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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.
Judges 2:1 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • 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.
  • BSB 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,
  • 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 Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
  • Lev 26:42then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.
  • Gen 17:7–8I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you.
  • Exod 23:20“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
  • Ps 105:44–45He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,
  • Exod 14:19The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood behind them.
  • Acts 7:30–33“When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
  • Gen 12:7Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.
  • Exod 14:14Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still.”
  • Num 14:34After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.’
  • Gen 48:16the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude upon the earth.”
  • Judg 2:5They called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to Yahweh.
  • Ps 78:51–53and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
  • Deut 4:34Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
  • Judg 6:11–12Yahweh’s angel came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.
  • Ps 105:36–38He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.
  • Zech 11:10I took my staff Favor, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
  • Ps 89:34I will not break my covenant, nor alter what my lips have uttered.
  • Jer 14:21Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us.
  • Jer 33:20–21“Yahweh says: ‘If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season;
  • Josh 3:10Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you.
  • Gen 26:3–4Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
  • Lev 26:44Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God;
  • Josh 5:13–14When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?”
  • Gen 16:13She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”
  • Gen 22:16–17and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,
  • Gen 22:11–12Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”
  • Deut 7:9Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
  • Judg 13:3Yahweh’s angel appeared to the woman, and said to her, “See now, you are barren and childless; but you shall conceive, and bear a son.
  • Zech 3:1–2He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.
  • Isa 63:9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
  • Gen 16:7–10Yahweh’s angel found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur.
  • Exod 33:14He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
  • Exod 3:2–8Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
  • Hos 12:3–5In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God.
  • Mal 3:1“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

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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.