Judges 2:11-19

Amplified Bible

Israel Serves Baals

¹¹ Then the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and worshiped and served the Baals, ¹² and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and they bowed down to them, and offended and provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ So they abandoned the Lord and served Baal [the pagan god of the Canaanites] and the ^[a]Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands (power) of plunderers who robbed them; and He sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer stand [in opposition] before their enemies. ¹⁵ Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil (misfortune), as the Lord had spoken, and as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.^(A)

¹⁶ Then the Lord raised up ^[b]judges who rescued them from the hands of those who robbed them. ¹⁷ Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the prostitute after other gods and they bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers. ¹⁸ When the Lord raised up judges for them, He was with the judge and He rescued them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. ¹⁹ But when the judge died, they turned back and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, in following and serving other gods, and bowing down to them. They did not ^[c]abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.