2 and saith, `I cause you to come up out of Egypt, and bring you in unto the land which I have sworn to your fathers, and say, I do not break My covenant with you to the age; and ye -- ye make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land -- their altars ye break down; and ye have not hearkened to My voice -- what `is' this ye have done?
and Jehovah thy God hath given them before thee, and thou hast smitten them -- thou dost utterly devote them -- thou dost not make with them a covenant, nor dost thou favour them. `And thou dost not join in marriage with them; thy daughter thou dost not give to his son, and his daughter thou dost not take to thy son, for he doth turn aside thy son from after Me, and they have served other gods, and the anger of Jehovah hath burned against you, and hath destroyed thee hastily.
And at the completion of these things, drawn nigh unto me have the heads, saying, `The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not been separated from the peoples of the lands, as to their abominations, even the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian, and the Amorite, for they have taken of their daughters to them, and to their sons, and the holy seed have mingled themselves among the peoples of the lands, and the hand of the heads and of the seconds have been first in this trespass.' And at my hearing this word, I have rent my garment and my upper robe, and pluck out of the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sit astonished,
Become not yoked with others -- unbelievers, for what partaking `is there' to righteousness and lawlessness? and what fellowship to light with darkness? and what concord to Christ with Belial? or what part to a believer with an unbeliever? and what agreement to the sanctuary of God with idols? for ye are a sanctuary of the living God, according as God said -- `I will dwell in them, and will walk among `them', and I will be their God, and they shall be My people, wherefore, come ye forth out of the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and an unclean thing do not touch, and I -- I will receive you,
But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to My voice, And I have been to you for God, And ye -- ye are to Me for a people, And have walked in all the way that I command you, So that it is well for you. And they have not hearkened, nor inclined their ear, And they walk in the counsels, In the stubbornness, of their evil heart, And are for backward, and not for forward. Even from the day when your fathers Went out of the land of Egypt till this day, I send to you all my servants the prophets, Daily rising early and sending, And they have not hearkened unto Me, Nor inclined their ear, and harden their neck, They have done evil above their fathers. And thou hast spoken unto them all these words, And they do not hearken to thee, And thou hast called unto them, And they do not answer thee. And thou hast said unto them: This `is' the nation that hath not hearkened, To the voice of Jehovah its God, Nor have they accepted instruction, Perished hath stedfastness, Yea, it hath been cut off from their mouth.
O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah: A wilderness have I been to Israel? A land of thick darkness? Wherefore have My people said, `We mourned, We come not in again unto Thee.' Doth a virgin forget her ornaments? A bride her bands? And My people have forgotten Me days without number. What -- dost thou make pleasing thy ways to seek love? Therefore even the wicked thou hast taught thy ways.
They have not destroyed the peoples, As Jehovah had said to them, And mix themselves among nations, and learn their works, And serve their idols, And they are to them for a snare. And they sacrifice their sons And their daughters to destroyers, And they shed innocent blood -- Blood of their sons and of their daughters, Whom they have sacrificed to idols of Canaan, And the land is profaned with blood. And they are defiled with their works, And commit whoredom in their habitual doings. And the anger of Jehovah Is kindled against His people, And He doth abominate His inheritance.
And casteth out nations from before them, And causeth them to fall in the line of inheritance, And causeth the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents, And they tempt and provoke God Most High, And His testimonies have not kept. And they turn back, And deal treacherously like their fathers, They have been turned like a deceitful bow, And make Him angry with their high places, And with their graven images make Him zealous,
`And now, what do we say, O our God, after this? for we have forsaken Thy commands, that Thou hast commanded by the hands of thy servants the prophets, saying, The land into which ye are going to possess it, `is' a land of impurity, by the impurity of the people of the lands, by their abominations with which they have filled it -- from mouth unto mouth -- by their uncleanness; and now, your daughters ye do not give to their sons, and their daughters ye do not take to your sons, and ye do not seek their peace, and their good -- unto the age, so that ye are strong, and have eaten the good of the land, and given possession to your sons unto the age. `And after all that hath come upon us for our evil works, and for our great guilt (for Thou, O our God, hast kept back of the rod from our iniquities, and hast given to us an escape like this),
`Only, of the cities of these peoples which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee `for' an inheritance, thou dost not keep alive any breathing; for thou dost certainly devote the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee, so that they teach you not to do according to all their abominations which they have done to their gods, and ye have sinned against Jehovah your God.
ye do utterly destroy all the places where the nations which ye are dispossessing served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the heights, and under every green tree; and ye have broken down their altars, and shivered their standing pillars, and their shrines ye burn with fire, and graven images of their gods ye cut down, and have destroyed their name out of that place.
`The graven images of their gods ye do burn with fire; thou dost not desire the silver and gold on them, nor hast thou taken `it' to thyself, lest thou be snared by it, for the abomination of Jehovah thy God it `is'; and thou dost not bring in an abomination unto thy house -- or thou hast been devoted like it; -- thou dost utterly detest it, and thou dost utterly abominate it; for it `is' devoted.
then ye have dispossessed all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and have destroyed all their imagery, yea, all their molten images ye destroy, and all their high places ye lay waste, and ye have possessed the land, and dwelt in it, for to you I have given the land -- to possess it.
take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land into which thou art going, lest it become a snare in thy midst; for their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and its shrines ye cut down; for ye do not bow yourselves to another god -- for Jehovah, whose name `is' Zealous, is a zealous God. `Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land, and they have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have sacrificed to their gods, and `one' hath called to thee, and thou hast eaten of his sacrifice, and thou hast taken of their daughters to thy sons, and their daughters have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have caused thy sons to go a-whoring after their gods;
thou dost not make a covenant with them, and with their gods; they do not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against Me when thou servest their gods, when it becometh a snare to thee.'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Judges 2
Commentary on Judges 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
In this chapter we have,
Jdg 2:1-5
It was the privilege of Israel that they had not only a law in general sent them from heaven, once for all, to direct them into and keep them in the way of happiness, but that they had particular messages sent them from heaven, as there was occasion, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, when at any time they turned aside out of that way. Besides the written word which they had before them to read, they often heard a word behind them, saying, This is the way, Isa. 30:21. Here begins that way of God's dealing with them. When they would not hear Moses, let it be tried whether they will hear the prophets. In these verses we have a very awakening sermon that was preached to them when they began to cool in their religion.
Jdg 2:6-23
The beginning of this paragraph is only a repetition of what account we had before of the people's good character during the government of Joshua, and of his death and burial (Jos. 24:29, 30), which comes in here again only to make way for the following account, which this chapter gives, of their degeneracy and apostasy. The angel had foretold that the Canaanites and their idols would be a snare to Israel; now the historian undertakes to show that they were so, and, that this may appear the more clear, he looks back a little, and takes notice,
And so he comes to give us a general idea of the series of things in Israel during the time of the judges, the same repeated in the same order.