The Bible says that the nation of Israel followed God faithfully throughout
the life of Joshua and the elders who succeeded him. But when that
generation of leaders died out, the Israelites spent the next 400 years in
a cycle: disobedience, punishment, repentance, and deliverance (Judges
2:10). So the new generation began to worship the pagan gods of their new
land, until God finally used those pagan nations to punish them. God would
punish them by allowing them to be oppressed by one of the neighboring
tribal nations. They would cry out to God in repentance and beg for
deliverance. During those times of punishment, God would raise up Judges
political, military, and spiritual leaders to lead Israel back to Himself.
There were several Judges, but a few of them capture the cycle of the
entire 400-year period.