23;
23 The Lord had allowed those nations to
remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of
Joshua. (5)
258
17 Yet
they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods
and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who
had been obedient to the Lord’s
commands.
(8)
18 Whenever the Lord
raised up a judge for them, He was with the judge and saved them out of the
hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord
relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.
369
8 Joshua
son of Nun, the servant of the Lord,
died at the age of a hundred
and ten.
(8)
9 And they buried him
in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country
of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
369
21 I
will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he
died.
(3)
22 I will use them to test Israel
and see whether they will keep the Way
of the Lord and Walk in it as their ancestors did.”
147
12 They
forsook the Lord, the God of their
ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped
various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger (3)
13 because they forsook
Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
14 In His anger against Israel the
Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered
them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were
no longer able to resist.
15 Whenever Israel
went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them
to defeat them, just as He had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
16 Then the Lord
raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.
147
3 And
I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps
for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’” (3)
4 When the angel of the
Lord had spoken these things to all
the Israelites, the people wept aloud, 5 and they called that place
Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.
Disobedience and
Defeat
6 After Joshua had dismissed
the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own
inheritance.
7 The people served the Lord
throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who
had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.
147
19 But
when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those
of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They
refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. (1)
20 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I
ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to Me,
258
10 After
that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation
grew up who knew neither the Lord
nor what He had done for Israel.
(1)
11 Then the Israelites did evil in
the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.
258
The Angel of the Lord at Bokim
2 The angel of the Lord
went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led
you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break My Covenant with you, (1)
2 and you shall not
make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed Me. Why have you done
this?
258
