1Now the angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.’
2And as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?
3So I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; they will become thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”
4And it happened, as the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the sons 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.
6When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land.
7And the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who prolonged their days after Joshua, who had seen all the great work of Yahweh that he had done for Israel.
8Then Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.
9And they buried him within the territory of his inheritance at Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10And that whole generation also were gathered to their fathers, and another generation rose up after them who did not know Yahweh, nor the work that he had done for Israel.
11Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals.
12They forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out from the land of Egypt, and they went after other gods, from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and they bowed down to them, and they provoked Yahweh to anger.
13They forsook Yahweh and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
14And the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hand of plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hand of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.
15Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for harm, just as Yahweh had spoken and just as Yahweh had sworn to them. And they were in dire distress.
16Then Yahweh raised up judges, and they delivered them from the hand of those who plundered them.
17Yet they did not even listen to their judges, but they prostituted themselves after other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, obeying the commandments of Yahweh; they did not do so.
18And whenever Yahweh raised up judges for them, Yahweh was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for Yahweh was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and pressed them hard.
19But when the judge died, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They did not drop any of their deeds or their stubborn way.
20So the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and he said, “Because this nation has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers, and has not obeyed my voice,
21I also will no longer drive out from before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.
22in order to test Israel by them, whether they would keep the way of Yahweh, to walk in it as their fathers kept it, or not.”
23So Yahweh left these nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.
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