Judges 2:20-Judges 3:4 - The Lord Allows The Nations To Stay In Order To Test His People
20 {So the anger of Yahweh burned} against Israel, and he said, "Because this people transgressed my covenant that I commanded their ancestors, and have not obeyed my voice, 21 I will not again drive out anyone from before them from the nations that Joshua left when he died, 22 in order to test Israel whether or not they would observe the way of Yahweh, to walk in it just as their ancestors did." 23 So Yahweh left those nations; he did not drive them out at once, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.
1 These [are] the nations that Yahweh left, to test Israel by them ([that is, to test] all those who {had not experienced} any of the wars of Canaan, 2 in order that the generations of Israel would know war, to teach those {who had not experienced it} before): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon up to Lebo-Hamath. 4 They were [left] for testing Israel, to know [whether] they would keep the commands of Yahweh that he commanded their ancestors through the hand of Moses.