Judges 2:11-19

International Children’s Bible

¹¹ So they did evil and worshiped the Baal idols. They did what the Lord said was wrong. ¹² The Lord had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. And the ancestors of these people had worshiped the Lord. But the Israelites quit following the Lord. They began to worship the gods of the people who lived around them. That made the Lord angry. ¹³ The Israelites quit following the Lord and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth. ¹⁴ The Lord was angry with the people of Israel. So he let robbers attack them and take their possessions. He let their enemies who lived around them defeat them. They could not protect themselves from their enemies. ¹⁵ When the Israelites went out to fight, they always lost. They lost because the Lord was not on their side. The Lord had sworn to them this would happen. So the Israelites suffered very much.

God Chooses Judges

¹⁶ Then the Lord chose leaders called judges.^[a] These leaders saved the people of Israel from the robbers. ¹⁷ But the Israelites did not listen to their judges. They were not faithful to God. They followed other gods instead. In the past the people of Israel obeyed the Lord’s commands. But now the Israelites stopped obeying the Lord. ¹⁸ Many times the enemies of Israel hurt the Israelites. So the Israelites would cry for help. And each time the Lord felt sorry for them. Each time he sent a judge to save them from their enemies. The Lord was with those judges. ¹⁹ But when each judge died, the Israelites again sinned and worshiped the false gods. They became worse than their ancestors. The Israelites were very stubborn; they refused to change their evil ways.