1And an angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and I led you to the land that I swore to your fathers, and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
2While you, you are not to cut a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you are to break down their altars. But you have not listened to my voice. What is this you have done?
3So I also say, ‘I will not drive them out from before you, but they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’”
4And it came to pass, when the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice and wept.
5So they called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to Yahweh.
6Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went, each one to his inheritance, to possess the land.
7The people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua who had seen all the great work of Yahweh that he had worked for Israel.
8And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, at the age of 110 years old.
9And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.
10And all that generation were also gathered to their fathers, and another generation arose after them who did not know Yahweh, nor the work that he had worked for Israel.
11Then the children of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and served the Baals,
12and they forsook Yahweh the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed downa to them; and they made Yahweh angry.
13They forsook Yahweh and served Baal and the Ashtaroths.
14So the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.
15Whenever they went out to war, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken and as Yahweh had sworn to them, and they were greatly distressed.
16But Yahweh raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
17Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they prostituted themselves with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, who had obeyed the commandments of Yahweh. They did not do as their fathers.
18When Yahweh raised up judges for them, then Yahweh was with the judge and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for Yahweh was moved to pity by their groanings because of their oppressors and persecutors.
19But it came to pass when the judge died that they turned back and acted more corruptly than their fathers, following other gods by serving them and bowing down to them; they did not give up what they were doing or their stubborn way.
20The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel and he said, “Because this nation has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and has not listened to my voice,
21I, for my part, will no longer continue to drive out anyone from before them from any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,
22in order to test Israel by them; whether or not they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk in it as their fathers kept it.”
23So Yahweh left those nations without driving them out quickly, neither did he give them into the hand of Joshua.
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