3:1-7 As the Israelites were a type of the church on earth, they were not to be idle and slothful. The Lord was pleased to try them by the remains of the devoted nations they spared. Temptations and trials detect the wickedness of the hearts of sinners; and strengthen he graces of believers in their daily conflict with Satan, sin, and this evil world. They must live in this world, but they are not of it, and are forbidden to conform to it. This marks the difference between the followers of Christ and mere professors. The friendship of the world is more fatal than its enmity; the latter can only kill the body, but the former murders many precious souls.

Verse 6. - They took their daughters, etc. Here is a further downward step in the disobedience of the Israelites. Intermarriage with the Canaanite nations had been expressly forbidden (Exodus 34:15, 16; Deuteronomy 7:3; Joshua 23:12), and the reason of the prohibition clearly stated, and for some time after Joshua's death no such marriages appear to have been contracted. But now the fatal step was taken, and the predicted consequence immediately ensued: "they served their gods;.., they forgat the Lord their God, and served the Baalim and the Asheroth."

CHAPTER 3:7-11 This section introduces us into the actual narrative of the Book of Judges, the prefatory matter being now concluded. The whole book proceeds on the same model as this section does. The apostasy of Israel; their servitude under the oppressor sent to chastise them; their cry of distress and penitence; their deliverance by the judge raised up to save them; the rest which follows their deliverance. There is infinite variety in the details of the successive narratives, but they are all formed on the same plan.

And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons,.... The Israelites intermarried with the inhabitants of the land, contrary to the express command of God, Deuteronomy 7:3; whereby they confounded their families, debased their blood, and were ensnared into idolatry, as follows: perhaps to these unlawful marriages, in their first settlement in the land of Canaan, reference is had in Ezekiel 16:3, "thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite"; an Amorite marrying a daughter of Israel, and an Israelitish man an Hittite woman:

and served their gods; this was the natural consequence of their intermarriages, which the Lord foresaw, and therefore cautioned them against them, Exodus 34:15.

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