‘ And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers who spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.'
So Yahweh's anger was kindled against them, and what follows in Judges 2:14 to Judges 3:6 is a summary of what will follow in detail in the remainder of the book. First the summary and then the detail revealing how the summary was worked out.
The first result of God's anger and His withholding of His mercy was that they would become prey to their enemies round about. These were troubled times. In different nations weak kings would be succeeded by strong kings, and then neighbours, including the tribes of Israel, had to beware. For the strong kings trained armies and looked for booty and tribute. Thus came ‘the spoilers'. They sought their spoil and made other peoples tributary, as Israel had done to Canaanites. As they had done so was done to them. We will be looking at some of these spoilers in coming Chapter s. And because God was not with them and their covenant links had become weakened, they were not strong enough to stand before the enemy.