Judges 2:1-5·~1 min

Israel Rebuked at Bochim

The angel of the LORD speaks in the first person for the covenant God, recalling deliverance, command, and Israel's disobedience. The rebuke ends with a judgment: the remaining peoples and their gods will become a lasting snare.

N¹ow the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, ²and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ ³Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done? So now I tell you that I will not drive out these people before you; they will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”

The people hear the rebuke, weep aloud, and name the place Bochim. There they offer sacrifices to the LORD.

⁴When the angel of the LORD had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept. ⁵So they called that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.

Section summaryThe angel of the LORD recalls the covenant and names Israel's failure to tear down the land's altars. Because they have not obeyed, the peoples they spared will remain as trouble and temptation, and Israel responds with weeping and sacrifice at Bochim.

Role in the chapterThis opening section gives the book's problem in direct form. It ties Israel's coming distress not to chance but to covenant disobedience already present in the land.