תהלים, פרק ע״ח, פסוק נ״ו

Following the initial settlement of the land, a profound spiritual decline took hold of the Israelites. Rather than maintaining their covenant with God, the nation entered a period of ongoing rebellion. The primary approach among commentators is that this deterioration occurred after the passing of Joshua and the elders, during the era of the Judges. Despite having finally settled in their inherited land, the people returned to angering God. Alternatively, this rebellion can be viewed through a narrower lens, focusing specifically on the uprising of the tribe of Ephraim, a localized revolt that ultimately led to the destruction of the Tabernacle in Shiloh [אבן עזרא].

This spiritual distancing was a gradual process. The Israelites began by merely testing God's divine providence, but this behavior eventually escalated into open, defiant rebellion. The root of their uprising stemmed from a distorted theological perception. They began to view God as a deity whose glory was strictly confined to the heavens, believing He was far too elevated to involve Himself with earthly affairs [אלשיך]. Furthermore, they began to doubt His role as the sole Creator and the ultimate cause of all existence. This grave error paved the way for idolatry, as they mistakenly assumed God was merely one of several forces operating in the universe [מלבי״ם].

The final stage of this spiritual collapse was the complete abandonment of their religious duties. While the Israelites might have continued to observe the Commandments during the early stages of their heresy, they ultimately discarded them entirely. These abandoned practices were meant to serve as living testimonies to God's active involvement in the world and His creation of the universe, much like the Sabbath [אלשיך, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Another perspective suggests that these ignored testimonies were not the Commandments themselves, but rather the repeated warnings and rebukes delivered by the prophets across generations, as well as the warnings of punishment explicitly written in the Torah [מלבי״ם].