Isaiah 48:9-12, "For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last."

After the death of Joshua there was no king and everyone did was right in their own eyes. Therefore, God brought against the nation of Israel those nations which He had rejected which Israel had refused to totally destroy. Through their disobedience those nations became a snare to Israel and they followed after their gods forgetting the covenant which they had promised to obey.

Judges 2:20-23, "And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua."

God established judges in Israel to deliver them each time they cried out because of the oppression of the nations. The book of Judges reveals God as a righteous Judge, Who not only reproves us when we disobey Him, but Who is merciful no matter what condition we are in when we cry out to Him and return in repentance.