Last week in the opening chapter and a bit of the book of Judges, we were introduced to the history and violence of the time. Judges is set in the land that God had promised to Abraham, a promise that had taken generations to be fulfilled. Having escaped slavery in Egypt, a generation of wandering in the wilderness and the historical battles upon their arrival, the next step was simple. Drive out those in the land, drive out the people, their practices and their Gods.

From the opening chapters we saw Israel's failure, a failure to believe and a failure to act. In this second introductory passage, we get another perspective on this failure, this time previewing how the words uttered by the Angel of the Lord in 2:1-5 would become a painful and repeated reality for Israel.