Judges 2:22

“That through them I may prove Israel, etc.] Afflict them by them, and so prove or try them, their faith and patience, which are tried by afflictions; and such were the Canaanites to them, as afflictions and temptations are to the spiritual Israel of God; or rather, whether they would keep in the ways of God, or walk in those the Canaanites did, as follows: whether they will keep the way of the Lord, as their fathers did keep [it], or not; whether they would worship the true God their fathers did, or the gods of the Canaanites; not that the Lord was ignorant of what they would do, and so made the experiment; but that the sincerity and faithfulness, or insincerity and unfaithfulness of their…”

“May prove - That I may try and see whether Israel will be true and faithful to me, or whether they will suffer themselves to be corrupted by the counsels and examples of their bad neighbours. Next: Judges Chapter 3”

“through: Jdg 3:1-4 prove: Gen 22:1; Deu 8:2, Deu 8:16, Deu 13:3; Ch2 32:31; Job 23:10; Psa 66:10; Pro 17:3; Mal 3:2, Mal 3:3 Judges 2:23”

“The purpose of God in this resolution was "to prove Israel through them (the tribes that were not exterminated), whether they (the Israelites) would keep the way of the Lord to walk therein (cf. Deu 8:2), as their fathers did keep it, or not." נסּות למען is not dependent upon the verb עזב, as Studer supposes, which yields no fitting sense; nor can the clause be separated from the preceding one, as Bertheau suggests, and connected as a protasis with Jdg 2:23 (this would be a thoroughly unnatural construction, for which Isa 45:4 does not furnish any true parallel); but the clause is attached in the simplest possible manner to the main thought in Jdg 2:20, Jdg 2:21, that is to say, to the words…”