‘ And the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, “We have sinned against you, both because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baalim.”
Once again oppression brought the children of Israel to their senses. But this time they were to find out that His attitude had hardened. Those who go on sinning in the face of His mercy find eventually that the way back is harder. The mention of the Baalim shows that this was still their central sin, common to them all, and it was probably intended to include their dabbling with the other gods, which was equally heinous (Baalim = ‘lords').