Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 2:12

"and they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them: and they provoked Jehovah to anger." — Judges 2:12 (ASV)

Forsook the Lord God of their fathers.—(Deuteronomy 31:16–17). It seems, however, that the sin of the Israelites was a breach rather of the second than of the first commandment. It was not so much a worshipping of other gods as a worshipping of Jehovah under false symbols adopted from the surrounding nations by a spurious syncretism. Similarly, the calf-worship of the northern tribes was originally intended to be an adoration of Jehovah, under the form of cherubic symbols, but naturally lapsed with dangerous ease into actual Baal-worship (Exodus 32:5; 1 Kings 22:6).