Judges 2:1-23
1 And an angela of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
3 Wherefore 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 unto you.
4 And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
5 And they called the name of that place Bochim:b and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.
6 And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlivedc Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
12 And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
13 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.
16 Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which deliveredd them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
18 And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corruptede themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
20 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice;
21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
22 That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
23 Therefore the LORD leftf those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.
Judges 2:1. An Angel of the Lord. Jewish writers in succession speak of this as a created angel: but no mere angel would dare to speak as Jehovah. It was therefore the Angel of the covenant, the same that had appeared to Moses and to Joshua. Exodus 3:2; Exodus 3:6; Joshua 5:13; Joshua 5:15. So the fathers with one consent expound his appearance at the bush, and on other occasions. This Angel was an ever-living Angel, clothed with omnipotence, and saying, “I will no more drive out these inhabitants from before you.” Theodoret however thinks, as some Jews have done, that this was Michael the archangel, and prince of the synagogues.
Judges 2:5. Bochim; that is, in the plural, weepings, wailings, &c. Bochim was the camp near Shiloh.
Judges 2:6. When Joshua had let the people go. The sacred writer here refers to the assembling of the people at Shechem, when Joshua delivered his dying charge.
Judges 2:10. Another generation, which knew not the Lord. That was the fault chiefly of the priests, the levites, and the elders, who seem to have led the people into error. The poor durst not have set up an idol. Eight times in this book they publicly rebelled against the Lord, and eight times the bloody and galling yoke of contemptible heathen powers was thrown upon their necks.
Judges 2:13. Baal and Ashtaroth. See on Joshua 23:7.
Judges 2:16. The Lord raised up judges, having some resemblance to the αρκοντες, archontes among the Athenians; martial dukes who retained their civil and military powers for life, and were the special gifts of heaven to save and preserve their country.
REFLECTIONS.
We are truly astonished that the Israelites should immediately on the death of their elders, revolt to idolatry, and make covenants with the accursed nations. What a proof of the contamination of original sin; and what an argument for us to train up the new generation in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; for they are all born with propensities to seek their happiness in exterior objects, and to forget their fathers' God. The charms of idolatry, it is true, were extremely beguiling to the less tutored among the Hebrews. The wine, the feasts, the music, the lascivious dances, and intercourse of the sexes, attendant on the worship of devils, induced the backsliding Israelites first to look on, and next to join in an oblation so pleasing to the flesh. And it should be well remembered that our theatres, our balls, our music-rooms &c. are to us those very altars of the demon, equally fatal to the soul.
What were the consequences of this apostasy, and all these covenants with the heathen? JEHOVAH the angel came to Bochim and said, I made you to go out of Egypt, &c. Seeing they had thus changed masters, he sentenced them to be scourged by those heathens, as he had sentenced their fathers at Kadesh. God will not suffer back-slidings and apostasy to pass with impunity: when he passes sentence on a people for their sins, repentance is unavailing; he despises tears at a certain crisis of obduracy. He will not alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth. The man who makes a covenant with his sins, will find them in the issue productive of destruction.
The case was similar in the primitive church. Even before the age of Constantine, the glory of the christian church was very much impaired. St. Cyprian, while in exile, was shocked to hear that the high road to Carthage was thronged with christians going to offer incense to the gods. And what shall we do to preserve our children from following the spirit and fashions of the world? By nature they are carnal and corrupt; therefore they must become regenerate, and be born of the Spirit. Let us endeavour to preserve the ministry pure; for an accommodating clergy, and a people having itching ears, will soon cause the most holy audience to degenerate into religious formality. Above all, let us preserve apostolic discipline by building up the church with real converts, and by the expulsion of all wicked and ungodly men. But oh, after all that men can do, shall our children become proud and vain? Shall they, despising our simplicity, conform to the world, become wanton in watering places, crowd the theatres, and bow to the desolating idol of profane pleasure? Shall they, dissipated in life and licentious in principle, ever make problems of the great truths which converted their fathers; or like the apostate descendants of the puritans, ridicule the Godhead and glory of Christ? Then surely the angel of the covenant, who in part abandoned Israel, will change the blessings of the covenant into anathemas, and chastise us with greater strokes than Israel's. From the latter part of this chapter, which sketches the history of the Hebrews to the days of Samuel, we see on a broad scale, that they never forsook the Lord and bowed to idols, but he gave them into the hands of their enemies; and it is the same with backsliders; the Lord gives up one to his drunkenness, and another to his covetousness, so that he eats the fruit of his own doings.
Lastly, from the paternal character of the judges whom the Lord raised up, and from the calamities which befel the country, when no such protectors watched over the public weal, we see what invaluable blessings a nation derives from a vigilant and paternal government. How highly then ought we to value and revere a gracious king, an active magistrate, and a faithful minister; and mourn their removal, not knowing the character of those who may succeed.