‘ Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had said, and as Yahweh had sworn to them.'
Because they had failed to drive out the Canaanites God would give them no more victories. When they now sought to expand they would face defeat after defeat, just as Yahweh had said (Judges 2:3). Indeed as He had sworn to them. The situation was similar to that when they had failed to listen to God's warning previously, after they had previously failed to obey God. There too they had tried too late to remedy things and go forward, and had been repulsed and humiliated (Numbers 14:40-45). Yahweh was not only the God Who gave victory, He was also the God Who inflicted defeat.
‘And they were sore distressed. And Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of those who despoiled them.'
God did not totally desert them. He remembered His covenant with Abraham. So when things were at their worst He raised up ‘judges', charismatic leaders, who delivered them out of the hands of the despoilers, as described in the following Chapter s. They would be men ‘filled with the Spirit of Yahweh', and that is why they would be successful. Thus pride would be restored in the covenant and the people would once again become free and begin to prosper, and would recognise that after all Yahweh was the only God they could rely on.