Judges 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; formula_1; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; formula_1; 5th century). 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 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). Israel's pattern of disobedience (2:6–23). This section laid out a theologically grounded view of history throughout this book: Israel's military and political fortunes depend not on pragmatic matters such as economic strength, political unity, or military preparedness but rather on the people's faithfulness to the covenantal relationship with God and appears also to depend on strong leadership such as Joshua (verse 6–7). When Joshua and the generation of the Exodus died, a new generation replaced them, but they 'did not know YHWH or the work he  had done for Israel' (verse 10) and this generally signal trouble for Israel in other biblical texts (cf. Exodus 1:8; 1 Kings 12:8). Verses 11–23 outline the pattern of Israel's history under the judges as follows: This framework is comparable to the theology and language in Deuteronomy 4:21–31; 6:10–15; 9:4–7; 12:29–32; 28:25, and unifies the Book of Judges as a whole (cf. the language and content at 3:7–10, 12, 15; 4:1; 6:1–10; 10:6–16; 13:1). When Israel 'abandons' YHWH (verses 12–13) to 'lust after' foreign gods (verse 17, especially the Canaanite Baal and his consort, Astharoth, then YHWH becomes 'angry ' and 'incensed' with them (verses 12,14, 20). This passage ends with a twist on the topic of Israel's incomplete conquest in Canaan: God allowed enemies to remain in the land to test Israel's faithfulness. Verse 9. At the end of the parallel verse Joshua 24:30, the Septuagint has an additional words, which may come from a Haggadah (traditional legend), that the flint knives used for the mass circumcision after crossing the Jordan River (Joshua 5:2) was buried in Joshua’s tomb.