Judges 2:16-Judges 3:6 - The Lord Raises Up Judges
16 Then the Lord gave them judges, as their saviours from the hands of those who were cruel to them. 17 But still they would not give ear to their judges, but went after other gods and gave them worship; quickly turning from the way in which their fathers had gone, keeping the orders of the Lord; but they did not do so. 18 And whenever the Lord gave them judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and was their saviour from the hands of their haters all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved by their cries of grief because of those who were cruel to them. 19 But whenever the judge was dead, they went back and did more evil than their fathers, going after other gods, to be their servants and their worshippers; giving up nothing of their sins and their hard-hearted ways.
20 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has not been true to my agreement which I made with their fathers, and has not given ear to my voice; 21 From now on I will not go on driving out from before them any of the nations which at the death of Joshua were still living in this land; 22 In order to put Israel to the test, and see if they will keep the way of the Lord, walking in it as their fathers did, or not. 23 So the Lord let those nations go on living in the land, not driving them out quickly, and did not give them up into the hands of Joshua.
1 Now these are the nations which the Lord kept in the land for the purpose of testing Israel by them, all those who had had no experience of all the wars of Canaan; 2 Only because of the generations of the children of Israel, for the purpose of teaching them war--only those who up till then had no experience of it; 3 The five chiefs of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites and the Zidonians and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from the mountain Baal-hermon as far as Hamath: 4 For the purpose of testing Israel by them, to see if they would give ear to the orders of the Lord, which he had given to their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 Now the children of Israel were living among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: 6 And they took as wives the daughters of these nations and gave their daughters to their sons, and became servants to their gods.