Please FReepmail me to get on/off the Alleluia Ping List.
From: Judges 2:11-19
Israel lapses into infidelity, but the Lord keeps coming to its rescue
[16] Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the power of those
who plundered them. [17] And yet they did not listen to their judges; for they
played the harlot after other gods and bowed down to them; they soon turned
aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the com-
mandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. [18] Whenever the Lord raised
up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the
hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity
by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. [19] But
whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers,
going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them; they did not drop
any of their practices or their stubborn ways.
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
2:1-3:6. The sacred writer explains why they did not manage to dominate the
land; they did not keep the Covenant, so God did not allow them to defeat the
Canaanites (2:1-5).
After repeating almost word for word the short account of Joshua’s death and
burial found at the end of the book that bears his name (2:2-9; cf. Josh 24:28-31),
the writer goes on at some length to give a theological interpretation of events in
those distant days (2:11-23). The tribes of Canaan worshipped Baal, the god of
the rains and the harvest, and Ashtoreth (Greek: Astarte; pl. Ashtaroth), the
goddess of fertility; they made little idols, figurines, and worshipped them. The
Israelites were often attracted to these idolatrous customs, forgetting about the
Lord; he was the one who had given them this country, and now he allowed them
to be plundered. But in his kindness and mercy, seeing their plight, he took pity
on his people even before they turned back to him, and sent them judges to be
their deliverers. But once everything was peaceful again, the people fell back in-
to idolatry. Because this pattern continued, God did not totally drive away those
who were harassing his people (2:20-23); this meant that he was able to test the
Israelites’ fidelity – only to find that there were continuously unfaithful. That was
the pattern right down as far as the exile. So, the sacred author does not dis-
guise the gravity of the people’s sins but he also shows God’s mercy, which is
more effective and always prevails. “I once heard someone say very rashly,” St.
J. Escriva preached, “that the experience of one’s lapses serves to make one fall
a further hundred times in the same error. I tell you, instead, that a prudent per-
son makes use of these setbacks to be more careful in the future, to learn to do
good and to renew his decision to seek greater holiness. From your failures and
successes in God’s service, seek always to draw, together with an increase in
love, a stronger determination to carry on fulfilling your rights and duties as Chris-
tian citizens, no matter what the cost. And do this manfully, without fleeing from
honours or responsibilities, without being afraid of the reactions we produce in
those around us, perhaps originating from false brethren, when we nobly and
loyally try to seek God’s glory and the good of our neighbour” (Friends of God,
164).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.