A Generation That Did Not Know
The memory of the Lord's great works did not carry forward with the passing of Joshua's generation.
Judges 2:6-10 (BSB)
6After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.
7And the people served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, who had seen all the great works that the LORD had done for Israel.
8And Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.
9They buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works that He had done for Israel.
Historical Context
Israel goes to allotted inheritances after Joshua dismisses the people; Joshua later dies and is buried in his own inheritance in Ephraim.
Literary Context
Judges opened after Joshua's death and has just delivered the Lord's covenant charge at Bochim. Verses 6-10 step backward to Joshua's dismissal, death, burial, and the passing of the eyewitness elders. This retrospective is not a claim that Joshua died after Bochim; it supplies the transition needed to understand the repeated apostasy and rescue account beginning in 2:11.
What is the big idea of Judges 2:6-10?
The memory of the Lord's great works did not carry forward with the passing of Joshua's generation.
Understanding the Big Idea
Joshua dismisses Israel to its inheritances, and the people serve the Lord while he and the elders who witnessed the Lord's great works live. After Joshua's death and the passing of that generation, another generation arises that does not know the Lord or what He did for Israel. The paragraph marks a communal break in knowledge before the apostasy narrative begins.
Authorial Intent
To locate Israel's coming apostasy in a change of generations: the people served the Lord in Joshua's and the eyewitness elders' days, but a later generation did not know Him or His works.
How does Judges 2:6-10 point to Christ?
This loss of knowledge exposes a community's vulnerability when the Lord's saving acts are forgotten. The Christian gospel centers on the witnessed death and resurrection of Christ handed on as news to be received (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); Judges 2:6-10 does not identify Joshua as Christ or make memory itself the saving act.
Questions for Reflection
- Where do the people go after Joshua dismisses them?
- During whose lives does Israel serve the Lord, and what had the elders seen?
- How does Joshua's death and burial shape this transition?
- What two things does the next generation not know?
- What does the passage leave unexplained about the break in knowledge?
Chapter: Judges 2
Covenant Rebuke and the Pattern of Israel's Apostasy
Judges 2 reveals that Israel's crisis is covenant forgetfulness: when a generation forsakes the LORD, temporary deliverers can relieve oppression but cannot cure the idolatrous heart.