New Year: Jdg 1-3 for Mar 11

The explanation for the intermittency of the Israelites is "there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, not yet the work which He had done for Israel" (Jdg 2:10). The sequence is blatant: "Then the sons of Israel did evil" (2:11).

Of the 8.5 landed tribes west of the Jordan, only Issachar is not mentioned in Judges 1 as having areas of their allotment not taken into possession. So we look prior to 2:10 and see that there is a betrayal-of-covenant aspect to the military failure. Military folks are always and imminently aware of this aspect of war: the behind-the-scenes compromise, or sellout. And there it is, in 2:2, making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land.

What then can be made of the crying? And even the sacrificing (2:4-5)? They were not of sufficient effect, to say the least, in view of 2:10ff.