Judges 2:11 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And served Baalim— The objects of false worship were called by the general name Baalim, or Lords; and indeed, as St. Paul remarks, the Pagans had gods many and lords many; the first and chief of which, and from whom the rest seem to have derived this name, was Baal, or the Lord, the Sun; as Ashtaroth, or Astarte, seems to have been the Moon; worshipped in different countries under the names Juno, and Venus, Judges 2:13.; see Selden de Diis Syr. et Vossius de Orig. et Prog. Idol. The reason why the Israelites so often lapsed into idolatry may easily be deduced from the common notion of tutelary deities, which they had imbibed during their residence in Egypt, the fruitful parent of idolatry. One generally-received opinion was, that the peculiar or tutelar deity of any country could not be neglected without impiety, and that this impiety would certainly meet with punishment from the deity who was thus neglected. The Israelites therefore, unwilling to expose themselves to the vengeance which the tutelary deity was supposed to take on those who, inhabiting his land, yet slighted his worship; unwilling likewise to leave their paternal God, they incorporated the worship of both; and served not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but likewise the Baalim, or local tutelary deities of the countries wherein they were settled. In process of time, this weakness increased to such a degree, that the rights of the tutelary deity were acknowledged to be superior to those of the gentilitial god of the conquerors. This might arise from the common opinion, that the favours of the local deity were particularly attached and confined to one certain spot; or from an apprehension of the strength of the inhabitants among whom they were settled, who, would not have endured to have their God slighted, without vindicating his honour, and endeavouring to extirpate the offenders. This piece of complaisance and condescension the Israelites seem to have been guilty of, when they are said "to have forsaken the Lord God of their fathers, and to have followed other gods, the gods of the people that were round about them." Their defection from the God of Israel did not, however, consist in rejecting Him as a false god, or in renouncing the law of Moses as a false religion; but only in joining foreign worship and idolatrous ceremonies to the ritual of the true God. The bias to the idolatries of Canaan was, a prevailing principle, that the tutelary god of the place should be worshipped by its inhabitants; and their motive for all other idolatries, a vain expectation of good from the guardian gods of famous and happy nations. Div. Leg. vol. 4: p. 44.