Hakim-hakim 13:18

13:18 The Lord’s messenger said to him, “You should not ask me my name, because you cannot comprehend it.” ¹ 

Hakim-hakim 21:11

21:11 Do this: ²  exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. ³  But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed. ⁴ 

[13:18]  ¹ tn Heb “Why do you ask for my name, for it is incomprehensible?” The Hebrew adjective פִּלְאִי (pile’iy, “wonderful, incomprehensible”) refers to what is in a category of its own and is beyond full human understanding. Note the use of this word in Ps 139:6, where God’s knowledge is described as incomprehensible and unattainable.

[21:11]  ² tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”

[21:11]  ³ tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”

[21:11]  ⁴ tc Some Greek witnesses (notably Codex Vaticanus [B]) add the words, “‘But the virgins you should keep alive.’ And they did so.” These additional words, which probably represent the original Hebrew text, can be retroverted: וְאֶת־הַבְּתוּלוֹת תְּחַיּוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵן (ve’et-habbÿtulot tÿkhayyu vayya’asu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (vÿ’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.