Wherefore I would not destroy them from before your face: that you may have enemies, and their gods may be your ruin.

So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.|

And I also have said, I do not cast them out from your presence, and they have been to you for adversaries, and their gods are to you for a snare.'

Why I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

And so I have said, I will not send them out from before you; but they will be a danger to you, and their gods will be a cause of falling to you.

Wherefore I also said: I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be unto you as snares, and their gods shall be a trap unto you.'

For this reason, I am not willing to destroy them before your face, so that you may have enemies, and so that their gods may be your ruin."

"Wherefore I also said" - Rather because ye have done the things mentioned in Judges 2:2, "I have now said (i. e. I now protest and declare) that I will not drive them out from before you" (compare Judges 19:29). And it was the annonncement of this resolution by the Angel that caused the people to weep.
The word thorns in this verse is supplied by the King James Version from the similar passage in Joshua (see the marginal reference). Other versions adopt a different reading of the original text, and prefer the sense "they shall be to you for adversaries" (compare the last words of Numbers 33:55).

I will not drive them out from before you - Their transgressions, and breach of the covenant, were the reasons why they were not put in entire possession of the promised land. See note at the end of this chapter, Judges 2:23 (note).

Wherefore I also said,.... Supposing, or on condition of their being guilty of the above things, which was foreseen they would:
I will not drive them out from before you; the seven nations of the Canaanites entirely, and which accounts for the various instances related in the preceding chapter; where it is observed, that they could not, or did not, drive the old inhabitants out of such and such places, because they sinned against the Lord, and he forsook them, and would not assist them in their enterprises, or them to their sloth and indolence:
but they shall be as thorns in your sides: very troublesome and afflicting, see Numbers 33:55; or for straits, as the Septuagint, or be such as would bring them into tribulation, and distress them, as the Targum; so they often did:
and their gods shall be a snare unto you; which they suffered to continue, and did not destroy them, as they ought to have done; they would be, as they proved, ensnaring to them, and whereby they were drawn to forsake the worship of the true God, and bow down to them, as we read in some following verses.

"And I also have said to you:" these words point to the threat already expressed in Numbers 33:55; Joshua 23:13, in the event of their not fulfilling the command of God, which threat the Lord would now fulfil. From the passages mentioned, we may also explain the expression לצדּים לכם והיוּ, they shall be in your sides, i.e., thorns in your sides. לצדּים is an abbreviated expression for בּצדּיכם לצנינים in Numbers 33:55, so that there is no necessity for the conjecture that it stands for לצרים. The last clause of Judges 2:3 is formed after Exodus 23:33.

I said - With myself, I have now taken up this peremptory resolution.