Hakim-hakim 7:3

7:3 Now, announce to the men, ¹  ‘Whoever is shaking with fear ²  may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” ³  Twenty-two thousand men ⁴  went home; ⁵  ten thousand remained.

Hakim-hakim 13:23

13:23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. ⁶  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”

Hakim-hakim 16:2

16:2 The Gazites were told, ⁷  “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town ⁸  and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. ⁹  They relaxed ¹⁰  all night, thinking, ¹¹  “He will not leave ¹²  until morning comes; ¹³  then we will kill him!”

¹ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

² tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

³ tc Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).

⁴ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)

⁵ tn Or “turned around, back.”

⁶ tn Heb “our hand.”

⁷ tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”

⁸ tn Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.

⁹ tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “were silent.”

¹¹ tn Heb “saying.”

¹² tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹³ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”