Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Judges
Chapter 2: A Generation That Knew Not the LORD
Chapter 2 is the theological heart of the whole book. The angel of the LORD comes up from Gilgal to Bochim and rebukes a disobedient people, who weep but do not repent. Then a generation arises that never knew the LORD or His works, and the sorrowful cycle of Judges begins to turn: sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation, round and round, ever downward.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Judges chapter 2. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Where chapter 1 showed the failure to drive out the Canaanites, chapter 2 reveals its spiritual root and traces the whole pattern the rest of the book will follow. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
The Angel of the LORD at Bochim (Judges 2:1-5)
The LORD Himself, in the person of His Angel, comes to charge Israel with broken faith, and the people weep, though they do not turn.
Ye Have Not Obeyed My Voice
"And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD."
Word Study
"an angel of the LORD," Hebrew malak YHWH (מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה). The word malak means "messenger." But this messenger does not speak for God as a mere errand-bearer; He speaks as God, in the first person: "I made you to go up out of Egypt... I sware unto your fathers... I said, I will never break my covenant with you." No created angel could say those words. This is the Angel of the LORD who appeared to Abraham, wrestled with Jacob, spoke from the burning bush, and stood before Joshua as the captain of the LORD's host, the LORD Himself in visible, personal form. For the Apostolic reader this is a shadow of the incarnation to come: the one God, invisible in His essence, making Himself visible and personal to His people. The same LORD who would one day be "manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16) here comes up from Gilgal to plead with His covenant people. When the New Testament says "God was in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19), it is describing in fullness what the Angel of the LORD foreshadowed: the one God stepping into visibility to save.
Explanation
Gilgal was the place of Israel's first camp in the land, where they were circumcised and kept the Passover; it stood for consecration and new beginnings. The Angel comes "up from Gilgal" to Bochim, and the very movement pictures a people who have drifted from the place of full obedience. The charge is exact: God kept every part of His covenant ("I made you to go up... I brought you... I will never break my covenant"), but Israel broke theirs ("ye have not obeyed my voice"). Because they would not drive the Canaanites out, God says He will not drive them out either; what they spared would become "thorns" and "a snare." The people weep and name the place Bochim, "weepers." But tears are not repentance. They sacrifice, yet the next verses show they did not truly turn, and the whole book proves it.
Gospel Focus
There is a sorrow that "worketh repentance to salvation" and a sorrow "of the world" that only "worketh death" (2 Corinthians 7:10). Bochim was the second kind: real weeping, real emotion, but no real turning. Israel felt the sting of the word and cried, but they went home and served Baal anyway. God is not moved by our tears alone; He looks for a heart that forsakes the sin it weeps over. The gospel calls not merely for feeling but for turning, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted" (Acts 3:19). Let us not be a people who weep at Bochim and worship idols the same week.
A Generation That Knew Not the LORD (Judges 2:6-15)
When the generation that had seen God's works died, their children grew up strangers to Him, and Israel plunged into idolatry.
There Arose Another Generation
"And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed."
Word Study
"knew not," Hebrew yada (יָדַע). The verb means far more than to have information; it is the word for intimate, experiential knowing, used of the deepest personal relationship. The new generation had heard the stories, no doubt, but they did not know the LORD, they had no living acquaintance with Him, no personal experience of His power, no relationship of the heart. Notice the tragic chain: they "knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done." The fathers had seen the sea part and the walls of Jericho fall; the children only heard secondhand, and secondhand faith is no faith at all. This is the great warning of Judges 2: a nation is always one generation from apostasy. God has no grandchildren. Each generation must come to know Him for themselves, or the faith dies out and Baal moves in.
Explanation
The passage marks a hinge. As long as Joshua and the elders who had "seen all the great works of the LORD" lived, Israel served God. But that generation died, Joshua was buried, and their children "knew not the LORD." The result was swift: they "did evil," "served Baalim," "forsook the LORD," and "bowed themselves" to the gods of the nations they had refused to drive out, exactly the snare chapter 1 set up. Baal was the storm-and-fertility god of Canaan; Ashtaroth, his female counterpart. Israel traded the God who split the sea for the idols of the people they should have removed. And God, faithful even in judgment, did just what He had sworn: He "sold them" into the hand of their enemies, and "the hand of the LORD was against them for evil." The same hand that had fought for them now fought against them, because they had forsaken Him.
Gospel Focus
The chief duty and joy of every believing home is to pass on a living knowledge of God, not just a memory of His works. Israel's fathers failed to make God real to their children, and within one generation the nation was bowing to Baal. God commanded the fathers to teach His words to their children, to "talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way" (Deuteronomy 6:7), and the neglect of that command is written across the book of Judges in blood and idolatry. The gospel is meant to be handed down, "the promise is unto you, and to your children" (Acts 2:39). Fathers and mothers, do not assume your faith will carry to your sons and daughters by osmosis. See that they truly know the LORD, and not merely His stories.
The LORD Raised Up Judges (Judges 2:16-23)
In mercy God sends deliverers, but Israel will not learn, and the whole downward spiral of the book is laid out in advance.
It Repented the LORD Because of Their Groanings
"Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so. And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua."
Word Study
"it repented the LORD," Hebrew nacham (נָחַם). The word can mean to be sorry, to relent, to be moved with compassion. It does not mean God changed His mind because He had made a mistake, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent" (Numbers 23:19). Here nacham describes the tender compassion of God: He was "moved to pity" by the groanings of His suffering people. Even while they were serving Baal, their misery under oppression stirred His mercy, and He raised up a deliverer. This is the astonishing grace at the center of the Judges cycle: they did not deserve rescue, they had earned their chains, yet God heard their groaning and could not leave them. It is the same mercy that "heard their groaning" in Egypt (Exodus 2:24), the same heart that would one day say, "How shall I give thee up?" (Hosea 11:8).
Explanation
These verses lay out the pattern the rest of Judges will repeat seven times over. It is a cycle, and it turns in four movements: Sin, Israel does evil and serves other gods; Servitude, God sells them into the hand of oppressors; Supplication, they groan under the burden; Salvation, God, moved with pity, raises up a judge to deliver them. But notice the fatal detail: "when the judge was dead, they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers." It is not a circle but a downward spiral, each turn lower than the last. And God announces His purpose in leaving the nations: "that through them I may prove Israel." The very enemies they should have driven out God now uses as a test, to reveal whether His people will walk in His way. The land had become their examination.
Gospel Focus
The cycle of Judges is the story of the human heart without a Saviour. We sin, we suffer, we cry out, God delivers, and then, "when the judge was dead," we go back and do worse. Every judge God raised up brought only temporary relief, because none could change the heart, and when the deliverer died, the people relapsed. The whole book is a two-hundred-year cry for a Deliverer who would not die and leave His people to fall again, a Saviour who conquers not just the enemy but the sin within. That Deliverer is Jesus Christ, the Judge who "ever liveth" (Hebrews 7:25), who does not merely relieve the symptoms but writes God's law "in their hearts" (Hebrews 8:10). Every dead judge in this book points to the living One, whose deliverance never expires because He never dies.
Chapter 2 in Review
Judges 2 is the doorway to the whole book. The Angel of the LORD, the LORD Himself in visible form, comes up from Gilgal to Bochim and charges Israel with breaking the covenant He had faithfully kept. The people weep but do not truly turn. Then the generation that had seen God's mighty works dies, and their children arise "which knew not the LORD." Idolatry floods in, judgment follows, and the tragic cycle of sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation begins to spiral downward.
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter sounds two great warnings and holds out one great hope. The warnings: tears without turning are not repentance, and a faith not truly passed to the next generation dies within it. The hope: even in judgment, God is "moved with pity" by His people's groanings and sends a deliverer, and every dying judge of this book points forward to the Deliverer who lives forever, Jesus Christ our LORD.
- The Angel of the LORD speaks as God Himself, a shadow of God manifest in the flesh.
- Bochim's tears were real, but weeping without repentance changes nothing.
- A generation that "knew not the LORD" fell to Baal; each generation must know God for itself.
- The cycle, sin, servitude, supplication, salvation, spirals ever downward and cries for a Deliverer who never dies.
Questions for Reflection
- Have you truly repented of sins you have only wept over? What is the difference in your own life?
- What are you doing to make God real, and not merely familiar, to the next generation?
- The judges could only give temporary relief. How is Christ's deliverance different from theirs?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The Angel of the LORD who speaks as God: Judges 2:1-3; Exodus 3:2-6; Joshua 5:13-15; 1 Timothy 3:16.
- Godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow: 2 Corinthians 7:10; Acts 3:19.
- A generation that knew not the LORD; teaching children: Judges 2:10; Deuteronomy 6:7; Acts 2:39.
- The cycle of sin, servitude, supplication, salvation: Judges 2:16-19.
- God moved with pity; the Deliverer who ever lives: Exodus 2:24; Hebrews 7:25; 8:10.