Judges 3:1-11

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Nations Remaining in the Land

3 Now these are the nations that the Lord left to test all those in Israel who had no experience of war in Canaan^{(A) 2} (it was only for successive generations of Israelites, to teach war to those who had no experience of it): ³ the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.^{(B) 4} They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord that he commanded their ancestors by Moses.^{(C) 5} So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, ⁶ and they took their daughters as wives for themselves, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.^(D)

Othniel

⁷ The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God and serving the Baals and the Asherahs.^{(E) 8} Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. ⁹ But when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who delivered them, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.^{(F) 10} The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel; he went out to war, and the Lord gave King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram into his hand, and his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.^{(G) 11} So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.