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¹ The angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bokhim. He said, I made you to go up out of Mitzrayim, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you:

² and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars. But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this?

³ Therefore 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.

⁴ It happened, when the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Yisra'el, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.

⁵ They called the name of that place Bokhim: and they sacrificed there to the LORD.

⁶ Now when Yehoshua had sent the people away, the children of Yisra'el went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.

⁷ The people served the LORD all the days of Yehoshua, and all the days of the Zakenim who outlived Yehoshua, who had seen all the great work of the LORD that he had worked for Yisra'el.

⁸ Yehoshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred ten years old.

⁹ They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnat-Heres, in the hill- country of Efrayim, on the north of the mountain of Ga`ash.

¹⁰ Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know the LORD, nor yet the work which he had worked for Yisra'el.

¹¹ The children of Yisra'el did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Ba`alim;

¹² and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Mitzrayim, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked the LORD to anger.

¹³ They forsook the LORD, and served Ba`al and the `Ashtarot.

¹⁴ The anger of the LORD was kindled against Yisra'el, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers who despoiled 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 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had spoken, and as the LORD had sworn to them: and they were sore distressed.

¹⁶ The LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them.

¹⁷ Yet they didn't listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the mitzvot of the LORD; [but] they didn't do so.

¹⁸ When the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and vexed them.

¹⁹ But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn't cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.

²⁰ The anger of the LORD was kindled against Yisra'el; and he said, Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice;

²¹ I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Yehoshua left when he died;

²² that by them I may prove Yisra'el, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.

²³ So the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Yehoshua.