Judges 3:1-6

New International Reader's Version

3 The Lord left some nations in the land. He left them to test the Israelites who hadn’t lived through any of the wars in Canaan. ² He wanted to teach the men in Israel who had never been in battle before. He wanted them to learn how to fight. ³ So he left the five rulers of the Philistines. He left the people of Canaan and the people of Sidon. He left the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains. They lived in the area between Mount Baal Hermon and Lebo Hamath. ⁴ The Lord left those nations where they were to test the Israelites. He wanted to see whether they would obey his commands. He had given those commands through Moses to their people of long ago.

⁵ So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁶ They married the daughters of those people. They gave their own daughters to the sons of those people. And they served the gods of those people.