8. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred ten.
9. They buried him in his own land at Timnath Serah in the mountains of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10. After those people had died, their children grew up and did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel.
11. So they did what the Lord said was wrong, and they worshiped the Baal idols.
12. They quit following the Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt. They began to worship the gods of the people who lived around them, and that made the Lord angry.
13. The Israelites quit following the Lord and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth.
14. The Lord was angry with the people of Israel, so he handed them over to robbers who took their possessions. He let their enemies who lived around them defeat them; they could not protect themselves.
15. When the Israelites went out to fight, they always lost, because the Lord was not with them. The Lord had sworn to them this would happen. So the Israelites suffered very much.
16. Then the Lord chose leaders called judges, who saved the Israelites from the robbers.
17. But the Israelites did not listen to their judges. They were not faithful to God but worshiped other gods instead. Their ancestors had obeyed the Lord’s commands, but they quickly turned away and did not obey.
18. When their enemies hurt them, the Israelites cried for help. So the Lord felt sorry for them and sent judges to save them from their enemies. The Lord was with those judges all their lives.
19. But when the judges died, the Israelites again sinned and worshiped other gods. They became worse than their ancestors. The Israelites were very stubborn and refused to change their evil ways.