Judges 2:16-23

Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁶ But then Adonai raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who were plundering them. ¹⁷ Yet they did not pay attention to their judges, but made whores of themselves to other gods and worshipped them; they quickly turned away from the path on which their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying Adonai’s mitzvot — they failed to do this. ¹⁸ When Adonai raised up judges for them, Adonai was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of their enemies throughout the lifetime of the judge; for Adonai was moved to pity by their groaning under those oppressing and crushing them. ¹⁹ But after the judge died, they would relapse into worse behavior than that of their ancestors, following other gods to serve and worship them; they abandoned none of their practices or stubborn ways. ²⁰ So the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; he said, “Because this nation violates my covenant, which I ordered their fathers to obey; and they don’t pay attention to what I say; ²¹ in the future, I will not expel ahead of them any of the nations that Y’hoshua left when he died. ²² This is how I will test Isra’el, to see whether or not they will keep the way of Adonai, living according to it, as their ancestors did.” ²³ So Adonai allowed those nations to remain where they were, without quickly driving them out; he did not hand them over to Y’hoshua.