Israel’s Disobedience
1 Then the Angel of theLordcame up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said:“I led you up from Egypt andbrought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; andI said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you.
2 Andyou shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land;you shall tear down their altars.’But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?
3 Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall bethornsin your side, andtheir gods shall be asnare to you.’ ”
4 So it was, when the Angel of theLordspoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.
5 Then they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to theLord.
6 And whenJoshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.
Death of Joshua
7 So the people served theLordall the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of theLordwhich He had done for Israel.
8 NowJoshua the son of Nun, the servant of theLord, diedwhenhewasone hundred and ten years old.
9 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance atTimnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them whodid not know theLordnor the work which He had done for Israel.
Israel’s Unfaithfulness
11 Then the children of Israel didevil in the sight of theLord, and served the Baals;
12 and theyforsook theLordGod of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followedother gods fromamongthe gods of the people whowereall around them, and theybowed down to them; and they provoked theLordto anger.
13 They forsook theLordand served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
14 And the anger of theLordwas hot against Israel. So Hedelivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; andHe sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that theycould no longer stand before their enemies.
15 Wherever they went out, the hand of theLordwas against them for calamity, as theLordhad said, and as theLordhadsworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.
16 Nevertheless,theLordraised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but theyplayed the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of theLord; they did not do so.
18 And when theLordraised up judges for them,theLordwas with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge;for theLordwas moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.
19 And it came to pass,when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.
20 Then the anger of theLordwas hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation hastransgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice,
21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshualeft when he died,
22 sothat through them I maytest Israel, whether they will keep the ways of theLord, to walk in them as their fathers keptthem,or not.”
23 Therefore theLordleft those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.