Judges 2:11

_AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND SERVED BAALIM:_ THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD. This chapter, together with the first eight verses of the next, contains a brief but comprehensive summary of the principles developed in the following history; and an attentive consideration of them, therefore, is of the greatest importance to a right understanding of the strange and varying phases of Israelite history from the death of Joshua until the establishment of the monarchy. SERVED BAALIM. The plural is used, to include all the gods of the country, the Phoenician idolatry being the prevalent superstition of Syria....

6-23 We have a general idea of the course of things in Israel, during the time of the Judges. The nation made themselves as mean and miserable by forsaking God, as they would have been great and happy if they had continued faithful to him. Their punishment answered to the evil they had done. They served the gods of the nations round about them, even the meanest, and God made them serve the princes of the nations round about them, even the meanest. Those who have found God true to his promises, may be sure that he will be as true to his threatenings. He might in justice have abandoned them, but he could not for pity do it. The Lord was with the judges when he raised them up, and so they became saviours. In the days of the greatest distress of the church, there shall be some whom God will find or make fit to help it. The Israelites were not thoroughly reformed; so mad were they upon their...

Verse Judges 2:11. _SERVED BAALIM_] The word בעלים _baalim_ signifies _lords_. Their false gods they considered _supernatural rulers_ or _governors_, each having his peculiar district and office; but when they wished to express a particular בעל _baal_, they generally added some particular epithet, as _Baal-zephon, Baal-peor, Baal-zehub,_ _Baal-shamayim_, c., as Calmet has well observed. The two former were adored by the _Moabites_ Baal-zebub by the _Ekronites_. Baal-berith was honoured at _Shechem_; and Baal-shamayim, the _lord_ or _ruler of the heavens_, was adored among the _Phoenicians,_ _Syrians, Chaldeans_, c. And whenever the word _baal_ is used without an epithet, this is the god that is intended and probably, among all these people, it meant the _sun_....

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL - Here begins the narrative of what really did happen “after the death of Joshua,” but of which Judges 1 conveys no hint. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua Judges 2:7. But when Joshua was dead ... “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, and forsook the God of their fathers.” And then follows from Judges 2:14 to the end of the chapter, a summary of the whole contents of the book. DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD - Through this book and all the historical books, this is the regular phrase for falling into idolatry. It occurs seven times in Judges, as descriptive of the seven apostasies of Israel, wh

EXPOSITION JUDGES 2:7 AND THE PEOPLE SERVED, etc. This verse is the epitome of the religious history of Israel from the time of the expostulation of the angel till the dying off of all those who had been elders in the time of Joshua. It probably includes some forty or fifty years from the entrance into Canaan, viz; about thirty years of Joshua's lifetime, and ten, fifteen, or twenty years after Joshua's death. The record of the people's continuance in the service of the Lord connects itself with the promise made by them in Joshua 24:21, Joshua 24:24. ALL THE GREAT WORKS, etc. Scarcely those prior to the crossing of the Jordan, though some might remember some o

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD,.... Openly and publicly, boldly and impudently, in the very face of God, and amidst all the good things they received from him, which were aggravating circumstances of their sins; what the evil was they did is next observed: AND SERVED BAALIM; the idol Baal, as the Arabic version, of which there were many, and therefore a plural word is used; to which the apostle refers 1 Corinthians 8:5; for the word signifies "lords", and there were Baalpeor, Baalzebub, Baalberith, c. and who seem to have their name from Bal, Bel, or Belus, a king of Babylon after Nimrod, and who was the first monarch that was deified, the Jupiter of the Heathens. Theophilus of Antioch p says, that, according to the history of Thallus, Belus the king of the Assyrians, whom they worshipped, was older than the Trojan war three hundred t

2. THE ANGEL AT BOCHIM AND THE HISTORY OF THE ENTIRE BOOK Chapter S 2:1-3:4 _ 1. The angel at Bochim (Judges 2:1)_ 2. Israel's obedience remembered (Judges 2:6) 3. Israel's strange gods (Judges 2:11) 4. Israel's history under the judges outlined (Judges 2:16) 5. The nations left to prove Israel (Judges 2:19; Judges 3:1) The opening event of this chapter is significant. The Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. This Angel is J

JUDGES 2:6 TO JUDGES 3:6. THE DEUTERONOMIST'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JUDGES PROPER (Judges 3:5 to Judges 16:31). In the view of this interpreter of sacred history, the whole era of the Judges falls into longer or shorter times of national prosperity, in which Yahweh protects and blesses His faithful people, alternating with times of national calamity, in which He withdraws His favour and blessing from apostates. On the beneficent strength of the Judge the pillars of state rest secure for a whole generation, and his decease is like the removal of the key-stone of an arch. The writer's general principle his philosophy of history is based on sound prophetic

EVIL. the evil. Hebrew. _ra_. _a_ '. See App-44. Six "evil" doings recorded in this book (App-10): Judges 3:7; Judges 3:12; Judges 4:1; Judges 6:1; Judges 10:6; Judges 13:1....

The Deuteronomist's rationale of the period of the Judges begins here. He starts with one of his recurring formulae, _did evil in the sight of the Lord_, Judges 3:7; Judges 3:12; Judges 4:1; Judges 6:1; Judges 10:6; Judges 13:1; 1 Kings 11:6; 1 Kings 14:22 and often;...