1
These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan
2
(he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):
3
the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath.
4
They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.
5
The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
6
They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Othniel
7 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
8
The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.