1 AND the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bikhian, and said to the children of Israel, Thus says the LORD, I have brought you up from the land of Egypt, and have brought you into the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

2 And you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; you shall destroy their altars; but you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?

3 Wherefore I also said, I will not destroy them from before you; but they shall become vanity, and their gods shall be a stumbling block to you.

4 And when the angel of the LORD spoke these words to the children of Israel, all the people lifted up their voices and wept.

5 And the people called the name of that place Bikhian; and they sacrificed there to the LORD.

6 And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went away every man to his inheritance to possess the land.

7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the works of the LORD and the great things which he had done for Israel.

8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.

9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance at Timnath-serah on the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaash.

10 And all that generation were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the LORD nor the works which he had done for Israel.

11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baal;

12 And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, gods of the peoples who were round about them, and they worshipped them, and provoked the LORD to anger.

13 So they forsook the LORD and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

14 land the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers, and they plundered them, and he delivered them into the hands of their enemies round about them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

15 Wherever they went, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them; and they were greatly distressed.

16 Then the LORD raised up judges among the Israelites, and they delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

17 And yet they would not hearken to their judges, because they had gone astray after other gods and worshipped them; they turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, who had listened to the commandments of the LORD, but they did not do so.

18 And when the LORD raised up judges for them, then the LORD was with the judges, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judges; the LORD would hear their groaning because of their oppressors and those that drove them away.

19 And it came to pass, when the judges were dead, they returned and became more corrupt than their fathers, in following other gods to serve and to worship them; they did not cease from their wickedness, nor from their evil ways.

20 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; and he said, Because this people have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened to my voice;

21 I also will no longer destroy any man from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died;

22 That through them I may prove Israel whether they will keep the way of the LORD, and whether they will walk in it, as their fathers did keep it, or not.

23 Therefore the LORD left these nations, and did not destroy them hastily; neither had he delivered them into the hand of Joshua.