Judges 2
1 And an Angel of the Lord came vp from Gilgal to Bochim, and sayd, I made you to go vp out of Egypt, and haue brought you vnto the land which I had sworne vnto your fathers, and sayd, I wil neuer breake my couenant with you.
Yahweh [appeared in the form of] an angel [and] went up from Gilgal to [a place that was later called] Bokim. He said [to the Israeli people], “I brought your [ancestors] up here from Egypt. I led them into this land that I solemnly promised to give to your ancestors. I said to them, ‘The agreement that I made with you, as for me, I will never (break it/say that it is ended).
2 Ye also shall make no couenant with the inhabitants of this land, but shall breake downe their altars: but ye haue not obeyed my voyce. Why haue ye done this?
But as for you, you must never make a peace agreement with the people who live in this land. You must tear down the altars [where they make sacrifices to idols].’ But you have not obeyed me.
3 Wherefore, I sayd also, I wil not cast them out before you, but they shalbe as thornes vnto your sides, and their gods shalbe your destruction.
So now, I am telling you that I will not expel [your enemies] as you advance. They will be like thorns in your sides. And [they] will try to trap you [by making you worship] their idols.”
4 And when the Angel of the Lord spake these wordes vnto all the children of Israel, the people lift vp their voyce, and wept.
After he told that to all the Israelis, the people cried loudly.
5 Therefore they called the name of that place, Bochim, and offered sacrifices there vnto the Lord.
They called that place Bokim, [which means ‘weeping’]. There they offered sacrifices to Yahweh.
6 Now when Ioshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went euery man into his inheritance, to possesse the land.
After Joshua sent the Israeli people away, each group went to possess the land that had been allotted to them.
7 And the people had serued the Lord al the dayes of Ioshua, and all the dayes of the Elders that outliued Ioshua, which had seene all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel.
They served Yahweh as long as Joshua was alive, and as long as the elders, those who had seen all the great things that Yahweh had done for Israel, were alive.
8 But Ioshua the sonne of Nun the seruant of the Lord dyed, when he was an hundreth and ten yeeres olde:
Then Yahweh’s servant Joshua died. He was 110 years old when he died.
9 And they buryed him in the coastes of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres in mount Ephraim, on the Northside of mount Gaash.
They buried his body in the area he had received [from Moses], at Timnath-Serah, in the area where the descendants of Ephraim lived, north of Gaash Mountain.
10 And so all that generation was gathered vnto their fathers, and another generation arose after them, which neither knewe the Lord, nor yet the works, which he had done for Israel.
After all the people died who lived at the same time as Joshua [EUP], a group of people grew up who did not know Yahweh, and did not know what great things he had done for the Israeli people.
11 Then the children of Israel did wickedly in the sight of the Lord, and serued Baalim,
They did things that Yahweh said were very evil. They worshiped [idols that represented the god] Baal and the goddess Astarte. They worshiped [DOU] the various gods that the people-groups around them worshiped. They stopped worshiping Yahweh, the God their ancestors worshiped, the one who had brought their ancestors out of Egypt. That caused Yahweh to be very angry.
12 And forsooke ye Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the lande of Egypt, and followed other gods, euen the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed vnto them, and prouoked the Lord to anger.
13 So they forsooke the Lord, and serued Baal, and Ashtaroth.
14 And the wrath of the Lord was hote against Israel, and he deliuered them into the hands of spoylers, that spoyled them, and he sold them into the handes of their enemies rounde about them, so that they could no longer stande before their enemies.
So he allowed people from other groups to raid them and steal their crops and animals. They were no longer able to resist their enemies, and Yahweh allowed all their enemies around them to defeat them.
15 Whithersoeuer they went out, the hand of the Lord was sore against them, as ye Lord had sayd, and as the Lord had sworne vnto them: so he punished them sore.
Whenever the Israelis went to fight [their enemies], Yahweh [MTY] was opposing them, and allowed their enemies to defeat them, just as he had promised he would do. So the Israelis were greatly distressed.
16 Notwithstanding, the Lord raysed vp Iudges, which deliuered them out of the hands of their oppressours.
Then Yahweh gave leaders to them. These leaders rescued the Israelis from the people who were raiding them.
17 But yet they would not obey their Iudges: for they went a whoring after other gods, and worshipped them, and turned quickly out of the way, wherein their fathers walked, obeying the commandements of the Lord: they did not so.
But the Israelis still would not pay attention to their leaders. Instead, they went to the idols, [acting like] prostitutes [who gave themselves to men who were not their husbands] [MET], and they worshiped those idols. They were not like their ancestors. Their ancestors obeyed what Yahweh commanded, but their descendants quickly stopped behaving as their ancestors had behaved.
18 And when the Lord had raysed them vp Iudges, the Lord was with the Iudge, and deliuered them out of the hande of their enemies all the dayes of the Iudge (for the Lord had compassion on their gronings, because of them that oppressed them and tormented them)
Whenever Yahweh gave a leader to them, he helped that leader and enabled him to rescue the people from their enemies. He helped them like that as long as that leader was alive. Yahweh pitied them as they groaned because they were being oppressed and caused to suffer.
19 Yet when the Iudge was dead, they returned, and did worse then their fathers, in following other gods to serue them and worshippe them: they ceased not from their owne inuentions, nor from their rebellious way.
But after that leader died, the people went back to behaving in ways even more evil than their ancestors had behaved. They worshiped other gods and bowed down to them and did all [LIT] the things that they thought those gods wanted them to do.
20 Wherfore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sayd, Because this people hath transgressed my couenant, which I commaded their fathers, and hath not obeyed my voyce,
So Yahweh was very angry with the Israeli people. He said, “These people have disobeyed the agreement I made with their ancestors. They have not done what I told them to do.
21 Therefore will I no more cast out before them any of the nations, which Ioshua left when he dyed,
So I will no longer expel the people-groups that Joshua left in this land when he died.
22 That through them I may proue Israel, whether they wil keepe the way of the Lord, to walke therein, as their fathers kept it, or not.
I will use them to test the Israeli people to see whether they will do what I want them to do, as their ancestors did.”
23 So the Lord left those nations, and droue them not out immediatly, neither deliuered them into the hand of Ioshua.
Yahweh had allowed those people-groups to stay in that land. He did not expel them by allowing Joshua [and his men] to defeat them.
