Hakim-hakim 3:19

3:19 But he went back ¹  once he reached ²  the carved images ³  at Gilgal. He said to Eglon, ⁴  “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon ⁵  said, “Be quiet!” ⁶  All his attendants left.

Hakim-hakim 4:22

4:22 Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, “Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.” He went with her into the tent, ⁷  and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead ⁸  with the tent peg in his temple.

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. ⁹  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”

Hakim-hakim 6:39

6:39 Gideon said to God, “Please do not get angry at me, when I ask for just one more sign. ¹⁰  Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make only the fleece dry, while the ground around it is covered with dew.” ¹¹ 

Hakim-hakim 7:2-3

7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. ¹²  Israel might brag, ¹³  ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’ ¹⁴  7:3 Now, announce to the men, ¹⁵  ‘Whoever is shaking with fear ¹⁶  may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” ¹⁷  Twenty-two thousand men ¹⁸  went home; ¹⁹  ten thousand remained.

Hakim-hakim 7:5

7:5 So he brought the men ²⁰  down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.” ²¹ 

Hakim-hakim 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ²²  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?’” ²³ 

Hakim-hakim 11:36

11:36 She said to him, “My father, since ²⁴  you made an oath to the Lord, do to me as you promised. ²⁵  After all, the Lord vindicated you before ²⁶  your enemies, the Ammonites.”

Hakim-hakim 12:6

12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” ²⁷  If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word ²⁸  correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.

Hakim-hakim 16:28

16:28 Samson called to the Lord, “O Master, Lord, ²⁹  remember me! Strengthen me just one more time, O God, so I can get swift revenge ³⁰  against the Philistines for my two eyes!”

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 ³¹  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.” ³² 

[3:19]  ¹ tn Or “returned” (i.e., to Eglon’s palace).

[3:19]  ² tn The words “when he reached” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text simply reads “from.”

[3:19]  ³ tn Or “idols.”

[3:19]  ⁴ tn The words “to Eglon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eglon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:19]  ⁶ tn Or “Hush!”

[4:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “he went to her.”

[4:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “fallen, dead.”

[6:26]  ⁹ tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.

[6:39]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Let your anger not rage at me, so that I might speak only this once.”

[6:39]  ¹¹ tn Heb “let the fleece alone be dry, while dew is on all the ground.”

[7:2]  ¹² tn Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”

[7:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “might glorify itself against me.”

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my hand has delivered me.”

[7:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

[7:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

[7:3]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Or “turned around, back.”

[7:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the people.”

[7:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”

[8:15]  ²² tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:15]  ²³ 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.

[11:36]  ²⁴ tn The conjunction “since” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[11:36]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to [what] went out from your mouth.”

[11:36]  ²⁶ tn Or “has given you vengeance against.”

[12:6]  ²⁷ sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.

[12:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew mss.

[16:28]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew has אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה (’adonay yehovih, “Lord Yahweh”).

[16:28]  ³⁰ tn Heb “so I can get revenge with one act of vengeance.”

[17:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

[17:3]  ³² 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.