King James Version · The judges
Judges 2
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And of came up from to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of , and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their : but ye have not : why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when spake these words unto all the , that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they there unto . And when had let the people go, the went every man unto his to possess the land. And the people all the days of , and all the days of the that outlived , who had seen all the great works of , that he did for Israel. And the son of , the , , being an hundred and ten years old. And they in the border of his in Timnath–heres, in the mount of , on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not , nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the did evil in the sight of , and : And they forsook of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of , and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked to . And they forsook , and and . And the of was hot against Israel, and he them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their . Whithersoever they went out, the hand of was against them for evil, as had said, and as had unto them: and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless up judges, which them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not unto their judges, but they went a after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of which their fathers walked in, obeying of ; but they did not so. And when them up judges, then was with the judge, and them out of the hand of their all the days of the judge: for it because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. And it came to pass, when the judge was , that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to them, and to unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their way. And the of was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which left when he : That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep of to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 23Therefore left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither he them into the hand of .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.