Hakim-hakim 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ¹  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ²  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ³ 

Hakim-hakim 4:9

4:9 She said, “I will indeed go with you. But you will not gain fame ⁴  on the expedition you are undertaking, ⁵  for the Lord will turn Sisera over to a woman.” ⁶  Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Hakim-hakim 5:30

5:30 ‘No doubt they are gathering and dividing the plunder ⁷  –

a girl or two for each man to rape! ⁸ 

Sisera is grabbing up colorful cloth, ⁹ 

he is grabbing up colorful embroidered cloth, ¹⁰ 

two pieces of colorful embroidered cloth,

for the neck of the plunderer!’ ¹¹ 

Hakim-hakim 6:26

6:26 Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. ¹²  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”

Hakim-hakim 6:31

6:31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, ¹³  “Must you fight Baal’s battles? ¹⁴  Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause ¹⁵  will die by morning! ¹⁶  If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! ¹⁷  After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” ¹⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 7:3

7:3 Now, announce to the men, ¹⁹  ‘Whoever is shaking with fear ²⁰  may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” ²¹  Twenty-two thousand men ²²  went home; ²³  ten thousand remained.

Hakim-hakim 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ²⁴  Zebah and Zalmunna! You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” ²⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 11:35-36

11:35 When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! ²⁶  You have brought me disaster! ²⁷  I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it.” ²⁸  11:36 She said to him, “My father, since ²⁹  you made an oath to the Lord, do to me as you promised. ³⁰  After all, the Lord vindicated you before ³¹  your enemies, the Ammonites.”

Hakim-hakim 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ³²  I risked my life ³³  and advanced against ³⁴  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ³⁵  to fight with me today?”

Hakim-hakim 13:7

13:7 He said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and have a son. ³⁶  So now, do not drink wine or beer and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. ³⁷  For the child will be dedicated ³⁸  to God from birth till the day he dies.’”

Hakim-hakim 14:3

14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ³⁹  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ⁴⁰  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ⁴¹  because she is the right one for me.” ⁴² 

Hakim-hakim 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ⁴³  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ⁴⁴  If you refuse, ⁴⁵  we will burn up ⁴⁶  you and your father’s family. ⁴⁷  Did you invite us here ⁴⁸  to make us poor?” ⁴⁹ 

Hakim-hakim 18:2

18:2 The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives, ⁵⁰  capable men ⁵¹  from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house. ⁵² 

Hakim-hakim 18:14

18:14 The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish ⁵³  said to their kinsmen, ⁵⁴  “Do you realize that inside these houses are an ephod, some personal idols, a carved image, and a metal image? Decide now what you want to do.”

Hakim-hakim 20:10

20:10 We will take ten of every group of a hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (and a hundred of every group of a thousand, and a thousand of every group of ten thousand) to get supplies for the army. ⁵⁵  When they arrive in Gibeah of Benjamin they will punish them for the atrocity which they committed in Israel.” ⁵⁶ 

[3:15]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ² tn The phrase, which refers to Ehud, literally reads “bound/restricted in the right hand,” apparently a Hebrew idiom for a left-handed person. See Judg 20:16, where 700 Benjaminites are described in this way. Perhaps the Benjaminites purposely trained several of their young men to be left-handed warriors by restricting the use of the right hand from an early age so the left hand would become dominant. Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking city gates. See B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon: The First Locked-Room Murder Mystery,” BRev 4 (1988): 35.

[3:15]  ³ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

[4:9]  ⁴ tn Or “honor.”

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “on [account of (?)] the way which you are walking.” Another option is to translate, “due to the way you are going about this.” In this case direct reference is made to Barak’s hesitancy as the reason for his loss of glory.

[4:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “for into the hands of a woman the Lord will sell Sisera.”

[5:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “Are they not finding, dividing the plunder?”

[5:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “a womb or two for each man.” The words “to rape” are interpretive. The Hebrew noun translated “girl” means literally “womb” (BDB 933 s.v. I. רַחַם), but in this context may refer by extension to the female genitalia. In this case the obscene language of Sisera’s mother alludes to the sexual brutality which typified the aftermath of battle.

[5:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “the plunder of dyed cloth is for Sisera.”

[5:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the plunder of embroidered cloth.”

[5:30]  ¹¹ tn The translation assumes an emendation of the noun (“plunder”) to a participle, “plunderer.”

[6:26]  ¹² tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.

[6:31]  ¹³ tn Heb “to all who stood against him.”

[6:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Do you fight for Baal?”

[6:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fights for him.”

[6:31]  ¹⁶ sn Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning. This may be a warning to the crowd that Joash intends to defend his son and to kill anyone who tries to execute Gideon. Then again, it may be a sarcastic statement about Baal’s apparent inability to defend his own honor. Anyone who takes up Baal’s cause may end up dead, perhaps by the same hand that pulled down the pagan god’s altar.

[6:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fight for himself.”

[6:31]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for he pulled down his altar.” The subject of the verb, if not Gideon, is indefinite (in which case a passive translation is permissible).

[7:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

[7:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

[7:3]  ²¹ 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).

[7:3]  ²² 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.)

[7:3]  ²³ tn Or “turned around, back.”

[8:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your exhausted men bread?”

[8:15]  sn Gideon changes their actual statement (see v. 6) by saying exhausted men rather than “army.” In this way he emphasizes the crisis his men were facing and highlights the insensitivity of the men of Succoth.

[11:35]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you have brought me very low,” or “you have knocked me to my knees.” The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.

[11:35]  ²⁷ tn Heb “You are among [or “like”] those who trouble me.”

[11:35]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I opened my mouth to the Lord and I am not able to return.”

[11:36]  ²⁹ tn The conjunction “since” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[11:36]  ³⁰ tn Heb “you opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to [what] went out from your mouth.”

[11:36]  ³¹ tn Or “has given you vengeance against.”

[12:3]  ³² tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

[12:3]  ³³ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

[12:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

[12:3]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:7]  ³⁶ tn See the note on the word “son” in 13:5, where this same statement occurs.

[13:7]  ³⁷ tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

[13:7]  ³⁸ tn Traditionally “a Nazirite.”

[14:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.

[14:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”

[14:3]  ⁴¹ tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.

[14:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

[14:15]  ⁴³ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

[14:15]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

[14:15]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “lest.”

[14:15]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:15]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[14:15]  ⁴⁸ tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

[14:15]  ⁴⁹ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

[18:2]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “The Danites sent from their tribe five men, from their borders.”

[18:2]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”

[18:2]  ⁵² tn Heb “They came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, and spent the night there.”

[18:14]  ⁵³ tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX lacks the phrase “of Laish.”

[18:14]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “brothers.”

[20:10]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “people.”

[20:10]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “to do at their arrival in Geba of Benjamin according to all the disgraceful [thing] which he [collective = “Benjamin”] did in Israel.” Here “Geba” must be an error for “Gibeah.”