And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
Parallel translations
- WEB The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and served the Baals.
- BSB And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
- NKJV Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals;
- NASB Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals,
- NLT The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel does evil in the LORD's sight and serves the Baals. It matters as the opening of the tragic cycle of sin that defines Judges.
Overview
The ignorant generation turns to the Baals, the Canaanite fertility gods, doing evil before Yahweh. This phrase will recur throughout the book as the trigger of each cycle. Israel's idolatry shows the heart's drift from the living God, the very condition the gospel addresses by turning sinners back to the true God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Judg 6:1And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
- Judg 10:6And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.
- Judg 3:7And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
- Judg 4:1And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.
- Judg 8:33And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.
- 1 Kgs 18:18And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.
- Judg 13:1And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
- 1 Sam 7:4Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only.
- Judg 3:12And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
- Judg 10:10And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.
- Jer 2:23How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
- 2 Chr 28:2For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.
- 2 Chr 33:2–3But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
- Jer 9:14But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
- 2 Chr 33:6And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
- Ezra 8:12And of the sons of Azgad; Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him an hundred and ten males.
- Gen 38:7And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
- Gen 13:13But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
- Hos 2:13–17And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 2:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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