1 And the agent of LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, I made you go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
2 And ye shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. Ye shall break down their altars. But ye have not hearkened to my voice. Why have ye done this?
3 Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.
4 And it came to pass, when the agent of LORD spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
5 And they called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to LORD.
6 Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the sons of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.
7 And the people served LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of LORD that he had wrought for Israel.
8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of LORD, died, being a hundred and ten years old.
9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.
10 And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them that did not know LORD, nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel.
11 And the sons of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of LORD, and served the Baalim.
12 And they forsook LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them. And they provoked LORD t
13 And they forsook LORD, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
14 And the anger of LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that despoiled them. And he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before th
15 Wherever they went out, the hand of LORD was against them for evil, as LORD had spoken, and as LORD had sworn to them. And they were exceedingly distressed.
16 And LORD raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them.
17 And yet they did not hearken to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of LORD.
18 And when LORD raised up judges for them, then LORD was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For LORD regretted because of their groaning because of those who oppressed them and
19 But it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them. They did not cease from their doings, nor from their
20 And the anger of LORD was kindled against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not hearkened to my voice,
21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died,
22 that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of LORD to walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.
23 So LORD left those nations, without driving them out quickly. Neither did he deliver them into the hand of Joshua.