9. So the Israelites buried him in the land he had been given. That land was at Timnath Heres. It was in the mountains of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10. After those people had died, their children grew up. They did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel.
11. So they did evil and worshiped the Baal idols. They did what the Lord said was wrong.
12. The Lord had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. And the ancestors of these people had worshiped the Lord. But the Israelites quit following the Lord. They began to worship the gods of the people who lived around them. That made the Lord angry.
13. The Israelites quit following the Lord and worshiped Baal and Ashtoreth.
14. The Lord was angry with the people of Israel. So he let robbers attack them and take their possessions. He let their enemies who lived around them defeat them. They could not protect themselves from their enemies.
15. When the Israelites went out to fight, they always lost. They lost because the Lord was not on their side. The Lord had sworn to them this would happen. So the Israelites suffered very much.
16. Then the Lord chose leaders called judges. These leaders saved the people of Israel from the robbers.
17. But the Israelites did not listen to their judges. They were not faithful to God. They followed other gods instead. In the past the people of Israel obeyed the Lord’s commands. But now the Israelites stopped obeying the Lord.