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But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land.
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When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely.
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Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them.
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Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them, but Zebulun did subject them to forced labor.
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The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out.
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Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them.
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The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain.
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And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor.
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The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion Pass to Sela and beyond.
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The Angel of the class="small-caps" >Lord at Bokim
The angel of the class="small-caps" >Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,
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and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?
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And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’”
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and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the class="small-caps" >Lord.
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Disobedience and Defeat
After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance.
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The people served the class="small-caps" >Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the class="small-caps" >Lord had done for Israel.
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And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
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After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the class="small-caps" >Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
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Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the class="small-caps" >Lord and served the Baals.
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They forsook the class="small-caps" >Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the class="small-caps" >Lord’s anger
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because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
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In his anger against Israel the class="small-caps" >Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
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Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the class="small-caps" >Lord’s commands.
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Whenever the class="small-caps" >Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the class="small-caps" >Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.
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But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
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Therefore the class="small-caps" >Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me,
