Judges 2

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¹Then 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. ✦ ²And 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? ✦ ³Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’ ” ✦ ⁴So 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. ✦ ⁵Then they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to the Lord. ✦ ⁶And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land. ✦ ⁷So 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. ✦ ⁸Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. ✦ ⁹And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. ✦ ¹⁰When 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. ✦ ¹¹Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; ✦ ¹²and 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. ✦ ¹³They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. ✦ ¹⁴And 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. ✦ ¹⁵Wherever 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. ✦ ¹⁶Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. ✦ ¹⁷Yet 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. ✦ ¹⁸And 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. ✦ ¹⁹And 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. ✦ ²⁰Then 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, ✦ ²¹I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, ✦ ²²so 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.” ✦ ²³Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

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Where this chapter connects

Judg 3 ·11 Ps 106 ·8 Josh 24 ·8 Judg 2 ·8 Judg 10 ·7 Deut 32 ·5 Lev 26 ·5 Deut 7 ·5

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Judges videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Judges 2YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Judges 2David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JudgesMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Judges 2Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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