Discovery BoxJudges 2:12-14 
Context2:12 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
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.
