Judges 2-3New King James Version (NKJV)
Israel’s Disobedience
2 Then the Angel of the Lord came up
from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: “I led you up from Egypt and brought you to
the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My
covenant with you. 2 And you 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 be thorns in
your side,[a] and their gods shall
be a snare to you.’” 4 So it was, when the Angel of
the Lord spoke 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;[b] and they sacrificed
there to the Lord. 6 And when Joshua 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
the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who
outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which
He had done for Israel. 8 Now Joshua the son of
Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one
hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him
within the border of his inheritance at Timnath 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 who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had
done for Israel.
Israel’s Unfaithfulness
11 Then the children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; 12 and
they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out
of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the
gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed
down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They
forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.[c] 14 And
the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them
into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the
hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before
their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand
of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had
said, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly
distressed.
16 Nevertheless,
the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those
who plundered them. 17 Yet they would not listen to
their judges, but they played 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 the Lord; they did not do so. 18 And
when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with
the judge and delivered them out of 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 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
the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation
has transgressed 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 Joshua left when he died, 22 so
that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of
the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or
not.” 23 Therefore the Lord left those
nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the
hand of Joshua.
The Nations Remaining in the Land
3 Now these are the nations
which the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that
is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan 2 (this
was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be
taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), 3 namely, five
lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites
who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of
Hamath. 4 And they were left, that He might test
Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord,
which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5 Thus the children of Israel dwelt
among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites. 6 And they took their daughters
to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served
their gods.
Othniel
7 So the children of Israel did evil
in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God, and
served the Baals and Asherahs.[d] 8 Therefore
the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into
the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel
served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years. 9 When the
children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a
deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of
Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. 10 The Spirit of
the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and
the Lord delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his
hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim. 11 So
the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
Ehud
12 And the children of Israel again
did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened
Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of
the Lord. 13 Then he gathered to himself the
people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel, and took possession of
the City of Palms. 14 So the children of Israel
served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.
15 But when the children of Israel
cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them:
Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of
Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab. 16 Now
Ehud made himself a dagger (it was double-edged and a cubit in length) and
fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. 17 So
he brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a
very fat man.) 18 And when he had finished
presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who had carried the
tribute. 19 But he himself turned back from the
stone images that were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret
message for you, O king.”
He said, “Keep silence!” And all who attended him went out
from him.
20 So Ehud came to him (now he was
sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, “I have a
message from God for you.” So he arose from his seat. 21 Then
Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and
thrust it into his belly. 22 Even the hilt went in
after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the
dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out. 23 Then
Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him
and locked them.
24 When he had gone out, Eglon’s[e] servants came to look,
and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were
locked. So they said, “He is probably attending to his needs in the cool
chamber.” 25 So they waited till they were
embarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore
they took the key and opened them. And there was their master,
fallen dead on the floor.
26 But Ehud had escaped while they
delayed, and passed beyond the stone images and escaped to Seirah. 27 And
it happened, when he arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of
Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and
he led them. 28 Then he said to them, “Follow me, for
the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So
they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and
did not allow anyone to cross over. 29 And at that
time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a
man escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under
the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.
Shamgar
31 After him was Shamgar the son of
Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and he
also delivered Israel.
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