Judges 2
Book of Judges, chapter 2
Judges 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter focuses on the military failure and apostasy of the Israelites following the introduction in the first chapter.
Text
This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 23 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include Codex Vaticanus (B;
G
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B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A;
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A; 5th century).
Old Testament references
Judges 2:6–8: Joshua 24:29–33
Judges 2:10–23: Isaiah 43:22–28; Jeremiah 2:23–37
Angel of the Lord at Bochim (2:1–5)
This brief section about a theophany serves as a connecting link between the previous and the subsequent chapters, responding to the Israelites' request for divine guidance in Judges 1:1 with a reminder about God's covenantal promise to give Israel the land (back to the era of the patriarchs) being kept faithfully as witnessed by the redemption from Egypt (Judges 2:1), but the future of the covenant was conditional to the faithfulness of Israel, as a covenant partner, to YHWH alone. The failure to drive out the enemy described in 1:28–36 were not really because of military weakness (1:19), but due to the unfaithfulness of Israel to the covenant (2:2–3). People's reaction to these harsh predictions provides the etymology for
the place where the angel appeared (2:4–5).
Verse 1
Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you'"
"The Angel of the Lord": from Hebrew מלאך יהוה, malak YHWH as also used in Haggai 1:13; of prophets in Isaiah 42:19; Malachi 3:6; of priests in Malachi 2:7, interpreted as "a messenger of the Lord".
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