Judges 2:12-14

2:12 They abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors ¹  who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods – the gods of the nations who lived around them. They worshiped ²  them and made the Lord angry. 2:13 They abandoned the Lord and worshiped Baal and the Ashtars. ³ 

2:14 The Lord was furious with Israel ⁴  and handed them over to robbers who plundered them. ⁵  He turned them over to ⁶  their enemies who lived around them. They could not withstand their enemies’ attacks. ⁷ 

---

¹ tn Or “fathers.”

² tn Or “bowed before” (the same expression occurs in the following verse).

³ tn Some English translations simply transliterate the plural Hebrew term (“Ashtaroth,” cf. NAB, NASB), pluralize the transliterated Hebrew singular form (“Ashtoreths,” cf. NIV), or use a variation of the name (“Astartes,” cf. NRSV).

sn The Ashtars were local manifestations of the goddess Astarte.

⁴ tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”

⁵ tn Heb “robbers who robbed them.” (The verb שָׁסָה [shasah] appears twice in the verse.)

sn The expression robbers who plundered them is a derogatory reference to the enemy nations, as the next line indicates.

⁶ tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”

⁷ tn The word “attacks” is supplied in the translation both for clarity and for stylistic reasons.