1And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to depart from Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
2And 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?
3Wherefore 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 to you.
4And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
5And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there to the LORD.
6And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.
7And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
8And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being a hundred and ten years old.
9And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
10And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
11And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
12And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were around them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
13And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
14And 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 around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
15Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them: and they were greatly distressed.
16Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, who delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
17And yet they would not hearken to their judges, but they went astray after other gods, and bowed themselves to them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
18And when the LORD raised up judges for them, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: (for the LORD repented because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and burdened them.)
19And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
20And 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 to my voice;
21I also will not henceforth drive out from before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
22That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.
23Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out speedily, neither did he deliver them into the hand of Joshua.