Idolatry Leads to Servitude

(A)Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all the Israelites who had not [a]experienced any of the wars of Canaan; only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might [b]be taught war, [c]those who had not [d]experienced it previously). These nations are: the five governors of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians, and (B)the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as [e]Lebo-hamath. They were left to (C)test Israel by them, to find out if they would [f]obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers [g]through Moses. (D)The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and (E)they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 3:1 Lit known
  2. Judges 3:2 Lit know, to teach them
  3. Judges 3:2 Lit only those
  4. Judges 3:2 Lit known
  5. Judges 3:3 Or the entrance of Hamath
  6. Judges 3:4 Lit listen to
  7. Judges 3:4 Lit by the hand of

Nations remaining in the land

These are the nations that the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had no firsthand knowledge of the wars of Canaan. They survived only to teach war to the generations of Israelites who had no firsthand knowledge of the earlier wars: the five rulers of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, Sidonians, and Hivites who lived in the highlands of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath. They were to be the test for Israel, to find out whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had made to their ancestors through Moses. So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. But the Israelites intermarried with them and served their gods.

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