Judges 3:7
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
Judges 3:7 begins the second division of the book, the stories of the twelve judges running through Judges 16:31. These leaders were defenders and saviors raised up in times of crisis rather than judges in the modern court sense, though judging between brethren was also done, especially by Deborah and Samuel. It opens the record of fearful backsliding met by the great mercy and goodness of God.
The verse belongs to the period between Joshua's death and the raising up of Samuel, a time of repeated backsliding from God and captivity to surrounding enemies. This captivity came because Israel failed to follow God's instructions, after which the Lord raised up judges to help the people. It belongs to the account of the Canaanites whom the Lord left in the land to prove the generation of Israelites too young to fight in Joshua's days. Their failure to drive out those peoples led them to adopt their ways and serve their gods.
After settling among the Canaanite peoples, intermarrying with them and serving their gods, Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, forgot the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves. That idolatry involved both forgetting God and serving other gods. It came as a consequence of departing from God's restriction on marriage with the surrounding nations, whose influence could turn Israel from serving Him.
The Hebrew verb for serving, used of God or idols, broadly means to labor, whether voluntarily, for hire, or under compulsion. Its use therefore does not imply chattel slavery. Freedom is the normal state of people, while subjection and compulsory service are abnormal and unnatural.
The word translated groves may mistranslate a term associated with Ashtaroth, a goddess, and may refer to the gods worshiped rather than the trees consecrated to them. It may also mean sacred trees or images of gods placed in groves. These deities were distinct from Baalim, whose prophets were counted separately.
The verse is part of one repeated pattern through Judges 3 to 17 of backsliding from God into evil, consequent suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, then returning to God and receiving forgiveness and deliverance. It exposes the perversity and unbelief of the people and the long-suffering and goodness of God. That backsliding was shaped by the awful moral surroundings of Israel and the demoralizing influences of the tribes Israel permitted to remain in the land of promise.
The verse shows Israel proved by the nations the Lord left around them and failing, thereby proving disobedient to the commandments they knew. Trying circumstances left around a person do the same, bringing out personal disobedience and failure to hearken from being too full of self. Religious settings and sensual pleasures can draw people from pure worship and weaken virtue.
The verse shows the bitter result of marrying outside the Lord and gives clear counsel in love and mercy to be prayerfully considered and cheerfully obeyed before entering marriage. Intermarrying and dwelling among unbelievers led Israel to its evil, forgetfulness, and idolatry. It warns now to marry only in the Lord and to study the duties of marriage beforehand, so as to escape bitter anguish of heart, painful regret for long years, frequent disappointment, and repentance that is at once too soon and too late.