Judges 2:11 (LSB)

Passage

Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals,

Nearby Context

Judges 2:9 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Judges 2:10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know Yahweh or even the work which He had done for Israel.

Judges 2:11 Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals,

Judges 2:12 and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked Yahweh to anger.

Judges 2:13 So they forsook Yahweh and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sons", "israel", "evil", "eyes", "yahweh", "served", and "baals". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sons" and "israel", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "And all that generation also were gathered..." into verse 12's "and they forsook Yahweh the God of...", so "sons" and "israel" belong inside that flow. In Judges context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "sons" and "israel" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.