Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he
said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land
that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break
my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the
inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But
you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I
say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become
thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” As
soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people
of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they
called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to
the LORD.
When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each
to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And 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 work that
the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the
servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried
him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in
the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And
all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there
arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or
the work that he had done for Israel.
And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the
LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of
their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They
went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were
around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to
anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the
Ashtaroth. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and
he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold
them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could
no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the
hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned,
and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible
distress.
Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of
those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges,
for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon
turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who
had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.
Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the
judge, and he saved them from 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 afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the
judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their
fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to
them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn
ways. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he
said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I
commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no
longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left
when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will
take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or
not.” So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out quickly,
and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.
