12. and forsook יהוה Elohim of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim, and went after other mighty ones, of the mighty ones of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them, and provoked יהוה.
13. So they forsook יהוה and served Ba‛al and the Ashtoreths.
14. And the displeasure of יהוה burned against Yisra’ĕl. Therefore He gave them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them. And He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, and they were unable to stand before their enemies any longer.
15. Wherever they went out, the hand of יהוה was against them for evil, as יהוה had spoken, and as יהוה had sworn to them. And they were distressed – greatly.
16. Then יהוה raised up rulers who saved them from the hand of those who plundered them.
17. However, they did not listen to their rulers either, but went whoring after other mighty ones, and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commands of יהוה – they did not do so.
18. And when יהוה raised up rulers for them, יהוה was with the ruler and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the ruler, for יהוה had compassion on their groaning because of those who oppressed them and crushed them.
19. And it came to be, when the ruler was dead, that they would turn back and do more corruptly than their fathers, to go after other mighty ones, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not refrain from their practices and from their stubborn way.
20. And the displeasure of יהוה burned against Yisra’ĕl, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant that I commanded their fathers, and has not obeyed My voice,
21. I also shall no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Yehoshua left when he died,
22. in order to try Yisra’ĕl by them, whether they would guard the way of יהוה, to walk in them as their fathers guarded them, or not.”
23. So יהוה left those nations, without driving them out at once, and did not give them into the hand of Yehoshua.