Israel’s pattern of sin and punishment

¹¹ Then the Israelites did things that the Lord saw as evil: They served the Baals; ¹² and they went away from the Lord, their ancestors’ God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the surrounding peoples, they worshipped them, and they angered the Lord. ¹³ They went away from the Lord and served Baal and the Astartes. ¹⁴ So the Lord became angry with Israel, and he handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He let them be defeated by their enemies around them, so that they were no longer able to stand up to them. ¹⁵ Whenever the Israelites marched out, the Lord’s power worked against them, just as the Lord had warned them. And they were very distressed.

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.