Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’ ”
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Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
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Wherefore I also said: I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be unto you as snares, and their gods shall be a trap unto you.'
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Judges 2:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joshua 23:13 know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.
- Numbers 33:55 “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land in which you dwell.
- Deuteronomy 7:16 You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you.
- Psalms 106:36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them.
- Exodus 23:33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
- Exodus 34:12 Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you;
- Judges 2:21 I also will no longer drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died from before them;
- Judges 3:6 They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods.
- 1 Kings 11:1-7 Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites; of the nations concerning which Yahweh said to the children of Israel, “You shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon joined to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. His wives turned his heart away. When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father was. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and didn’t go fully after Yahweh, as David his father did. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, snare.
Or, snare.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jdg 2:3 Wherefore I also said, I will not…
Jdg 2:3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
Ver. 3. As thorns in your sides.] See Jos 23:13.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I also said with myself; I have now taken…
I also said with myself; I have now taken up this peremptory resolution.
Thorns in your sides: See Poole "Num 33:55"; See Poole "Jos 23:13".
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Wherefore I also said,.... Supposing, or on condition of…
Wherefore I also said,.... Supposing, or on condition of their being guilty of the above things, which was foreseen they would:
I will not drive them out from before you; the seven nations of the Canaanites entirely, and which accounts for the various instances related in the preceding chapter; where it is observed, that they could not, or did not, drive the old inhabitants out of such and such places, because they sinned against the Lord, and he forsook them, and would not assist them in their enterprises, or them to their sloth and indolence:
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but they shall be as thorns in your sides: very troublesome and afflicting, see Num 33:55; or for straits, as the Septuagint, or be such as would bring them into tribulation, and distress them, as the Targum; so they often did:
and their gods shall be a snare unto you; which they suffered to continue, and did not destroy them, as they ought to have done; they would be, as they proved, ensnaring to them, and whereby they were drawn to forsake the worship of the true God, and bow down to them, as we read in some following verses.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain I said - With myself, I have now taken…
I said - With myself, I have now taken up this peremptory resolution.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. I will not drive them out from…
Verse 3. I will not drive them out from before you] Their transgressions, and breach of the covenant, were the reasons why they were not put in entire possession of the promised land. See note at the end of this chapter. Clarke "Jdg 2:23".
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain “Wherefore I also said” - Rather because ye have…
“Wherefore I also said” - Rather because ye have done the things mentioned in Jdg 2:2, “I have now said (i. e. I now protest and declare) that I will not drive them out from before you” (compare Jdg 19:29). And it was the annonncement of this resolution by the Angel that caused the people to weep.
The word thorns in this verse is supplied by the King James Version from the similar passage in Joshua (see the marginal reference). Other versions adopt a different reading of the original text, and prefer the sense “they shall be to you for adversaries” (compare the last words of Num 33:55).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Ruin. Septuagint, "stumbling block," the occasion of ruin. (Menochius)…
Ruin. Septuagint, "stumbling block," the occasion of ruin. (Menochius) --- Thus by a false compassion (Calmet) and negligence, the Israelites brought upon themselves the most serious difficulties, while those whom they had spared, turned against them by a just judgment of God, and proved the ruin both of their souls and bodies, by drawing them into idolatry and then putting them to the sword. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Wherefore I also said — By the lips…
3. Wherefore I also said — By the lips of Moses (Num_33:55) and of Joshua (Jos_23:12-13) the declaration was made that if they clave unto the remnant of the nations, and had social and commercial intercourse with them. God would not drive out these nations. They had received a fair warning.
As thorns — These words are not found in the Hebrew of this passage, but are here supplied by our translators from Num_33:55, and Jos_23:13. Literally this text reads, They shall be to you to sides; but it is to be regarded as an abbreviation of the proverb, They shall be for thorns to your sides. “The figure is taken from rural life. Israel has acted like a slothful gardener. He has not thoroughly destroyed the thorns and thistles of his fields. The consequence will be that sowing and planting and other field labours will soon be rendered painful by the presence of spiteful thorns. The influence of habitual intercourse will make the Canaanites stinging weeds and snares for Israel.” — Cassel.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Wherefore I also said] Moreover also I said;…
3. Wherefore I also said] Moreover also I said; perhaps referring to the warning in Jos_23:13 D, Num_33:55 P, from which latter place the expressions in this verse appear to be borrowed. Others translate ‘and I have also said,’ a present, resolve in antithesis to the past promise ‘And I said, I will never break’ etc. in Jdg_2:1 b; but the antithesis is hardly to be extracted from the Hebr.
they shall be as thorns in your sides] Supplying ‘as thorns’ from Num_33:55, to make sense; cf. Jos_23:13 ‘thorns in your eyes’; the word ‘as thorns’ may have been omitted here by accident. Instead of ‘they shall be sides (!) unto you’ (ṣiddim) the Vulgate and Targ. have ‘they shall be adversaries’ (ṣarim); the LXX, taking ṣarim as = ṣaroth, render ‘straits,’ ‘distresses,’ so Vet. Ital. in angustias, in pressura: these are probably only conjectures. It has been proposed to pronounce ṣiddim ‘sides’ as ṣaddim, and give it the sense of the Assyrian ṣaddu ‘a net, trap’; this would make a good parallel to ‘snare’ at the end of the verse; but the Assyr. form is not quite certain (? zaddu).
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their gods … a snare unto you] Cf. Exo_23:33; Exo_34:12; Deu_7:16; Jos_23:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) Wherefore I also said.—Rather, And now I have…
(3) Wherefore I also said.—Rather, And now I have said.
I will not drive them out.—The withdrawal of the conditional promises in Exo_23:31.
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They shall be as thorns in your sides.—The Hebrew is, “they shall be to you for sides.” The words “as thorns” are conjecturally supplied from Num_33:55. In Jos_23:13 we have “scourges in your sides.” The LXX. render “for pressures,” and the Vulgate “that you may have enemies.” The Hebrew word for “sides” is tsiddim, and would differ little from tsarim (“nets”), which is the conjecture of R. Jonas; and this root is found in the verb, “and they shall vex you,” in Num_33:55. Whether we adopt this reading, or tsinnim (“thorns”), or suppose that a word has dropped out, the general sense is the same.
Their gods shall be a snare unto you.—See Jdg_2:12-13; Psa_106:36.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain I said, i.e. I now declare to you my…
I said, i.e. I now declare to you my resolve. It was this that made the people weep. Thorns in your sides. This is not a translation of the Hebrew text, which only has "for sides," but a partial adaptation of Jos_23:13, where the phrase is "scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes." Either the words for "scourges in" have fallen out of the text, or the word here rendered "sides" should be rendered, as some think, "enemies." A snare. See Jud_1:8:27, note.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
The angel of Yahweh continues to speak to the people of Israel.
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So now I say, 'I will not ... trap for you.'
This has a quotation within a quotation. This direct quotation can be stated as an indirect quotation. AT: "So now I tell you that I will not ... trap for you.'" (See: Quotes Within Quotes and Direct and Indirect Quotations)
become thorns in your sides
The Canaanites troubling the Israelites is spoken of as if the Canaanites would be thorns in the side of the Israelites. AT: "cause you trouble" (See: Metaphor)
thorns
sharp pieces of wood up to 7 centimeters long that stick out from some plants
their gods will become a trap for you
The Israelites worshiping the Canaanite gods is spoken of as if the false gods were a hunter's trap that catches an animal and causes it harm. (See: Metaphor)
shouted and wept
"cried many tears"
translationWords
cast out
Canaan
thorn
false god
snare
angel
Yahweh
Israel
sacrifice
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.