2:1 And a messenger of YHWH (יהוה) came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Mityrayim, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your avot; and I said, I will never break My Brit with you.
2:2 And ye shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their mitzbechot: but ye have not obeyed My voice: why have ye done this?
2:3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their elohi (gods, אלהי) shall be a snare unto you.
2:4 And it came to pass, when the messenger of YHWH (יהוה) spake these words unto all Benai Yisrael, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
2:5 And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto YHWH (יהוה).
2:6 And when Yehoshua had let the people go, Benai Yisrael went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
2:7 Ve abad (served) ha am (people) eh YHWH (יהוה) kol (all) yamin (days) Yehoshua, ve kol yamin zekenim that outlived Yehoshua, who had seen all the great ma'aseh (works) YHWH (יהוה), that he did for Yisrael.
2:8 And Yehoshua Ben Nun, ha eved YHWH (יהוה), died, [being] an hundred and ten years old.
2:9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnat-Heres, in the Har Efrayim, on the north side of the Har Gaash.
2:10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their avot: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not YHWH (יהוה), nor yet the ma'aseh (works) which he had done for Yisrael.
2:11 And Benai Yisrael did evil in the sight of YHWH (יהוה), and served ba'alim:
2:12 And they forsook YHWH (יהוה) Elohim (אלהים) of their avot, which brought them out of the eretz Mityrayim, and followed other elohi , of the elohi (gods, אלהי) of the people that [were] round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked YHWH (יהוה) to anger.
2:13 And they forsook YHWH (יהוה), and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
2:14 And the anger of YHWH (יהוה) was hot against Yisrael, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
2:15 Wherever they went, yad YHWH (יהוה) was against them for evil, as YHWH (יהוה) had said, and as YHWH (יהוה) had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.
2:16 Nevertheless YHWH (יהוה) raised up Shofetim (judges, שׁפטיהם), which delivered them out of the yad those that spoiled them.
2:17 And yet they would not hearken unto their Shofetim (judges, שׁפטיהם), but they went a whoring after other elohi (gods, אלהי), and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their avot walked in, obeying the commandments of YHWH (יהוה); [but] they did not so.
2:18 And when YHWH (יהוה) raised them up Shofetim (judges, שׁפטיהם), then YHWH (יהוה) was with the judge, and delivered them out of the yad their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented YHWH (יהוה) because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and crushed them.
2:19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, [that] they returned, and corrupted [themselves] more than their avot, in following other elohi (gods, אלהי) to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
2:20 And the anger of YHWH (יהוה) was hot against Yisrael; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed My Brit which I commanded their avot, and have not hearkened unto My voice;
2:21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Yehoshua left when he died:
2:22 That through them I may prove Yisrael, whether they will keep the way of YHWH (יהוה) to halak therein, as their avot did keep [it], or not.
2:23 Therefore YHWH (יהוה) left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the yad Yehoshua.