Commentary - Judges 2:6-10

Bird's-eye view

This brief passage serves as the crucial hinge between the triumphant victories recorded in the book of Joshua and the disastrous, cyclical apostasy that defines the book of Judges. It describes the end of a golden era, a time when Israel served Yahweh because they were led by men who had personally witnessed His mighty deeds. The death of Joshua and his entire generation marks a catastrophic turning point. The central tragedy is the rise of a new generation that did not "know" Yahweh or His work. This is not a failure of information, but of formation; a failure of covenantal succession. The passage diagnoses the root cause of the entire bloody and chaotic period of the judges: a generation of children was not faithfully taught to know and love the God of their fathers. It is a stark and timeless lesson on the non-negotiable duty of generational discipleship.

The narrative functions as a postscript to Joshua's life and a prologue to Israel's decay. It establishes the principle that a second-hand faith is no faith at all. The faithfulness of the nation was coterminous with the lives of the eyewitnesses. Once the living memory of God's salvation was gone, so was the people's allegiance. This sets the stage for the repeating pattern of sin, subjugation, supplication, and salvation that will characterize the rest of the book. The problem in Judges is not primarily political or military; it is theological and educational. It is a crisis of catechesis.

Outline

Context In Judges

Judges 2:6-10 is strategically placed. The book begins in chapter 1 by detailing the incomplete nature of the conquest, showing how various tribes failed to drive out the Canaanites from their allotted territories. This failure to obey sets a grim tone. Then, in the opening verses of chapter 2, the Angel of Yahweh appears at Bochim (weeping) to pronounce a covenant lawsuit against Israel for their disobedience. Our passage immediately follows this confrontation. It functions as an explanation for why this failure occurred. It rewinds slightly to recount the death of Joshua, an event already noted at the end of the book of Joshua, to draw a sharp contrast between his generation and the one that followed. This section, therefore, provides the foundational diagnosis for all the subsequent chaos. Everything that goes wrong from chapter 3 to the end of the book can be traced back to the tragic reality described in verse 10: a generation arose that did not know the Lord.

Key Issues

The Great Forgetting

The book of Judges is a grim and gritty account of Israel's downward spiral. But before the author details the gory specifics, he provides us with the root cause analysis. The problem was not fundamentally military, political, or economic. The problem was spiritual amnesia. A generation came of age that had not been properly introduced to their own God. They knew the stories, perhaps, in the way a child knows a fairy tale. But they did not know Yahweh. To know God, in biblical terms, is not to have information about Him, but to be in a covenant relationship with Him, to have experienced His character, to understand His mighty works as part of your own story. This knowledge is the engine of faithfulness. When it sputters and dies, a nation coasts for a little while on the fumes of the previous generation's experience, but the breakdown is inevitable. This passage is the story of that breakdown.

Verse by Verse Commentary

6 Then Joshua sent the people away, and the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land.

This verse essentially repeats the conclusion of the book of Joshua (Josh 24:28). The author of Judges is intentionally reaching back to the high point of Israel's history to set up a stark contrast. The conquest, under Joshua's leadership, was complete. The land was apportioned. The people were sent to take possession of their promised inheritance. This was the culmination of God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was mission accomplished. Everything was set for a future of covenantal blessing and faithfulness in the land.

7 And the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who saw all the great work of Yahweh which He had done for Israel.

Here is the high-water mark of Israel's faithfulness. But notice the basis for this service. They served Yahweh because they were led by men who were eyewitnesses to God's power. Joshua and the elders had seen the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna in the wilderness, the collapse of Jericho's walls. Their faith was grounded in the undeniable reality of God's direct intervention. This is good, but it is also fragile. A faith that is sustained only by the memory of a previous generation's experience has a built-in expiration date. The service was real, but its foundation was about to be buried.

8 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died at the age of 110.

The end of an era is marked by the death of its great leader. Joshua is given the highest possible commendation, the same one given to Moses: the servant of Yahweh. He was God's faithful agent. He had completed his task. As a type of Christ (his name, Yeshua, is the Hebrew form of Jesus), he had successfully led God's people into their promised rest. His death at 110 years, the same age as Joseph, signifies a full and complete life, blessed by God. But his death also creates a massive leadership vacuum. The one who had been the living link to the mighty works of God is now gone.

9 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

The faithful servant receives his reward. He is buried in his own inheritance, a tangible sign that God's promises were fulfilled to him and through him. He did not just lead others into the land; he himself possessed a piece of it. This is the final seal on a life of successful obedience. The location is specific, grounding this monumental event in real history and geography. The leader is at rest.

10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know Yahweh or even the work which He had done for Israel.

This is one of the most tragic verses in all of Scripture. First, the entire generation of eyewitnesses passes from the scene. The phrase gathered to their fathers is a standard Old Testament euphemism for death. Then comes the catastrophic result. The next generation grew up without knowing Yahweh. Again, this is not a lack of intellectual data. They could likely recite the facts of the Exodus. But they did not know God in a personal, relational, covenantal way. They did not see His works as the defining reality of their own lives. Why? Because the previous generation had failed in its most basic covenantal duty: to teach their children. As Deuteronomy 6 commands, they were to talk of these things when they sat in their houses, when they walked by the way, when they lay down, and when they rose up. They were to bind them as signs on their hands and write them on their doorposts. They failed. They enjoyed the inheritance but failed to pass on the identity that came with it. This single verse is the seed from which the entire thorny briar patch of the book of Judges grows.

Application

The warning of this passage ought to ring in the ears of the modern church like a fire alarm in the night. We live in a time of widespread doctrinal ignorance and spiritual apathy, and the root cause is precisely the same as it was in ancient Israel. We have a generation, or two, that has failed to diligently pass on the faith to the next.

This passage demolishes the sentimental notion that children will just "catch" Christianity by osmosis. Faithfulness must be taught, deliberately, robustly, and constantly. The great works of the Lord, chief among them the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, must be proclaimed and explained until they become the central reality in our children's lives. This is the fundamental task of parents, and especially fathers. A church that subcontracts the discipleship of its children to a one-hour Sunday school program is a church that is setting itself up for the same disaster that befell Israel.

The story of Judges is the story of what happens when people forget God. But the glory of the gospel is that God does not forget His people. The entire chaotic period of the judges demonstrates Israel's desperate need for a better judge, a king who would not die. Joshua, the faithful servant, led the people into a temporary rest. But Jesus, the faithful Son, secures for us an eternal inheritance. He does not simply teach us about God's work; by His Spirit, He writes God's law on our hearts and causes us to know the Father. The failure of Israel's parents should drive us to our knees in dependence on our perfect Heavenly Father, who never fails to secure the covenant for His children.