Judges 2:20-Judges 3:4 - The Lord Allows The Nations To Stay In Order To Test His People
20 The anger of Jehovah was hot against Israel. He said: Because this people have transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice; 21 I will not drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. 22 That through them I may test Israel, to see whether they will keep the way of Jehovah and walk in it as their fathers did. 23 Therefore Jehovah left those nations, without driving them out. He did not deliver them into the hand of Joshua.
1 Now these are the nations that Jehovah left to test the Israelites who had not known all the wars of Canaan. 2 He did this to teach warfare to the generations of the children of Israel who had not had previous battle experience. 3 Those left in the land were the five Philistine cities, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal Hermon as far as Hamath Pass. 4 They were to be a test for Israel. This would find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commandments that Jehovah gave their ancestors through Moses.