Jesus raises him. Joshua's grave waited for the Great Deliverer — and He has come.
And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not Jehovah, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
One generation buried Joshua; the next did not know the God who had brought them into the land. This verse is the hinge of the whole book. It explains how a people fresh from victory fell into idol worship within one lifetime. It raises a hard question: how does faith pass from parents to children?
One writer treats these two missing things as the opening for everything that followed.
Two things describe the low estate of the generation that arose after Joshua. "They did not know the LORD, or the work that He had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). Where personal knowledge of Christ and of the value of His work is missing, the floodgates open to a flood of evil. This was the case with Israel: "They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth" (Judges 2:13).
Another writer points back to Egypt, where the same forgetting had already happened once.
It is true that Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived him. Those elders had known all the works the LORD had done for Israel. But that generation were gathered to their fathers. We read that "there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph." He forgot all the kindness the LORD had shown His nation through Joseph, and turned into the enemy of Joseph's brothers. In the same way, another generation has now risen in Israel. With a hard, Egyptian heart they did not know the LORD who had visited and redeemed their fathers.
While Joshua and the elders lived, the nation held. Their deaths exposed what had been holding it.
As long as Joshua and the elders lived, their presence and influence kept Israel from openly abandoning God. But once those moral embankments were gone, the dark tide of idolatry rolled in. It swept away the very foundations of the national faith. Baal and Ashtaroth took the place of the LORD of Israel. Human influence is a poor prop, a feeble barrier. The power of God must hold us up, or sooner or later we shall give way.
In Israel, teaching this history to the children was the parents' job.
Fathers and mothers clearly carried the job of passing on to their children the great events in Israel's history and the Lord's blessings to them. So if a generation arose that did not know the Lord or His works, it points to a lapse in the teaching of the fathers and mothers. Because they did not know the Lord, and did not know His works, it was very easy for them to give up. They had nothing to hold on to. They held the position, but had no living concern about it. And it is so easy to give up something we are not concerned about.
The truth still reached the children, but by a different route.
A second generation came in — people who had not seen the works of the Lord, who had got the truths from the elders at second hand. They had not come right down to them from God, but they had learned them in an indirect way, and I might add, in an intellectual way, rather than in their hearts.
Ridout turns the history into a question for the reader.
The elders have gone, and we have risen in the place of our fathers. I ask you, and I ask myself: has it been only something handed down to us from faithful men, or have we dealt with God ourselves about these things? Is it between us and God? Have we been alone with Him about them?
Not knowing God led to serving other gods, and serving other gods cost them their safety.
But then another generation arises in Israel. They have not known the LORD, and have not seen all the great works of His hand. They serve the gods of the peoples whom Israel had spared. So God no longer protects them. Unfaithful within, the Israelites fall into the hands of the enemy without. Then, in their affliction, the LORD was moved with compassion and raised up judges. They acknowledged His name, and brought back the display of His power among them.
One writer sees the same collapse repeated in the Church's own history.
Israel soon began to fall apart. In the same way, the Church very soon after its beginning turned away from the truth it was founded on, and most sad, disastrous results have followed (Acts 20:29-30; 2 Timothy 2:16-21).
- Knowing — the collapse starts with two blanks: no personal knowledge of the Lord, and none of His work. The rest of Judges flows from that gap.
- Telling — the history was the parents' to hand on. Where that teaching lapsed, the children kept the position but had nothing to hold on to.
- Propping — Joshua and the elders were embankments, not foundations. Faith that rests on human influence gives way as soon as those people die.
- Inheriting — truth received at second hand sits in the head, not the heart. The honest test is whether you have been alone with God about what you believe.
- Losing — a generation that forgets God ends up serving the gods around it, and loses His protection. Even then, God in compassion raised up judges to deliver them.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baals.
This verse opens the long, sad cycle of the book of Judges. It raises the question the whole book answers: how did a people who had seen God's works end up serving the gods of their neighbours?
The words used here are not a one-off. They become the drumbeat of the whole book.
From chapter 2:6 to 3:4 we have the history of the whole period of the Judges outlined. It first mentions their obedience and service, how they began in the Spirit. The second generation, as always, leads to failure. For the first time we read the words that appear in six other places in this book: "And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD." They forsook Him — the loving, gracious Jehovah, whose kindness and tender mercies their own past history shows so fully. Instead of serving such a God, they served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Commentators count the repetitions differently — six further places, or eight — but the point they draw is the same, and one writer traces what the refrain always costs.
In the book of Judges eight times we are given the key to all their trouble, repeated like a bitter wail again and again: "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord." The result was not merely one battle with the enemy and one defeat, but the most terrible oppression, persecution, and misery extending at times over long periods of years, and only ended by the raising up of some one individual who judged Israel.
The verse before this one says a generation arose that did not know the Lord. One writer sees that missing knowledge as the gap through which every other evil poured in.
Two things describe the low state of the generation that arose after Joshua: "They did not know the Lord, or the works He had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). Where a personal knowledge of Christ and of the value of His work is missing, the floodgates stand open to a flood of evil. This was the case with Israel: "They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth."
One writer traces the gap back a step further. The parents had a job to do.
The job of passing on to the children the great events in Israel's history, and the Lord's blessings to them, lay very definitely on the shoulders of the fathers and mothers. So if a generation arose that did not know the Lord or His works, it implies there was a lapse in the teaching of the fathers and mothers... They were in a position, but had no living concern connected with it, and it is so easy to give up something we are not concerned about.
The word itself is not exotic. It is an everyday word about ownership and marriage.
Baal means "husband" and "lord," with the primary idea of ownership... Yet the word is not necessarily bad either. In the sense of "husband," God uses it of His own relation to the people: "your Maker is your baal"; "though I was a baal to them" (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:32). Still, God finally rejects the word. Through Hosea He says, "You shall call Me Ishi [my husband], and you shall no more call Me Baali: for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth."
The name in Hebrew is plural. One writer says that detail matters.
Judges 2:11; 3:7; 8:33; 10:6, 10 should be rendered "the Baalim" — not one, but many male gods... The definite article, when it is used, brings out how great their guilt was: they forsook the one God to serve the many, the true God for the false ones.
Serving the Baals was not simply swapping one god for another. One writer finds a grain of real truth buried in the name itself.
Here we are told that the people served Baalim. That means "Lords." And God's Lordship and ownership is a truth; God does own mankind. He is God over them. But look how many gods and lords men have set over themselves! Each has some element of divine truth in it — but only an element. What is it to depart from God and serve Baalim? It means setting aside a single attribute of God and putting some human attribute in its place.
God answered this evil with His hand — and with His pity.
Because of this unfaithfulness and disobedience, the hand of Jehovah fell heavily on them again and again, just as He had warned them through Moses. The neighbouring nations whose idols they served plundered them and made them slaves. When they groaned under their punishment, the Lord had pity on them. He raised up judges who rescued them from their enemies. But they never stopped their own practices or their stubborn way.
- Forgotten. A generation arose that did not know the Lord or His works. Where personal knowledge of Christ and His work is missing, the floodgates open.
- Forsaken. They forsook the loving, gracious God of their own history. One writer blames parents who never passed that history on.
- Served. "Baal" means husband, lord, owner. God once used it of Himself, then finally refused the name through Hosea.
- Multiplied. The plural "the Baalim" is the measure of the guilt: the one true God traded for many false ones.
- Sold, then spared. Idolatry brought slavery under the very nations whose idols they served. God pitied their groaning and raised up judges. Still they never gave up their stubborn way.
And they forsook Jehovah the God of their fathers, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked Jehovah to anger.
Joshua's generation was gone, and with it the memory of what God had done. This verse shows a rescued nation trading its Rescuer for the gods of its neighbours, and why that provoked God's anger.
The failure did not begin with idols. It began with a gap in knowledge.
Two things describe the low state of the generation that arose after Joshua. "They did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). Where a personal knowledge of Christ and of the value of His work is missing, the floodgates are open to a flood of evil. This was the case with Israel: "They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth" (Judges 2:13).
The drift had stages. One writer traces them step by step through the chapter.
First, then, we have relaxation. In Judges 2:2 we discover negligence and disobedience. One thing leads to another. If we have no energy to keep learning more of the Lord, and we neglect His word and will, direct disobedience may soon follow. Then in verse 10 is a further step — forgetfulness of what the Lord had done for Israel.
They did not simply add new gods. They left the One who had brought them out of Egypt, and one writer shows what made room for that.
As the Israelites became more self-satisfied and complacent, the Lord lost His place altogether. The next step was idolatry (verses 11-13). They forsook the Lord. They lost the sense of the grace that had delivered and blessed them. So they followed what one might call the craze of the day.
Israel took their gods from the nations around them. One writer names the step that comes before idolatry.
In whatever measure our hearts go after the world, they turn away from God. From there to forsaking the Lord and following idols is only one step. If we keep company with the world, its treasured objects take hold of our hearts and rob Christ of His place.
One commentator explains what the word "Baal" meant, and why such a god appeals.
They began their descent by serving the Baals (v. 11). This word means "lords." Many people today talk about "the Lord" while not meaning the Lord Jesus at all. For "there are many 'gods' and many 'lords'" (1 Cor. 8:5). People often prefer a substitute that will not try their consciences.
Why swap a God of proven power for the idols of neighbouring nations? One writer traces the choice to desire.
They did not have to invent God. What they invented was the god they wanted. And that god was one like themselves — a being who could sympathise with the lusts and passions of a corrupt nature.
Bowing down to those gods brought a response that fitted the crime.
Such turning away had to bring down the anger of God. He handed Israel over to the very nations whose gods they were adopting. Those cruel enemies gained the upper hand over them (v. 14). They had to learn where their own folly led under God's government. And they had to learn that God meant what He said when He warned them of disaster for their disobedience (v. 15).
This chapter is more than ancient history. One writer says it shows readers today their own faces.
As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects man. And so Israel's history, in its main features, matches the history of the present age. This is what makes the book of Judges so important for us. We have here, as in a mirror, our own faces spiritually: a photograph of divine light that will not flatter.
- Forgetting — the collapse starts when a generation no longer knows the Lord or values what He has done. With that knowledge gone, the floodgates open.
- Slackening — the slide has an order. First relaxation, then neglect of His word, then open disobedience, then forgetting what He had done.
- Forsaking — the sense of rescuing grace faded. The world next door won their hearts, and idols were one step away.
- Substituting — the "lords" they chose were gods made to their own taste. Such gods sympathise with human desire and never trouble the conscience.
- Reaping — God handed them over to the very nations whose gods they had adopted. The consequence taught what the warning had not.
And they forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
A whole generation walked away from the Lord and served the two chief gods of Canaan. This verse names them. What Baal and Ashtaroth stood for explains how the fall happened, and how fast.
Where did this collapse start? One writer traces it to the generation that grew up after Joshua.
Two things describe the low state of the generation that grew up after Joshua. "They did not know the Lord, or the works He had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). Where a personal knowledge of Christ and of the value of His work is lacking, the floodgates open to a rising tide of evil. This was the case with Israel: "They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth" (Judges 2:13).
The name itself was not always an insult. It carries the idea of ownership, and God once used it of His own bond with His people.
Baal means "husband" and "lord," with the main idea of ownership… Yet the word is not bad in itself. In the sense of "husband," God uses it of His own relation to the people: "your Maker is your baal;" "though I was a baal to them." (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:32.) Still, God rejects the word in the end. Through Hosea He says, "You shall call me Ishi [my husband], and you shall no more call me Baali: for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth."
Both names are plural in these chapters, and the plural is part of the charge.
Judges 2:11, Judges 3:7, Judges 8:33, Judges 10:6, 10, should read "the Baalim" — not one, but many male gods. In Judges 3:7 "the Asheroth," translated "the groves," really means the goddesses, and Judges 10:6 has "the Ashtaroth." When the text uses "the," it brings out how great their guilt was. They left the one God to serve the many, the true God for the false ones.
The verse names a goddess beside Baal. Who was she, and what was her worship like?
Ashtaroth was the chief deity worshipped by the Phoenicians and Sidonians. Scripture often names her alongside Baal (see Judges 2:13; 10:6), and people likely counted her as his female partner… "Her worship," The Biblical and Theological Dictionary says, "in time became the most impure and revolting worship anyone can imagine. People held it in shady groves that were famous for scenes of debauchery."
Read together, the two names show what the human heart wants.
Baal stands for the power that comes with owning something, with no thought of how the owner may use it. Ashtoreth speaks of fruitfulness in the natural sense… Man seeks power. He wants things in his hand, with no question of how he will use them — power without responsibility. Underneath, "the lusts that war in his members" hold him as a poor slave to their will. Baal and Ashtoreth are twin worships that match each other. Both mean independence from God, and together they mean bondage to self.
This was no neutral swap of one religion for another.
They abandoned Him — the loving, gracious Jehovah, whose kindness and tender mercies their own past history shows so clearly. Instead of serving such a God, they served Baal and Ashtaroth. This Canaanite "religion" came with the vilest immoralities, and these dragged Israel down to the level of these doomed nations. All moral corruption, and all social and political confusion, comes from turning away from God.
The same pull works today, and it shows up in the words people use.
They began their descent by serving the Baals (v. 11). This word means "lords." Today many people talk about "the Lord" and do not mean the Lord Jesus at all… People usually prefer a substitute that will not test their consciences.
- Forgetting — It starts with a generation that did not know the Lord or the works He had done. Where that knowledge is missing, evil floods in.
- Forsaking — The exchange shows the size of the guilt: the one God swapped for many, the true God for the false ones.
- Following — Baal spoke of ownership and power, Ashtaroth of fruitfulness. Together they mean independence from God that ends in slavery to self.
- Falling — Canaanite worship carried the vilest immoralities with it, and the people sank to the level of these doomed nations.
- Fooled — People still prefer a lord that will not test their consciences, and many say "the Lord" without meaning the Lord Jesus.
And the anger of Jehovah was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about; and they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
Just before this verse, a new generation grows up that does not know the Lord. It turns to Baal and Ashtaroth. Verse 14 gives the result: God's anger burns, and He sells His own people to the enemies around them.
Read against the whole story of the exodus and the conquest, this collapse follows a pattern that repeats through Scripture.
In Judges 2 they are found in complete failure, and as a result God says, "I will not drive out your enemies from before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides." It is always the same picture — kindness on the part of God, ingratitude on the part of man.
The anger in verse 14 has a history. It begins with what the generation after Joshua did not know.
Two things describe the low state of the generation that arose after Joshua. "They did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). Where people lack a personal knowledge of Christ and of the value of His work, the floodgates open to a flood of evil. This was the case with Israel: "They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth" (Judges 2:13). Then the anger of the Lord burned against the people. He sold them into the hands of the enemies around them, who plundered them. And He left the enemy within to be a thorn in their sides.
Notice how closely the discipline matches the sin.
If the children of Israel would abandon Jehovah to serve idols, then Jehovah gives them up to serve idolaters. It is so with us. If we sin, that sin measures and defines our chastening. And so grace works repentance in us, when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
Another writer describes it less as God striking, and more as God stepping back.
If we lose the sense of God's authority over our souls, then He must give us over to the authority of what we have chased after. That result follows of necessity. How significant that is. It shows us — and it is very touching to see — that our Blessed God does not delight in judgment, that He does not delight in chastening. He simply, as it were, permits His people to reap the result of their own folly. It is as though He said, "You see, I am not inflicting this chastisement. I am not bringing evil on you. I am only showing you the result of your own evil."
The word "sold" is severe. So what does it say about God's love for Israel?
This time it was more than a temporary check. Israel's humbling was not a passing thing. Jehovah handed them over to their enemies on purpose. It was not that He did not love them. It was not that He would not work all things for good. But He had to bring the people to face the truth of their state, before He would show Himself to them in the truth of His own grace.
Israel "could no longer withstand their enemies" — and that inability had a cause. The same holds for anyone who belongs to God.
It is the same sad old story that we have seen so often. The people fail and sin, and as a result they are sold into the hands of their enemies. God never allows the enemy to gain power over us, unless it is a judicial result of our own failure. He never lets us fall under the power of evil, unless the soul has first turned away from Himself. God keeps even the weakest and least taught believer safe from the schemes and power of the enemy, as long as the heart is true and loyal to Christ.
This verse sets the rhythm for the rest of the book. It also shows where the judges come from.
The people depart from Him; they have set up idols of their own, the gods of the heathen around them. Then God gives them over to the enemy to come in like a flood and take possession. Then the people cry out for mercy under the terrible rule of their enemies. In His mercy God raises up judges to deliver them. That is how the judges come in. First comes decline, then bondage, then a cry for help.
- Forgetting — it starts with a generation that did not know the Lord or His works. Where that knowledge is missing, evil floods in.
- Forsaking — Israel left the Lord to serve Baal and Ashtaroth. The anger in verse 14 answers that choice.
- Selling — the discipline fits the sin. God gives those who choose idols over to serve idolaters.
- Suffering — the enemy gains ground only where the heart has already drifted. A heart loyal to Christ stays safe, however weak.
- Sparing — God did not stop loving them. He made them face their real state, so that He could answer their cry with a deliverer.
Whithersoever they went out the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as Jehovah had said, and as Jehovah had sworn unto them; and they were greatly distressed.
Israel had turned to other gods, and this verse shows the result: the God who once fought for them now stood against them. Why would God turn on the people He had redeemed, and does such distress leave any hope?
Israel's defeats were not bad luck or bad odds. God's own hand was behind them, and love was behind His hand.
This was not just a halt in their progress. It was not a passing humiliation for Israel. The LORD gave them up into the hands of their enemies on purpose. Not because He did not love them. Not because He would not work all things for good. He did it because He had to bring the people to face the truth of their own state before He would show Himself in the truth of His own grace.
Twice the verse points back to God's own word: He had said this would happen, and He had sworn it. What He says, He does.
And just as surely as in Israel's history here, the Lord's chastening hand has had to rest on His people. Raiders had plundered them, and they could no longer stand before their enemies. For us too this is "as the LORD had warned — yes, as the LORD had sworn." Nor is He "man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind."
That word was not new. God gave it through Moses, and it named what disobedience would cost.
Because of this unfaithfulness and disobedience, the LORD laid His hand heavily on them again and again. He had warned them of this through Moses (Lev. 26; Deut. 28). The neighbouring nations whose idols they served plundered them and made them slaves.
Look at who defeated them: the very nations whose gods they had chosen. Chastening cut to this shape has an aim beyond the pain.
If the children of Israel would abandon the LORD to serve idols, they are themselves given up by the LORD to serve idolaters. It is the same with us. If we sin, this measures and defines our chastisement; and so grace works repentance when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
Belonging to God was no shield from His hand. It was the reason His hand came down, and it works the same way with His children now.
But just because I am His child, God will chasten me here on earth if I turn away from Him. Old Bishop Fuller tells of seeing two boys fighting. A man came out of a nearby house, seized one of the boys — the one least to blame — and gave him a sound beating. The Bishop asked why he did not beat the boy who was most at fault. "Oh," he said, "this is my son, and I chastise him. I have nothing to do with the other." In the New Testament, though grace is the leading thing, there is government too, as in the Old. "If we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world" (1 Cor. 11:31-32).
The verse ends at the bottom: they were in terrible distress. But the story does not end there. The turn comes from who God is, not from any change in Israel.
This is truly a gloomy and humiliating record… But thank God, there is another side to the picture. There is what we may call a bright and beautiful "Nevertheless," for God will be God, no matter what man proves himself to be. This is an unspeakable relief and comfort to the heart. God remains faithful. Here is faith's stronghold, whatever comes.
Their groaning under the oppressor was what moved Him.
The God who judges is also the God who has compassion. Israel groans under the oppressor; then the Lord looks on this people for whom He had done such great things, and raises up deliverers for them.
- Given up. Their defeats were not misfortune. God handed them over on purpose. They had to face the truth of their state before He showed the truth of His grace.
- Sworn. The disaster matched a word already spoken through Moses. His warnings hold, because He does not lie or change His mind.
- Measured. They served idols, so God gave them up to serve idolaters. Sin defines the shape of the chastening that follows it.
- His own. God's hand falls on His children because they are His — as a father corrects his own son and no one else's.
- Nevertheless. Distress is where the story turns. The God who judges is the God who has compassion, and He hears the groaning of the people He gave up.
And Jehovah raised up judges, and they saved them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
Israel had turned from the Lord, raiders had stripped them bare, and they had no claim left on His help. Then God acted anyway, and everything in the book of Judges flows from that reversal: who these judges were, why God gave them, and why their relief never lasted.
Older translations open this verse with "Nevertheless" where the ESV has "Then." One writer weighs that word against everything the chapter has just said about the people:
Israel had failed — sadly, shamefully, inexcusably failed. They had forfeited all claim to the protection of Jehovah's shield. They were justly handed over into the ruthless hands of the kings of Canaan. About all this there could be no question. "Nevertheless" Jehovah's heart could still feel for His poor, oppressed, groaning Israel. True, they had proved themselves wayward and unworthy. Yet His ear was always ready to catch their very earliest groan. We are even told, in Judges 10, that "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel."
(The ESV renders that line in Judges 10:16 as "he became impatient over the misery of Israel.")
The title does not mean a courtroom official. It covers both the rescue and the rule that followed it:
The way God delivered them — by judges who judge the people for God — matches, of course, the root of the evil to be met. "The judges," says Keil, "were men who obtained justice, or right, for the people of Israel. They did this not only by delivering them out of the power of their foes, but also by administering the laws and rights of the Lord (chap. 2:16-19). Judging in this sense was different from the administration of civil law, and included the idea of government such as would be expected from a king."
Verse 16 is one stage in a sequence that runs through the whole book. One writer traces the steps, and why each recovery had to be repeated:
The people depart from Him, and set up idols of their own, the gods of the nations around them. Then God hands them over to the enemy, who comes in like a flood and takes possession. Then the people cry out for mercy under the terrible rule of their enemies. God in His mercy raises up judges to deliver them. First there is decline; second, bondage; third, a cry for help. God raises up a deliverer for the time being. That deliverer restores them for a while, only for them to fall again into the same evil. God does not raise up another Joshua. He does not restore what has been broken to pieces. He raises up a judge for a specific purpose. When the judge has done his special work and dies, the heart of the people slips off into evil. They need another deliverer, another recovery through another judge, but weaker and weaker, until it is almost total darkness.
God's answer never came to a people still comfortable in their sin. One writer marks what had to come first:
The Lord then acted on behalf of His backslidden people and raised up judges (verses 16-18). The result was recovery. Once more, under these revivals, the people rejoiced in victory over their enemies and in the promised covenant blessings. Self-judgment, which is true repentance, had to come before each revival. They cried to the Lord; they sought His face, and then deliverance came. It is the same in the individual experience of the children of God.
"The LORD raised up" puts the weight on God, not on the rescuer. One writer notes both God's motive and the kind of person He picks:
He was grieved by the afflictions of His people. He judged their sin and evil; yet at the same time He pitied and saved. But the people He worked through were always insignificant in themselves. We do not find revivals beginning at the top. Generally, any recovery from the doctrines and traditions of men has come through some obscure individual, raised up in the energy of the Spirit.
Every judge died and every deliverance ran out. So the book points beyond its own heroes:
In Judges, God speaks to us by contrast. Out of the very eater — Satan, who is overcome — He brings us food, even Christ. We are shown that every bondage of God's people comes through sin, which turns them away from Christ. And every matching deliverance comes through leaders who, despite all their failures, clearly resemble the one great Deliverer who alone can set His people free.
- Nevertheless. Israel had forfeited every claim to protection. Yet God's ear was ready to catch their earliest groan. The verse turns on grace, not on merit.
- Cry. True repentance came before each recovery. They cried, they sought His face, and then deliverance came.
- Gift. The judge was God's remedy. God raised him up to rescue the people, then to govern them by the Lord's laws and rights.
- Obscurity. The people God used had no standing of their own. Revival does not start at the top. It starts with some unknown person moved by the Spirit.
- Limit. Each deliverance lasted only for a time, and then they fell back. So every judge points to the one Deliverer who alone can set His people free.
But they did not even hearken to their judges, for they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves to them; they turned quickly out of the way that their fathers had walked in, obeying the commandments of Jehovah; they did not so.
Judges 2 is the whole book of Judges in miniature. God keeps raising up judges to rescue Israel, and Israel keeps drifting back. Verse 17 is the hinge. Israel took the rescue but refused the rescuer's authority. Almost as soon as they inherited their parents' path, they left it.
The verse draws a line between being glad of deliverance and being willing to obey:
Yet God graciously stepped in at such times to raise up judges whom He used to set Israel free. But while they were glad of their deliverance, they would not honour the judges. Honouring them meant submitting to the Word of God which the judges gave them. Instead they turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked.
Read one way, the verse is a record of failure. Read another way, it exposes what God kept doing anyway.
Their unfaithfulness brought misery on them. That misery moved God to compassion. His mighty grace raised up deliverers by His Spirit among the fallen and wretched people... But Israel was unchanged. "Yet they did not listen to their judges." ... This is the sorrowful history of the people of God. It is also the history of the grace of God, and of His compassions towards His people.
"Whored after other gods" sounds like a sudden collapse. But chapter 1 had already shown Israel's decline in their dealings with the world. One writer measures the short step from the one to the other, and turns it on us:
The close of chapter 1 gave us Israel's decline in their connection with the world. The verses we have just read show the same decline in relation to God. We have a summary of the whole book of Judges in this passage. Worldliness and idolatry follow one another. However far our hearts go after the world, that far they turn away from God. From there, forsaking the Lord to follow idols is only a step... If we keep company with the world, the things it treasures take hold of our hearts, robbing Christ of His place.
The verse says they turned aside "soon." A generation that inherits ground it never fought for lets it go:
The first generation had to break out of their natural surroundings at the call of God. They were willing to follow Him in suffering and self-denial. Then their children came into the inheritance their fathers had won for them. But they had never been through what their fathers went through. Nature attracts them to the path by force of habit. They accept easily and easily can let go. They don't know the joy of sacrifice. They don't have the vigour gained by painful work.
Not listening does not stay where it is. After each judge died, Israel sank further.
From time to time the Lord raised up judges. In the same mercy the Lord still raises up faithful men from time to time, to stem the tide and help His people... But verse 19 of our second chapter of Judges shows the continued drift. The judges passed, and then they resumed the downward course. "They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways." That is a terrible stage. No appeal reached them.
Nations were still living in the land alongside Israel. God gave that a purpose that echoes verse 17's words about the fathers' way:
God had one answer, and it was worthy of Him. In His grace He makes use of the very unfaithfulness and its consequences to bless the people. God did not leave these nations only to discipline Israel. He also wanted "to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did." In short, would they separate from evil?
- Rescue. God kept raising up judges. His people's misery kept moving Him to compassion. The failure in this verse is never on His side.
- Refusal. Israel welcomed the rescue but would not submit to the Word the rescuer brought. Being glad is not the same as obeying.
- Root. Keeping company with the world comes first. Bowing to its gods is only one step further. What the world treasures takes hold of the heart and robs Christ of His place.
- Rapidity. They turned aside "soon" because they inherited a path their fathers had paid for. What costs nothing to receive costs nothing to drop.
- Retest. God left the nations in place to ask one question. Will you walk in the way of the LORD as your fathers did?
And when Jehovah raised them up judges, then Jehovah was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it repented Jehovah because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and crushed them.
Judges 2:18 sits inside the summary of the whole book: a nation that keeps failing, and a God who keeps rescuing. The verse holds three things together. God raises up a judge. God stands with that judge. And God feels the pain of His people.
Verse 18 follows a verdict. Israel had no right left to expect help. That is what makes the rescue so striking.
Israel had failed — sadly, shamefully, and with no excuse. They had lost every claim to the protection of Jehovah's shield. He was right to hand them over to the cruel kings of Canaan. None of this can be questioned. "Nevertheless" Jehovah's heart could still feel for His poor, oppressed, groaning Israel. True, they had proved themselves wicked and unworthy. Yet His ear was always ready to catch their very first groan.
The same God is doing both things at once in this chapter. He is the one who sold them into the hands of their enemies, and He is the one who now hears them.
But the God who judges is also the God who has compassion (Judges 2:18). Israel groans under the oppressor; then the Lord looks on this people for whom He had done such great things, and raises up deliverers for them. Such is the history which we shall see unfolded in the book of Judges, and of which we have here the summary.
An older translation reads "it repented the LORD because of their groanings." One writer explains why the Old Testament can speak of God this way, and where such language stops.
Expressions like this, used of God in the Old Testament, are never found about Him in the New. With man in the flesh before Him in the Old Testament, we can understand such a term being used of God. Man's wickedness drew out the statement from the Spirit that God repented He had made him on the earth. His people's miseries — while they suffered under His government — drew out the compassion of His heart, and He delivered them: "For it repented the Lord because of their groanings" (Judges 2:18).
What moves Him is their groaning, not any reform on their part.
The office was not simply military. The remedy God chose exposed the nature of the disease.
The Lord's way of deliverance was to raise up judges. It was a simple remedy, yet it worked only up to a point, because the people stubbornly went back to their old sins once the judge had died, if not before. Still, the remedy showed clearly what the disease was: deliverance could only come by revival. That meant judging themselves about their true condition, and returning to the One they had left. The "judge" was not merely a judge between one man and another. Above all he was the leader in the people's repentance and return to God — the representative of Jehovah's law and rule in Israel.
The nation's strength did not produce these deliverers. God gave them.
Their unfaithfulness brought them into misery, and that misery moved the compassion of God. His mighty grace raised up deliverers by His Spirit among the fallen and wretched people… This is the sad history of the people of God. But it is also the history of the grace of God, and of His compassion towards His people.
One writer notices which words the verse does not use.
God granted revivals, but always in the power of individual faith and action. "Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge" — it does not say, then the Lord was with the people!
The help lasts as long as the judge lives, and no longer.
God does not raise up another Joshua. He does not restore what has been broken to pieces. He raises up a judge for one specific purpose. When that judge has done his special work and dies, the heart of the people slips off into evil. They need another deliverer, another recovery through another judge — but weaker and weaker, until it becomes almost total darkness.
One writer sees the same pattern in the church today, and points to a different cure.
So it has been in the professing Church. Revivals have come and gone, but they have not cured the wayward condition. The departure from God and His Word grows more and more marked, until it ends in the final great apostasy. The only complete deliverance can be the coming of the Lord.
- Groaning — Their pain moves God, not their good behaviour. They had lost every claim on His protection. Yet His ear still catches their first groan.
- Raised up — The deliverer is a gift, not an achievement. God's grace raises up judges by His Spirit among a fallen people.
- With the judge — God was with the judge, not with the people. Recovery came through individual faith, not through the crowd.
- All the days — The blessing has a date on it. God sends help into the ruin instead of rebuilding it, and each cycle leaves the nation weaker.
- Until He comes — Judges deliver; they do not cure. The repeating pattern points past every revival to the coming of the Lord.
And it came to pass when the judge died, that they turned back and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
Judges 2:19 is the sentence that sums up the whole book. Every rescue God sent ended when the rescuer died. The people then came back worse than before. It raises a hard question: why does a real work of God so often fail to last?
The verse describes the last stage of a pattern that repeats through the book. One writer lays out the steps:
First there is decline. Then bondage. Then a cry for help. God in His mercy raises up a deliverer for the time being, who restores them for a while. Then they fall back into the same evil.
The verse ties the collapse to a death — "whenever the judge died." One writer points to the wording of the verse before:
Revivals were granted, but always in the power of individual faith and action. "Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge" — it does not say, then the Lord was with the people! — "and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge" (Judges 2:18).
They became more corrupt than their fathers. Each recovery left them lower than the fall did. One writer explains why:
It was so in the book of Judges. It was so at this period too. And it has always been so in the experience of the church. Every revival, when the energy that produced it has died away, has left the people in a lower, a worse state than before. The reason is evident. The need for a revival springs from the fact of increasing corruption and decay. The revival checks the downward drift for a moment. Then the force that fought the evil runs out. At once the corrupt stream sweeps on with greater power and volume.
The verse ends in refusal — they would not give up their old ways. One writer calls this the last stage:
That is a terrible stage. No remonstrance touched them. Think of a man on a completely wrong course, sinning against God and misleading others. It is a serious thing when he stubbornly keeps going. Stubbornness is the last stage in that chapter. It seems a fitting step toward the solemn last verse of the book (Judges 21:25). There Israel openly took up the principle of independence: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." It was the crowning sin in that dreadful book, the climax among God's people, when every man made his own judgment the test of right and wrong.
There is a further sobering observation about what God did not do. Joshua had led the whole nation; no second Joshua was given.
God does not raise up another Joshua. He does not restore what has been broken to pieces. He raises up a judge for one specific purpose. When that judge has done his special work and dies, the heart of the people slips off into evil. They need another deliverer, another recovery through another judge, but weaker and weaker, until it becomes almost total darkness.
Read one way, the verse is a record of human hopelessness. Read another way, it is a record of what God kept doing anyway:
Their unfaithfulness brought them into misery. That misery moved the compassion of God, and His mighty grace raised up deliverers by His Spirit among the fallen and wretched people… But Israel did not change… This is the sorrowful history of the people of God. It is also the history of the grace of God, and of His compassions towards His people.
One writer reads this verse as more than ancient history. He applies it to the church, and names the one remedy that ends the cycle:
Yet despite these revivals in Israel the tendency is downward… So it has been in the professing Church. Revivals have come and gone, but they have not cured the wayward conditions. The departure from God and His Word grows more and more marked, until it reaches the final great apostasy. The only complete deliverance can be the coming of the Lord. The pictures in the book of Judges do not fully show us that.
- Cycle. Decline, bondage, a cry for help, a deliverer, then decline again. This verse is the step that starts the loop over.
- Borrowed. God was with the judge, not with the people. Blessing that rests on one man's faith lasts only as long as that man.
- Worse. A revival checks the stream but does not dry up the source. When its force runs out, the corruption runs stronger than before.
- Stubborn. The key word in the verse is not idolatry but stubbornness. Nothing reached them anymore. The book ends with everyone doing what was right in his own eyes.
- Deliverer. God never rebuilt what was broken. Each recovery came weaker than the last. Only the coming of the Lord Himself brings a full and lasting rescue.
And the anger of Jehovah was hot against Israel; and he said, Because this nation hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and hath not hearkened unto my voice,
God's anger burns against His own people after years of rescue and relapse. The reason He gives is a covenant broken and a voice ignored. Two hard questions follow. How can God be angry with the people He saved? And what happens to the enemies He promised to drive out?
The sin God names is not vague. He points to a covenant already given and a voice already heard. One writer shows where Israel's later oppressors came from. They were not strangers God had planted in the land. They were enemies Israel itself had failed to drive out.
Notice who the enemies were that oppressed Israel from time to time. They were the ones Israel had left alive in the land. Israel left them there because of their own disobedience to God and their lack of confidence in Him. As long as they went on depending on God, no enemy could stand before them. He gave them one victory after another. These enemies stayed in the land entirely because of Israel's unfaithfulness.
The anger in this verse does not fall on a first offence. It follows a pattern. God raises up a rescuer. The rescuer dies. The people sink again — often lower than before.
After every time of deliverance, when the judge died, Israel went back to their low state or even lower than before, serving and bowing down to idols (v. 19). Can we wonder that God's anger was hot against Israel? Israel broke God's covenant. So He declared He would no longer drive out the nations Joshua left when he died (vv. 20-21). Instead, He would use those nations to test Israel (v. 22). The demon worship of these nations should have filled Israel with disgust at such evil, instead of luring them into the same practices. So it was a test, but one that proved Israel rebellious.
God kept every promise; Israel kept none. You might expect God's anger to fall on the idol-worshipping nations in the land. It falls instead on the people who carried His name.
The LORD failed in nothing; Israel failed in everything. Joshua made a covenant with them at his last meeting, and they ignored it, just as they had ignored the covenant of Moses. God raised up judges to restore them and to save them from the hand of their enemies. But each time a judge died, they turned back without gratitude and behaved worse than their fathers. So His anger was kindled against Israel — not against the Amorite or the Canaanite — and He refused to drive out their enemies, leaving those enemies to test His people.
after-note: DELETE
What follows in the chapter is not random misfortune. The punishment takes its shape from the sin. One writer says the same rule holds for us.
If the people of Israel abandon the LORD to serve idols, then the LORD gives them up to serve idol-worshippers. It is the same with us. If we sin, that sin measures and defines our discipline. And so grace works repentance in us when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
Another writer puts this moment in God's own voice.
He has to spread out before us the misery of our failures and our turning away from Him. He tells us that He brought us out of Egypt and into the land. He said He would never forget His covenant, and that He would always be faithful to His people. But He says: you have departed from Me. You have served other gods. Why have you done this? Then He tells them He cannot bless them. He cannot be with them in any real sense while they have departed from Him. He tells them He cannot drive out their enemies from their territory.
The refusal in the next verses is not only punishment. One writer points to a purpose behind it that God had in view before the failure ever happened.
This unfaithfulness, foreseen by God, was the reason why God left some of the nations among His people to prove them. The presence of these nations was itself proof that Israel lacked energy and confidence in the power of God. Yet God would still have kept them from the disasters that followed. But in the wisdom of His purposes, God, who knew His people, left these nations among them as a means of testing them. Israel will be fully blessed only under Messiah. By His might He will bring in their blessing, and by His might He will keep it for them.
- Cause — God names the sin before He names the punishment: a covenant broken, a voice ignored.
- Aim — It burns against Israel, not the Canaanites. God held the people who bore His name to account.
- Shape — The discipline fits the sin. God handed those who chose idols over to idol-worshippers, and the sin itself measures the discipline.
- Consequence — Israel's own disobedience left those enemies standing. While Israel depended on God, no enemy could stand before them.
- Purpose — God foresaw the failure and left the nations as a test. Full blessing waits for Messiah, who will bring it in and keep it.
I also will not henceforth dispossess from before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died;
God's anger here is not a passing mood. It is a verdict on a broken covenant. The sentence is quiet: He stops doing for Israel what they refused to do for themselves. The nations Joshua left behind will now stay. Why would God leave His own people surrounded by the enemies that ruined them?
Israel's collapse was not a one-time slip. God's sentence answers a pattern.
After every time of deliverance, when the judge died, Israel went back to their low state or even lower than before, serving and bowing down to idols (v. 19). Can we wonder that God's anger was hot against Israel? Israel transgressed God's covenant. So He declared He would no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died (vv. 20-21). Instead, He would use those nations to test Israel (v. 22).
God's answer matches a choice Israel had already made.
They would not drive out the nations, and so He would not; and the consequences of this, predicted again and again, would come upon them.
The nations left behind are not harmless neighbours.
The children of Israel were unfaithful: they did not go forward to overcome their enemies. So God declared He would no longer cast those enemies out of the land. He would leave them as thorns in their side, a lasting witness to Israel's unfaithfulness and disobedience. At the same time they would be a constant menace to their testimony and to their national existence.
The same unconquered peoples carry a second meaning. They are still there, so the work is still open.
So God left these nations among them to try them. They lived side by side with Israel day after day. They were a constant test of the loyalty and obedience of the generations that followed, to prove whether Israel would now go on to carry out the will of God and cast out the enemy that was there. In other words, the presence of these men, as long as they remained, was always a witness of past failure and an invitation to present recovery.
This is where the chapter turns. God takes the trouble Israel brought on themselves and puts it to work.
The very trial that comes in through sin, He makes a means of practising faith, for those who have faith. They had not learned from their fathers' history the need of obedience and reliance on the living God. So they were to learn these by meeting the same enemies their fathers met. Their discipline was to be a school of faith.
Nothing here caught God off guard. His purpose in leaving these nations reaches past the judgment to Israel's future.
God foresaw this unfaithfulness, and that is why He left some of the nations among His people to prove them. Their presence was in itself proof that Israel lacked energy and confidence in the power of God. Yet God would still have kept them from the disasters that followed. But in the wisdom of His counsels, God, who knew His people, left these nations among them as a means of proving them. Israel will be fully blessed only under Messiah, who by His might will bring in their blessing, and by His might will keep it for them.
This history is not only Israel's.
This is what makes the book of Judges so extremely important for us. We have here, as in a mirror, our own faces spiritually: a photograph taken in divine light that will not flatter.
This verse can sound like a closed door. It is not one.
If His people by their own unbelief and disobedience have compromised Him and compromised themselves, God does not give them up. He is a God of endless patience and long-suffering. He leaves them to the result of their own disobedience — that is the first thing. Out of those very results He brings fresh tests of their future obedience.
- Cause — Israel would not drive the nations out, so God would not. The sentence confirms the choice they had already made.
- Consequence — The nations left behind become thorns. They threaten Israel and stand as a witness to the work Israel never finished.
- Purpose — God does not walk away. He turns the enemy left in the land into a test, and the discipline becomes a school of faith.
- Mirror — The book shows readers their own faces in a light that will not flatter.
- Recovery — The enemy still in the land is a witness of past failure and an invitation to present recovery. God does not give His people up.
that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Jehovah to walk therein, as their fathers did keep [it], or not.
Israel had broken God's covenant, so He said the nations Joshua left behind would stay. Here He gives His reason: those neighbours would test whether Israel kept to the way of the Lord.
One writer traces their presence to two things at once — Israel's own weakness, and God's plan:
God foresaw this unfaithfulness, and that was why He left some of the nations among His people to test them. Their presence was itself proof that Israel lacked energy and confidence in the power of God. He would still have kept them from the disasters that followed.
So the same neighbours carried two meanings every single day:
These nations were left among Israel to test them. They lived side by side with Israel day after day. So they were a constant test of the loyalty and obedience of the generations that followed. Would those generations now go on to do the will of God and drive out the enemy that was there? In other words, as long as these men stayed, their presence was always a witness of past failure and an invitation to present recovery.
God's aim in leaving them went past punishment:
In His grace God uses the very unfaithfulness and its consequences to bless the people. In allowing these nations to remain, God did not have only chastisement in view. He also wished "to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did" — in short, would they separate from evil? In the same way, in 2 Timothy God uses the mixture of vessels for honor and dishonor. He uses it to test and bless the hearts of those who are faithful. "If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work." What a blessed description of faithfulness in dangerous times! God would show us a path that glorifies Him as much in the darkest day of ruin as in the brightest days of the church.
The measure in the verse is the way their fathers walked. The same writer names what God wanted that test to produce:
The blessing God had in view was to bring Israel back to the Word He gave at the start. That Word was their only safeguard.
The consequences themselves become the raw material of a fresh opportunity:
Here were people whose presence was a witness of past failure. But, thank God, He does not stop there. If His people have compromised Him and compromised themselves by their own unbelief and disobedience, God does not give them up. He is a God of infinite patience and long endurance. He leaves them to the result of their own disobedience. That is the first thing. Then out of those very results He brings fresh tests of their future obedience.
The verse sets the question. One writer notes what the test should have produced, and what it exposed:
Israel broke God's covenant, so He declared He would no longer drive out any of the nations still left when Joshua died. Instead, He would use those nations to test Israel. These nations worshipped demons. That very fact should have stirred Israel's disgust at such evil, instead of tempting them to follow the same practices. So it was a test, but one that proved Israel rebellious.
Even so, the arrangement trained them:
God left within the borders of their land what put obedience to the test… that they might learn war, and experience the ways and the government of the LORD.
- Cause — The nations stayed because Israel lacked energy and confidence in God's power. Their presence was a witness of past failure.
- Purpose — God turned that failure into a test, and the test into an invitation to present recovery.
- Measure — Would they keep the way of the Lord as their fathers did? The test called them back to the Word God gave at the start.
- Patience — God leaves people to the results of their disobedience. Out of those very results He raises fresh tests of obedience.
- Result — Israel's answer was rebellion. Even so, the enemy left in the land taught them war and the government of the LORD.
Therefore Jehovah left those nations, without dispossessing them hastily, neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.
Joshua is dead, and the nations Israel never drove out are still living in the land. Verse 23 explains why. God had not run short of power. He had a purpose in leaving them there.
The nations left in the land were not an accident of history. They were there because Israel spared what God told them to remove. The oppressors in the book of Judges came from that same group.
Notice this: the enemies who oppressed the Israelites from time to time were the ones they had left alive in the land. They left them there because of their own disobedience to God and their lack of confidence in Him. As long as they went on depending on God, no enemy could stand before them; God gave them one victory after another. It was their unfaithfulness alone that left these enemies in the land.
Joshua died with the conquest unfinished. The limit was not on God's side.
The power and the presence of God had not forsaken Israel up to the time of Joshua's departure. It was always available wherever there was faith to use it.
Israel's failure did not catch God off guard. He had foreseen it, and it shaped what He did next.
God, in fact, foresaw this unfaithfulness. That was why He left some of the nations among His people to test them. The presence of these nations was proof in itself that Israel lacked energy and confidence in the power of God. That same God would still have kept them from the disasters that followed. But in the wisdom of His counsels, God, who knew His people, left these nations among them as a means of testing them. Israel will be fully blessed only under Messiah. By His might He will bring in their blessing, and by His might He will keep it for them.
The testing in verse 22 is not only a punishment. It has grace in it.
There was only one resource, and it was worthy of God. In His grace He uses the very unfaithfulness and its consequences to bless the people. In letting these nations remain, God had more than chastisement in view. He also wished to test Israel by them, "whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did." In short, would they separate from evil?
The nations stayed, so the test ran through everyday life for generations.
These nations were left among them to try them. Living side by side with Israel day after day, they were a constant test of the loyalty and obedience of the generations that followed. Would Israel now go on to carry out the will of God and cast out the enemy that was there? In other words, as long as these men remained, their presence was always a witness of past failure and an invitation to present recovery.
So what did the test reveal about Israel?
After every rescue, when the judge died, Israel went back to their low state or even lower than before, serving and bowing down to idols. Israel broke God's covenant, so He declared He would no longer drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. Instead, He would use those nations to test Israel. These nations worshipped demons. That fact alone should have stirred Israel's disgust at such evil, not drawn them into the same practices. So it was a test, but one that proved Israel rebellious.
Failure like Israel's can look like the end of hope. Commentators draw the opposite conclusion.
Let us say to one another that no position of bondage puts you beyond His power for fresh deliverance. Not even the position your own failure and disobedience to God have brought you to. You may not get the same complete victories that might once have been yours. But it is never right for us, never right for faith, to let our hands hang down and say there is no further hope.
- Cause. The nations still in the land were the ones Israel spared through disobedience and lack of confidence in God.
- Not weakness. God's power never failed. It was always there for faith to use.
- Purpose. God foresaw the failure. He turned the enemies left behind into a test: would Israel separate from evil?
- Daily. Living beside those nations made the test constant. Their presence was a witness of past failure and an invitation to recovery.
- Outcome. Israel failed the test and copied the idol worship. Yet failure never puts you beyond God's power for fresh deliverance.