The description of the people’s rebellion against Yahweh continues, characterized not just by their actions, but by their attitude. Clearly they failed to learn from the past.
And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God: The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And may be omitted here (Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The people of Israel is literally “the sons/children of Israel,” which creates a feeling of irony, sadness, or perhaps indignation, since they did not remember the LORD. The Hebrew verb for remember occurs frequently in the Old Testament, but only rarely in this book (also verse 9.2; verse 16.28). It is used in Deut 8.18 in the context of being faithful to Yahweh. To not remember the LORD means to forget about what he has done and to not serve him faithfully. This expression may be rendered “forgot the LORD” (similarly New American Bible). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh’s “gave no thought to the LORD” and Revised English Bible‘s “were unmindful of the LORD” may not be strong enough. The idea is to “abandon the worship of Yahweh” or “stop following….” For the LORD their God, see the comments on verse 3.7.
Who had rescued them from the hand of all their enemies on every side: This is a powerful description of what Yahweh had done for his people. The Hebrew verb rendered rescued (natsal) can refer to snatching prey from the mouth of an animal. It is used in verse 6.9 to describe the people’s rescue from Egypt, and in verse 9.17 to describe their deliverance from the Midianites. From the hand of all their enemies on every side is emphatic, using the keyword hand, which occurs throughout this book (see comments on verse 1.2). All their enemies refers to all the past enemies of Israel. Translators should keep the emphasis of the word all. For enemies see verse 2.14. On every side is literally “from around.” This phrase may be rendered “who surrounded them” or “[who lived all] around them.”
Translation possibilities for this verse are:
• The Israelites forgot Yahweh, their God, even though he was the one who had saved them from all their enemies surrounding them.
• The people stopped worshiping the LORD their God. They did not remember how he snatched them from the hand of all their enemies, who surrounded them on all sides.
Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .