Chapter 2
1 The Lord 's angel went from Gilgal to Bochim and gave the Israelites this message from the Lord : I promised your ancestors that I would give this land to their families, and I brought your people here from Egypt. We made an agreement that I promised never to break,
2 and you promised not to make any peace treaties with the other nations that live in the land. Besides that, you agreed to tear down the altars where they sacrifice to their idols. Why haven’t you kept your promise?
3 And so, I’ll stop helping you defeat your enemies. Instead, they will be there to trap you into worshiping their idols.
4 The Israelites started crying loudly,
5 and they offered sacrifices to the Lord . From then on, they called that place "Crying."
6 After a while the people of Joshua’s generation died, and the next generation did not know the Lord or any of the things he had done for Israel.
7 The Lord was so angry
8 From time to time, the Lord would choose special leaders known as judges. These judges would lead the Israelites into battle and defeat the enemies that made raids on them.
9 In years gone by, the Israelites had been faithful to the Lord , but now they were quick to be unfaithful and to refuse even to listen to these judges. The Israelites disobeyed the Lord , and instead of worshiping him, they worshiped other gods.
10 When enemies made life miserable for the Israelites, the Lord felt sorry for them. He would choose a judge and help that judge rescue Israel from its enemies. The Lord was kind to Israel as long as that judge lived.
11 But afterwards, the Israelites would become even more sinful than their ancestors had been. The Israelites were stubborn—they simply would not stop worshiping other gods or following their teachings.
12 The Lord was angry with Israel and said: The Israelites have broken the agreement I made with their ancestors. They won’t obey me,
13 so I’ll stop helping them defeat their enemies. Israel still had a lot of enemies when Joshua died,
14 and I’m going to let those enemies stay. I’ll use them to test Israel, because then I can find out if Israel will worship and obey me as their ancestors did.
15 That’s why the Lord had not let Joshua get rid of those enemy nations all at once.