1An angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, "I brought you up out of Egypt. I brought you into the land that I promised to your fathers with an oath. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you.'"
2"And you must make no agreement with the people who live in this land. You must pull down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?"
3"So I also say this: I will not drive them out from in front of you. They will be like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you."
4When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, the people cried out loud and wept.
5They called that place Bochim, and there they offered sacrifices to the LORD.
6When Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel each went to his own share of the land, to take it as his own.
7The people served the LORD as long as Joshua lived, and as long as the elders lived who outlived Joshua. Those elders had seen all the great works that the LORD did for Israel.
8Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died. He was a hundred and ten years old.
9They buried him on the border of his own land at Timnathheres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
10All that generation also were gathered to their fathers. After them another generation grew up who did not know the LORD, nor the works he had done for Israel.
11The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baalim.
12They left the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, and they bowed down to them. So they made the LORD angry.
13They left the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
14The anger of the LORD burned against Israel. He handed them over to raiders who robbed them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand against their enemies.
15Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring trouble, just as the LORD had said and had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
16Even so, the LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who robbed them.
17Yet they would not listen to their judges. They gave themselves to other gods like an unfaithful wife, and bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way their fathers had walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD. They did not do as their fathers had done.
18When the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and saved them from the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived. For the LORD was moved by their groaning under those who crushed them and troubled them.
19But when the judge died, they turned back and made themselves more corrupt than their fathers. They followed other gods, to serve them and to bow down to them. They did not stop their evil deeds or their stubborn ways.
20The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he said, "This people have broken my covenant, which I commanded their fathers to keep, and they have not listened to my voice."
21"So from now on I will not drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died."
22"I will use them to test Israel, to see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not."
23So the LORD let those nations stay. He did not drive them out quickly, and he had not handed them over to Joshua.