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Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,
Judges 2:1 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Yahweh’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.
  • KJV And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
  • NKJV 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.
  • NASB Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,
  • NLT The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said to the Israelites, “I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I swore to give your ancestors, and I said I would never break my covenant with you.

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

The angel of the LORD goes from Gilgal to Bochim and recalls God's faithful covenant promise never to break it. It matters as God confronting Israel's unfaithfulness.

Overview

The angel of Yahweh, here speaking as God himself, rehearses the exodus and the unbreakable covenant pledge. God's faithfulness is set against Israel's failure. This divine confrontation underscores that the LORD keeps his word even when his people do not, a faithfulness ultimately secured for us in Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 36

  • Exod 20:2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
  • Lev 26:42then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
  • Gen 17:7–8I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
  • Exod 23:20Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
  • Ps 105:44–45He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor,
  • Exod 14:19And the angel of God, who had gone before the camp of Israel, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from before them and stood behind them,
  • Acts 7:30–33After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
  • Gen 12:7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
  • Exod 14:14The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
  • Num 14:34In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.
  • Gen 48:16the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—may He bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth.”
  • Judg 2:5So they called that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.
  • Ps 78:51–53He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.
  • Deut 4:34Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?
  • Judg 6:11–12Then the angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
  • Ps 105:36–38Then He struck all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigor.
  • Zech 11:10Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.
  • Ps 89:34I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips.
  • Jer 14:21For the sake of Your name do not despise us; do not disgrace Your glorious throne. Remember Your covenant with us; do not break it.
  • Jer 33:20–21“This is what the LORD says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night cease to occupy their appointed time,
  • Josh 3:10He continued, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that He will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.
  • Gen 26:3–4Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
  • Lev 26:44Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
  • Josh 5:13–14Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?”
  • Gen 16:13So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”
  • Gen 22:16–17saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,
  • Gen 22:11–12Just then the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
  • Deut 7:9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
  • Judg 13:3The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.
  • Zech 3:1–2Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.
  • Isa 63:9In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
  • Gen 16:7–10Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.
  • Exod 33:14And the LORD answered, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
  • Exod 3:2–8There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.
  • Hos 12:3–5In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in his vigor he wrestled with God.
  • Mal 3:1“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Judges videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Judges 2:1YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JudgesMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 2:1 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

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.