And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. This chapter, together with the first eight verses of the next, contains a brief but comprehensive summary of the principles developed in the following history; and an attentive consideration of them, therefore, is of the greatest importance to a right understanding of the strange and varying phases of Israelite history from the death of Joshua until the establishment of the monarchy.
Served Baalim. The plural is used, to include all the gods of the country, the Phoenician idolatry being the prevalent superstition of Syria.