⁶ Joshua sent the people away. Each one of the Israelites went to their inheritance to take possession of the land. ⁷ The people served YHWH all the days of Joshua's life, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, those who had seen every great work which YHWH had done for Israel. ⁸ Joshua, son of Nun, the Servant of YHWH, died one hundred and ten years old. ⁹ They buried him within the borders of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ That entire generation was gathered to their fathers. A new generation came after them who did not know YHWH or the work he had done for Israel. (2:6-10)

    This is the third time the Bible mentions Joshua's death. The book of Joshua ended with it (see Joshua 24:29-30, which has virtually the identical wording as 2:8-9) and the book of Judges began with it (see 1:1). It must have been viewed as a significant transition point for Israel. And his faithfulness sets in relief the next generation's lack of it.
    The attention given to Joshua's faith can, in part, be explained because of his tribal affiliation. Joshua's burial place in Timnath indicates that he was from the tribe of Ephraim, which would become the heart of the Northern Kingdom. Thus, he comes from the home territory of the Deuteronomistic circle of theologians who were responsible for writing down this history.
    The mention in the text of "the new generation who did not know Yahweh," of course, did not bode well and suggests that something had gone awry. "Did not know" means more that lack of knowledge. "To know" is typical covenant terminology, indicating that the parties in the covenant relationship acknowledge their obligation. This is what the Israelites had given up. In their unfaithfulness they were like that first generation out of Egypt, except that the first exodus generation had the advantage of knowing the work of Yahweh firsthand.

¹¹ The Israelites acted wickedly in the eyes of YHWH. They served the Baal gods. ¹² They abandoned YHWH, the Elohim of their Fathers, the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, including the gods of the people living around them. They worshiped them and made YHWH angry. ¹³ They abandoned YHWH and served Baal and Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ The anger of YHWH erupted against Israel and he handed them over to marauders who plundered them, and he sold them to the enemies in their vicinity. They were not able to stand up against their enemies. ¹⁵ No matter what they tried to do, the power of YHWH was against them resulting in misfortune--just as YHWH had sworn to them--and they were in dire straits. (2:11-15)

    Note how the text identifies Yahweh as the God of the Fathers and the one who delivered them from Egypt. Both descriptions recall God's early promises and his work in history.
    Baal and Ashtaroth are a male and a female god respectively. These figures and their characters are known especially from texts discovered at ancient Ugarit, where Ashtaroth was worshiped as Asherah. These gods were worshiped because it was thought they were responsible for agricultural productivity.

Baal and Ugarit. Texts from Ugarit, an ancient city discovered in 1929, contain tales of Baal and other Canaanite gods and goddesses (see Craigie 1983, Parker 1997). Though dated to the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 B.C.E.), hence before the Hebrew Bible was written or Israel even existed, they contain important stories of gods and heroes who appear in various guises in the Hebrew Bible. The following passage from the Baal cycle provides the flavor of the texts. In this selection a divine supporter of Baal encourages him to be courageous against his enemy Yamm, the god of the sea.
    Let me tell you, Prince Baal,
    let me repeat, Rider on the Clouds:
    behold, your enemy, Baal,
    behold, you will kill your enemy,
    behold, you will annihilate your foes.
    You will take your eternal kingship,
    your dominion forever and ever.( Coogan 1978)

    The Israelites were attracted to the gods of the indigenous Canaanites. The essential theological problem with worshiping Canaanite gods was the implied abandonment of Yahweh. The covenant that bound Yahweh and Israel together demanded absolute and unwavering loyalty between these two parties. Worshiping another god was nothing less than a breach of covenant.
    For punishment Yahweh withdrew his leadership as the divine warrior. This resulted in Israel's total inability to gain the advantage over the other groups in Canaan.

¹⁶ YHWH raised up judges. They saved them from the power of the marauders. ¹⁷ Yet they did not even listen to their judges, but they whored after other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the path on which their ancestors walked--heeding the commandments of YHWH. That is just what they did not do! ¹⁸ When YHWH raised up judges for them, YHWH was with the judge his whole life, so that he could deliver them from the power of their enemies. YHWH was moved to pity when they groaned on account of their persecutors and oppressors. ¹⁹ When the judge died, they reverted and turned out worse than their ancestors by following other gods, serving, and worshiping them. They did not abandon any of their practices or their ingrained ways. ²⁰ So, the anger of YHWH erupted against Israel, and he thought, "Because this nation has broken the covenant to which I obligated their ancestors, and they have not obeyed my voice, ²¹ I will not continue to dispossess any of the nations Joshua left when he died." ²² In order to test Israel to see whether or not they would guard the path their ancestors guarded, ²³ YHWH allowed to remain those nations he did not dispossess quickly, those over whom he had not given Joshua power. (2:16-23)

    These verses provide the schematic outline that virtually every judge story follows. When the Israelites were in trouble, God empowered a judge to rescue them. After the judge died, the Israelites reverted to the worship of non-Yahweh gods. God again allowed a foreign group to dominate the Israelites as punishment. This cyclic pattern repeats itself each generation throughout the book of Judges: (1) Israel turns from Yahweh, (2) an enemy oppresses Israel, (3) Israel cries for help, (4) Yahweh sends a judge to deliver Israel. As you read, note how the pattern articulated in this general introduction is expressed in the tales of individual judges.
    In the following paragraph from the book of Judges, the unfaithfulness of the people is also used by the theologian-writer to explain why these foreign groups were still around when they should have been completely wiped out. They were kept around to be used as Yahweh's instrument to test the people.

¹ These are the nations YHWH allowed to remain to test Israel (all those who did not know the wars of Canaan-- ² it was only to teach the Israelite generations about war, only for those who had not experienced the wars): ³ the five Philistine lords, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Hivites who live on Mount Lebanon (from Mount Baal-hermon to Mount Lebo-hamath). ⁴ They were for the testing of Israel, to find out whether they would heed the commandments of YHWH which he commanded their ancestors through Moses. (3:1-4)