Hakim-hakim 2:18

2:18 When the Lord raised up leaders for them, the Lord was with each leader and delivered the people ¹  from their enemies while the leader remained alive. The Lord felt sorry for them ²  when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them. ³ 

Hakim-hakim 6:11

Gideon Meets Some Visitors

6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger ⁴  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ⁵  was threshing ⁶  wheat in a winepress ⁷  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 7:8

7:8 The men ⁹  who were chosen ¹⁰  took supplies ¹¹  and their trumpets. Gideon ¹²  sent all the men of Israel back to their homes; ¹³  he kept only three hundred men. Now the Midianites ¹⁴  were camped down below ¹⁵  in the valley.

Hakim-hakim 12:4

12:4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, ¹⁶  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ¹⁷ 

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. ¹⁸  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”

Hakim-hakim 17:3

17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate ¹⁹  this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.” ²⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 20:45

20:45 The rest ²¹  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ²²  caught ²³  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ²⁴  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

[2:18]  ¹ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:18]  ² tn The phrase “for them” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:18]  ³ tn Heb “the ones oppressing them and afflicting them.” The synonyms “oppressing” and “afflicting” are joined together in the translation as “harsh oppressors” to emphasize the cruel character of their enemies.

[6:11]  ⁴ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

[6:11]  sn The Lord’s angelic messenger is also mentioned in Judg 2:1.

[6:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Now Gideon his son…” The Hebrew circumstantial clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + predicate) breaks the narrative sequence and indicates that the angel’s arrival coincided with Gideon’s threshing.

[6:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “beating out.”

[6:11]  ⁷ sn Threshing wheat in a winepress. One would normally thresh wheat at the threshing floor outside the city. Animals and a threshing sledge would be employed. Because of the Midianite threat, Gideon was forced to thresh with a stick in a winepress inside the city. For further discussion see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.

[6:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “Midian.”

[7:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “The people.”

[7:8]  ¹⁰ tn The words “who were chosen” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[7:8]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text has “in their hands.”

[7:8]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “tents.”

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Midian.”

[7:8]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text adds “him” (i.e., Gideon).

[12:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “because they said.”

[12:4]  ¹⁷ tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ’amru pÿlitey ’efrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yo’mÿru pelitey ’efrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”

[13:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “our hand.”

[17:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

[17:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.

[20:45]  ²¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ²² tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ²³ tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.

[20:45]  ²⁴ tn Heb “stuck close after them.”