Israel Serves the Baals

¹¹ Then the sons of Israel did ^(A)evil in the sight of the Lord and ^[a]served the ^(B)Baals, ¹² and ^(C)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 ^(D)served Baal and the Ashtaroth. ^14 (E)Then the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He handed them over to plunderers, and they plundered them; and ^(F)He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand ^[b]against their enemies. ¹⁵ Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for ^[c]evil, as the Lord had spoken and ^(G)just as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

^16 (H)Then the Lord raised up judges ^[d]who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them. ¹⁷ Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they ^[e]committed infidelity with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way ^(I)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, ^(J)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 ^(K)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.