Bible Strands
Judges 2:13
for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The biblical narrator describes Israel’s collective abandonment of Yahweh immediately after the death of Joshua’s generation, framing the act as the direct cause of the nation’s subsequent military defeat.
The words — וַיַּעַזְבוּ (va.ya.'az.vu) means “and they forsook,” and וַיַּעַבְדוּ (va.ya.'av.du) means “and they served,” establishing a sequential movement from covenant rupture to religious substitution.
The thread — The text parallels this shift in Judges 10:6, Judges 3:7, and Psalms 106:36, where repeated turns to foreign gods consistently precede national vulnerability and divine discipline.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to observe that spiritual infidelity operates as a structural cause of historical consequence, demanding accountability for the direct link between abandoned covenant loyalty and incurred judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Cross-references
- Judges 10:6 And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.
- Psalms 106:36 They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
- Judges 3:7 So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
- 1 Corinthians 10:20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- Judges 2:11 And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
- 1 Samuel 31:10 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
- 1 Kings 11:5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 1 Kings 11:33 For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.
- 2 Kings 23:13 The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 1 Corinthians 8:5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),