Judges 2

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

⁴When the messenger of our Father spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud. ⁵And they named that place Bochim, and there they sacrificed to our Father. ^a a v5 Bochim means "weepers" — the people named the place for the weeping that broke out when they heard how far they had drifted from their Father.

Joshua's Generation Passes

⁶When Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites each went to claim their own land inheritance. ⁷The people served our Father throughout the days of Joshua and the elders who outlived him, having seen all the great work our Father did for Israel. ⁸Joshua son of Nun, servant of our Father, died at 110 years old. ⁹They buried him in his inheritance land at Timnath-heres, in Ephraim's hill country, north of Mount Gaash.

A Generation Forgets the Father

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

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

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

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