This unit concludes with Yahweh doing what he said he would do. However, the final clause poses some problems for interpretation.

So the LORD left those nations means the LORD allowed certain pagan peoples to remain in the Promised Land that the Israelites had conquered. Normally God would be helping his people chase out these peoples, but he allows them to stay as a way of punishing Israel. So translates the Hebrew waw conjunction, which may also be rendered “Thus” or “In this way.” The LORD has taken a deliberate decision to punish the Israelites for disobeying him. If the previous verse introduces this one, it would be better to omit this conjunction. Left does not render the same Hebrew verb as in verse 2.21. This verb means “let stay” or “let remain.” For nations see verse 2.21. We might say “So the LORD let these foreign peoples stay.”

Not driving them out at once: Yahweh refuses to drive out the other peoples immediately. For driving … out, see verse 1.19. The pronoun them refers to the other peoples. At once renders a Hebrew word meaning “quickly” or “immediately.” In colloquial English we might say “right away,” “all at once,” or “in one fell swoop.” The original plan was that the Israelites would enter the land, drive out all the inhabitants, and fully occupy their territory. But because of their disobedience, they were not allowed to enjoy complete victory.

And he did not give them into the power of Joshua: This clause poses some problems as to its meaning. The phrase give them into the power of (literally “give them into the hand of”) is easy enough to understand (see verse 1.4; verse 2.14). But the name Joshua appearing here seems odd. It sounds as if Joshua is the one being punished, when, in fact, it is the generation following Joshua who will experience this punishment. Good News Translation changes the last two clauses of this verse to read “he did not give Joshua victory over them, nor did he drive them out soon after Joshua’s death.” However, this rendering may be going farther than translation principles allow. Either this statement means that Joshua did not have complete victory, so that the later generations would experience this punishment, or it means that Joshua’s people did not have complete victory after his death. The latter interpretation understands Joshua in a collective sense. Following the latter interpretation, a possible translation is “he did not let Joshua’s people get total victory over them.”

This verse may be rendered as follows:

• So the LORD let those peoples remain [in the land]. He did not drive them out immediately, nor did he give Joshua victory over them.

• …Yahweh did not expel the peoples immediately, but let some Canaanites remain. Thus he did not allow the people of Joshua to defeat them completely.

A possible model that combines 2.22-23 is:

• Yahweh let the Canaanite peoples remain [in the land]. He did not drive them out immediately nor give Joshua power over them. This was done to test the Israelites, to find out whether or not they would follow Yahweh’s ways as their ancestors had done.

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 .