They were left to test Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to Yahweh’s commandments, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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They were left to test Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to Yahweh’s commandments, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Exodus 33, Deuteronomy 7 and 31, and Joshua 1, 3, 17, and 21 all promise or declare total victory — God will drive out every Canaanite nation, no one will stand against Israel, Joshua 21:44 even says all enemies were delivered into Israel's hand. Joshua 15-17 and Judges 1, 3 then admit that Jebusites, Canaanites in Gezer, cities of Manasseh, and numerous peoples were never driven out at all.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Judges 3:4 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/judges/3/4?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).