This is again reminiscent of the classic example of apostasy—the golden calf affair in Exodus 32:8. This generation fails to walk in the way of obedience to the Lord's commands. Much like the preceding generation (Joshua’s), “which fell into idolatrous sin within forty days of having accepted the privileges and obligations of Yahweh’s covenant, this generation has been unable to resist the attractions of the prevailing religious system, even for a little while. It is as if they could hardly wait to get into the land so they could attach themselves to these exciting gods.”1
17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.