Judges 2-3

New American Standard Bible

Israel Rebuked

2 Now ^(A)the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to ^(B)Bochim. And he said, “^(C)I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘^(D)I will never break My covenant with you, ² and as for you, ^(E)you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ^(F)you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not ^[a]obeyed Me; what is this thing that you have done? ³ Therefore I also said, ‘^(G)I will not drive them out from you; but they will ^[b]become ^(H)like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’” ⁴ Now when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people raised their voices and wept. ⁵ So they named that place ^[c]Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.

Joshua Dies

^6 (I)When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went, each one to his inheritance, to take possession of the land. ⁷ The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who ^[d]survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. ⁸ Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. ⁹ And they buried him in the territory of ^(J)his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and another generation rose up after them who ^(K)did not know the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel Serves the Baals

¹¹ Then the sons of Israel did ^(L)evil in the sight of the Lord and ^[e]served the ^(M)Baals, ¹² and ^(N)they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them; so they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ They abandoned the Lord and ^(O)served Baal and the Ashtaroth. ^14 (P)Then the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He handed them over to plunderers, and they plundered them; and ^(Q)He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand ^[f]against their enemies. ¹⁵ Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for ^[g]evil, as the Lord had spoken and ^(R)just as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

^16 (S)Then the Lord raised up judges ^[h]who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them. ¹⁷ Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they ^[i]committed infidelity with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way ^(T)in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do the same as their fathers. ¹⁸ And when the Lord raised up judges for them, ^(U)the Lord was with the judge and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was ^(V)moved to pity by their groaning because of those who tormented and oppressed them. ¹⁹ But it came about, when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their obstinate ways. ^20 (W)So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has violated My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice, ^21 (X)I in turn will no longer drive out from them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, ²² in order to ^(Y)test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers ^[j]did, or not.” ²³ So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not hand them over to Joshua.

Idolatry Leads to Servitude

3 ^(Z)Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all the Israelites who had not ^[k]experienced any of the wars of Canaan; ² only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might ^[l]be taught war, ^[m]those who had not ^[n]experienced it previously). ³ These nations are: the five governors of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians, and ^(AA)the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as ^[o]Lebo-hamath. ⁴ They were left to ^(AB)test Israel by them, to find out if they would ^[p]obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers ^[q]through Moses. ^5 (AC)The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; ⁶ and ^(AD)they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

⁷ So the sons of Israel did ^(AE)what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^(AF)forgot the Lord their God and ^(AG)served the Baals and the ^[r]Asheroth. ⁸ Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim, king of ^[s]Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

The First Judge Frees Israel

⁹ But the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to set them free, ^(AH)Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ¹⁰ And ^(AI)the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went to war, the Lord handed over to him Cushan-rishathaim king of ^[t]Mesopotamia, so that ^[u]he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. ¹¹ Then the land was at rest for forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹² Now the sons of Israel again ^(AJ)did evil in the sight of the Lord. So ^(AK)the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³ And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and ^[v]defeated Israel, and they took possession of ^(AL)the city of the palm trees. ¹⁴ And the sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab for eighteen years.

Ehud Kills Eglon

¹⁵ But when the sons of Israel ^(AM)cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by ^[w]him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶ Now Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he strapped it on his right thigh under his cloak. ¹⁷ Then he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ And it came about, when he had finished presenting the tribute, that Ehud sent away the people who had carried the tribute. ¹⁹ But he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And the king said, “Silence!” And all who were attending him left him. ²⁰ Then Ehud came to him while he was sitting in his cool roof chamber alone. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he got up from his seat. ²¹ Then Ehud reached out with his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²² The hilt of the sword also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade because he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and ^[x]the refuse came out. ²³ Then Ehud went out into the ^[y]vestibule, and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him, and locked them.

²⁴ When he had left, ^[z]the king’s servants came and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked; and they said, “^(AN)Undoubtedly he is ^[aa]relieving himself in the cool room.” ²⁵ So they waited ^[ab]until it would have been shameful to wait longer; but behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. So they took the key and opened them, and behold, their master had fallen to the ^[ac]floor dead.

²⁶ Now Ehud escaped while they were hesitating, and he passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ And ^[ad]when he arrived, ^(AO)he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was ^[ae]leading them. ²⁸ Then he said to them, “Pursue them, for the Lord has handed your enemies the Moabites over to you.” So they went down after him and took control of ^(AP)the crossing places of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross. ²⁹ They struck and killed about ten thousand Moabites at that time, all robust and valiant men; and no one escaped. ³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land was at rest for eighty years.

Shamgar Saves Israel

³¹ Now after him came ^(AQ)Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck and killed six hundred Philistines with an ^[af]oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.