Israel may have believed that God was far away, but he way very near, and saw all their evil.

The text literally says, “Israel did the evil in the eyes of the Lord.” The use of the definite article indicates that it is a particular kind of evil. The expression is used in the book of Deuteronomy, and every time it refers not to general evil—whether that is immorality, murder, or abuse of others—but always to the abandoning of the Lord and the replacement of the worship of God with other gods. And that is precisely the issue here in Judges 2:1–23, as stated in the second half ofJudges 2:11, Judges 2:12, and Judges 2:13: Israel served other gods.