But the Benjaminites did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived in Jerusalem among the Benjaminites to this day.
22 The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel; and the LORD was with them.
The house of Joseph sent out spies to Bethel (the name of the city was formerly Luz).
When the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, “Show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.”
So he showed them the way into the city; and they put the city to the sword, but they let the man and all his family go.
So the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city, and named it Luz; that is its name to this day.
27 Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; but the Canaanites continued to live in that land.
When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not in fact drive them out.
29 And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived among them in Gezer.
30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor.
31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, or of Helbah, or of Aphik, or of Rehob;
but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.
33 Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.
34 The Amorites pressed the Danites back into the hill country; they did not allow them to come down to the plain.
The Amorites continued to live in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor.
The border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.
2 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, “I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.
For your part, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. See what you have done!
So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries[4 (#ulink_fd667a0e-0f0a-5a5b-840c-7d3ce6ef788c)] to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”
When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept.
So they named that place Bochim,[5 (#ulink_23b2b386-5e89-51fb-b09d-6e2ee6e67b5a)] and there they sacrificed to the LORD.
6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites all went to their own inheritances to take possession of the land.
The people worshiped the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel.
Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred ten years.
So they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Moreover, that whole generation was gathered to their ancestors, and another generation grew up after them, who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.
THE TRANSMISSION OF CHRISTIANITY
This very obvious fact—that each generation is taught by an earlier generation—must be kept very firmly in mind. . . . None can give to another what he does not possess himself. No generation can bequeath to its successor what it has not got. You may frame the syllabus as you please. But when you have planned and reported ad nauseam, if we are skeptical we shall teach only skepticism to our pupils, if fools only folly, if vulgar only vulgarity, if saints sanctity, if heroes heroism. Education is only the most fully conscious of the channels whereby each generation influences the next. It is not a closed system. Nothing which was not in the teachers can flow from them into the pupils. We shall all admit that a man who knows no Greek himself cannot teach Greek to his form; but it is equally certain that a man whose mind was formed in a period of cynicism and disillusion, cannot teach hope or fortitude.
A society which is predominantly Christian will propagate Christianity through its schools: one which is not, will not.
—from “On the Transmission of Christianity,” God in the Dock
For reflection
Judges 2:10
11 Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and worshiped the Baals;
and they abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.
They abandoned the LORD, and worshiped Baal and the Astartes.
So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring misfortune, as the LORD had warned them and sworn to them; and they were in great distress.
16 Then the LORD raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them.
Yet they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their ancestors had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD; they did not follow their example.
Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them.
But whenever the judge died, they would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.
So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their ancestors, and have not obeyed my voice,
I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.”
In order to test Israel, whether or not they would take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their ancestors did,
the LORD had left those nations, not driving them out at once, and had not handed them over to Joshua.
3 Now these are the nations that the LORD left to test all those in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan
(it was only that successive generations of Israelites might know war, to teach those who had no experience of it before):
the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.
They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their ancestors by Moses.
So the Israelites lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites;
