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Judges 2:11

in Judges 2

And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim;

KJV

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:

This verse in Judges 2

Commentary

3 notes on this verse
And the children of Israel - Here begins the narrative of what really did happen “after the death of Joshua,” but of which Judg. 1 conveys no hint. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua Jdg 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 Jdg 2:14 to the end of the chapter, a summary of the whole contents of the book.

This site's exposition

the children of Israel did evil in the sight

on Judges 2:11-13

This is the first of seven times the book says it, at 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6 and 13:1, and three of those read did evil again, so a reader counting the shorter phrase finds only four. The gods named are Baalim and Ashtaroth, the storm god and the goddess of the surrounding towns, so what draws them is the religion of the neighbours rather than an argument. The verb forsook falls twice in three verses.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

on Judges 2:11-19

An attentive consideration of them, therefore, is of the greatest importance to a right understanding of the strange and varying phases of Israelitish history, from the death of Joshua till the establishment of the monarchy. served Baalim--The plural is used to include all the gods of the country.

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּעֲשׂ֧וּand they did

    vaiyaasuH62132628 times

  • בְנֵֽי־[the] people of

    venei-H11214930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לIsrael

    yisraelH34782507 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הָרַ֖עthe evil

    hara'H7451662 times

  • בְּעֵינֵ֣יin [the] eyes of

    beeineiH5869887 times

  • יְהוָ֑הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • וַיַּעַבְד֖וּand they served

    vaiyaavduH5647288 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הַבְּעָלִֽים׃the Baals

    habealimH116882 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Judges 6:1

    Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,

    it leads to

    • Nehemiah 9:26–29

      But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

    • Judges 2:19–20

      But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices…

  • Through

    Judges 8:33

    And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god.

    it leads to

    • Judges 9:4

      So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.

    • Judges 9:46

      On hearing of this, all the leaders in the tower of Shechem entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith.

    • Judges 2:19

      But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices…

  • Through

    Judges 4:1

    After Ehud died, the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the LORD.

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 5:3

      O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than…

  • Through

    Judges 10:6

    And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus…

    it leads to

    • 2 Kings 23:13

      The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh…

  • Through

    Judges 3:7

    So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 34:13

      Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.

Where this verse is studied

About Judges

 An Angel Appears to the Israelites — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
An Angel Appears to the Israelites — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth.