¹⁶ Then the Lord raised up leaders^[a] to rescue them from the power of these raiders. ¹⁷ But they wouldn’t even obey their own leaders because they were unfaithful, following other gods and worshipping them. They quickly deviated from the way of their ancestors, who had obeyed the Lord’s commands, and didn’t follow their example.

¹⁸ The Lord was moved by Israel’s groaning under those who oppressed and crushed them. So the Lord would raise up leaders for them, and the Lord would be with the leader, and he would rescue Israel from the power of their enemies as long as that leader lived.

¹⁹ But then when the leader died, they would once again act in ways that weren’t as good as their ancestors’, going after other gods, to serve them and to worship them. They wouldn’t drop their bad practices or hardheaded ways. ²⁰ So the Lord became angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated my covenant that I required of their ancestors and hasn’t obeyed me, ²¹ I in turn will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.” ²² As a test for Israel, to see whether they would carefully walk in the Lord’s ways just as their ancestors had done, ²³ the Lord left these nations instead of driving them out immediately or handing them over to Joshua.

¹⁶ Standing up, Paul gestured with his hand and said, “Fellow Israelites and Gentile God-worshippers, please listen to me. ¹⁷ The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors. God made them a great people while they lived as strangers in the land of Egypt. With his great power, he led them out of that country. ¹⁸ For about forty years, God put up with them in the wilderness. ¹⁹ God conquered seven nations in the land of Canaan and gave the Israelites their land as an inheritance. ²⁰ This happened over a period of about four hundred fifty years.

“After this, he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. ²¹ The Israelites requested a king, so God gave them Saul, Kish’s son, from the tribe of Benjamin, and he served as their king for forty years. ²² After God removed him, he raised up David to be their king. God testified concerning him, ‘I have found David, Jesse’s son, a man who shares my desires.^[a] Whatever my will is, he will do.’ ²³ From this man’s descendants, God brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, just as he promised. ²⁴ Before Jesus’ appearance, John proclaimed to all the Israelites a baptism to show they were changing their hearts and lives. ²⁵ As John was completing his mission, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I’m not the one you think I am, but he is coming after me. I’m not worthy to loosen his sandals.’