And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.

And so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not Jehovah: therefore Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

And when they began to dwell there, they feared not the Lord: and the Lord sent lions among them, which killed them.

and it cometh to pass, at the commencement of their dwelling there, they have not feared Jehovah, and Jehovah doth send among them the lions, and they are destroying among them.

Now when first they were living there they did not give worship to the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them, causing the death of some of them.

So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

And when they had begun to live there, they did not fear the Lord. And the Lord sent lions among them, which were killing them.

The depopulation of the country, insufficiently remedied by the influx of foreigners, had the natural consequence of multiplying the wild beasts and making them bolder. Probably a certain number had always lurked in the jungle along the course of the Jordan Jeremiah 49:19; Jeremiah 50:44; and these now ventured into the hill country, and perhaps even into the cities. The colonists regarded their sufferings from the lions as a judgment upon them from "the god of the land" (2-Kings 17:26; compare 1-Kings 20:23 note).

The Lord sent lions among them - The land being deprived of its inhabitants, wild beasts would necessarily increase, even without any supernatural intervention; and this the superstitious new comers supposed to be a plague sent upon them, because they did not know how to worship him who was the God of the land; for they thought, like other heathens that every district had its own tutelary deity. Yet it is likely that God did send lions as a scourge on this bad people.

And [so] it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, [that] they (o) feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew [some] of them.
(o) That is, they served him not: therefore, lest they should blaspheme him, as though there were no God, because he chastised the Israelites, he shows his mighty power among them by this strange punishment.

And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord,.... Did not serve him in any manner, but their idols only, which they brought with them; whereas it was usual with Heathens to serve the gods of the country, as they reputed them, where they came, along with their own; but even this those men did not do:
therefore the Lord sent lions among them; even into their cities, into which lions sometimes came (l), especially when old, out of the thickets of Jordan and other places where they haunted, see Jeremiah 49:19.
which slew some of them; this the Lord did to assert his sovereignty, authority, and mighty power, and to let them know that he could as easily clear the land of them, as they, by his permission, had cleared the land of the Israelites, Josephus (m) calls this a plague that was sent among them.
(l) Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 44. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 16. (m) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 1.)

Therefore - For their gross neglect, and contempt of God, which was contrary to the principles and practices of the Heathens, who used to worship the gods of the nations where they lived, and gave that honour to their false Gods, which here they denied to the true. Hereby also God asserted his own sovereignty over that land, and made them to understand, that neither the Israelites were cast out, nor they brought in by their valour, or strength, but by God's providence, who as he had cast the Israelites out for their neglect of God's service; so both could, and would in his due time, turn them out also, if they were guilty of the same sins.