Judges 2:8-15

2:8 Joshua son of Nun, the Lord’s servant, died at the age of one hundred ten. 2:9 The people ¹  buried him in his allotted land ²  in Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 2:10 That entire generation passed away; ³  a new generation grew up ⁴  that had not personally experienced the Lord’s presence or seen what he had done for Israel. ⁵ 

A Monotonous Cycle

2:11 The Israelites did evil before ⁶  the Lord by worshiping ⁷  the Baals. 2:12 They abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors ⁸  who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods – the gods of the nations who lived around them. They worshiped ⁹  them and made the Lord angry. 2:13 They abandoned the Lord and worshiped Baal and the Ashtars. ¹⁰ 

2:14 The Lord was furious with Israel ¹¹  and handed them over to robbers who plundered them. ¹²  He turned them over to ¹³  their enemies who lived around them. They could not withstand their enemies’ attacks. ¹⁴  2:15 Whenever they went out to fight, ¹⁵  the Lord did them harm, ¹⁶  just as he had warned and solemnly vowed he would do. ¹⁷  They suffered greatly. ¹⁸ 

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¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “in the territory of his inheritance.”

³ tn Heb “All that generation were gathered to their fathers.”

⁴ tn Heb “arose after them.”

⁵ tn Heb “that did not know the Lord or the work which he had done for Israel.” The expressions “personally experienced” and “seen” are interpretive.

⁶ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

⁷ tn Or “serving”; or “following.”

⁸ tn Or “fathers.”

⁹ tn Or “bowed before” (the same expression occurs in the following verse).

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”

¹² 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.

¹³ tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”

¹⁴ tn The word “attacks” is supplied in the translation both for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

¹⁵ tn The expression “to fight” is interpretive.

¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord’s hand was against them for harm.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “just as he had said and just as he had sworn to them.”

¹⁸ tn Or “they experienced great distress.”