Hakim-hakim 4:14

4:14 Deborah said to Barak, “Spring into action, ¹  for this is the day the Lord is handing Sisera over to you! ²  Has the Lord not taken the lead?” ³  Barak quickly went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

Hakim-hakim 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ⁴  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ⁵  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ⁶  and he died.

Hakim-hakim 6:21

6:21 The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. ⁷  Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared. ⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 7:5

7:5 So he brought the men ⁹  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.” ¹⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 10:6

The Lord’s Patience Runs Short

10:6 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹¹  They worshiped ¹²  the Baals and the Ashtars, ¹³  as well as the gods of Syria, Sidon, ¹⁴  Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines. ¹⁵  They abandoned the Lord and did not worship ¹⁶  him.

Hakim-hakim 14:6

14:6 The Lord’s spirit empowered ¹⁷  him and he tore the lion ¹⁸  in two with his bare hands ¹⁹  as easily as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

Hakim-hakim 15:1

Samson Versus the Philistines

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ²⁰  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ²¹  He said to her father, ²²  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ²³  But her father would not let him enter.

Hakim-hakim 15:6

15:6 The Philistines asked, ²⁴  “Who did this?” They were told, ²⁵  “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite ²⁶  took Samson’s ²⁷  bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. ²⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 17:2

17:2 He said to his mother, “You know ²⁹  the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen ³⁰  from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole ³¹  it, but now I am giving it back to you.” ³²  His mother said, “May the Lord reward ³³  you, my son!”

Hakim-hakim 17:10

17:10 Micah said to him, “Stay with me. Become my adviser ³⁴  and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, plus clothes and food.” ³⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 18:30

18:30 The Danites worshiped ³⁶  the carved image. Jonathan, descendant ³⁷  of Gershom, son of Moses, ³⁸  and his descendants ³⁹  served as priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the exile.

Hakim-hakim 19:22

19:22 They were having a good time, ⁴⁰  when suddenly ⁴¹  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ⁴²  surrounded the house and kept beating ⁴³  on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.” ⁴⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 19:24

19:24 Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s ⁴⁵  concubine. I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like. ⁴⁶  But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!”

Hakim-hakim 21:21

21:21 and keep your eyes open. ⁴⁷  When you see ⁴⁸  the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, ⁴⁹  jump out from the vineyards. Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin.

[4:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Arise!”

[4:14]  ² tn The verb form (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the Lord speaks of it as a “done deal.”

[4:14]  ³ tn Heb “Has the Lord not gone out before you?”

[4:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

[6:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “extended the tip of the staff which was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread.”

[6:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “went from his eyes.”

[7:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “the people.”

[7:5]  ¹⁰ 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.”

[10:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

[10:6]  ¹² tn Or “served;” or “followed.”

[10:6]  ¹³ sn The Ashtars were local manifestations of the goddess Ashtar (i.e., Astarte).

[10:6]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[10:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.”

[10:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “serve”; or “follow.”

[14:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “rushed on.”

[14:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “him” or “it”; the referent (the lion) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and there was nothing in his hand.”

[15:1]  ²⁰ sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

[15:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”

[15:1]  ²² tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).

[15:1]  ²³ tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).

[15:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “said.”

[15:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

[15:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.

[17:2]  ²⁹ tn The words “You know” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[17:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “taken.”

[17:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “took.”

[17:2]  ³² tn In the Hebrew text the statement, “but now I am giving it back to you,” appears at the end of v. 3 and is spoken by the mother. But v. 4 indicates that she did not give the money back to her son. Unless the statement is spoken by the woman to the LORD, it appears to be misplaced and fits much better in v. 2. It may have been accidentally omitted from a manuscript, written in the margin, and then later inserted in the wrong place in another manuscript.

[17:2]  ³³ tn Traditionally, “bless.”

[17:10]  ³⁴ tn Heb “father.” “Father” is here a title of honor that suggests the priest will give advice and protect the interests of the family, primarily by divining God’s will in matters, perhaps through the use of the ephod. (See R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 257; also Gen 45:8, where Joseph, who was a diviner and interpreter of dreams, is called Pharaoh’s “father,” and 2 Kgs 6:21; 13:14, where a prophet is referred to as a “father.” Note also 2 Kgs 8:9, where a king identifies himself as a prophet’s “son.” One of a prophet’s main functions was to communicate divine oracles. Cf. 2 Kgs 8:9ff.; 13:14-19).

[17:10]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew text expands with the phrase: “and the Levite went.” This only makes sense if taken with “to live” in the next verse. Apparently “the Levite went” and “the Levite agreed” are alternative readings which have been juxtaposed in the text.

[18:30]  ³⁶ tn Heb “erected for themselves.”

[18:30]  ³⁷ tn Heb “son.”

[18:30]  ³⁸ tc Several ancient textual witnesses, including some LXX mss and the Vulgate, support the reading “Moses” (מֹשֶׁה, mosheh) here. Many Hebrew mss have a nun (נ) suspended above the name between the first two letters (מנשׁה), suggesting the name Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁה, mÿnasheh). This is probably a scribal attempt to protect Moses’ reputation. For discussion, see G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 401-2.

[18:30]  ³⁹ tn Heb “sons.”

[19:22]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”

[19:22]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and look.”

[19:22]  ⁴² tn Heb “the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.” The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.

[19:22]  ⁴³ tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.

[19:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “so we can know him.” On the surface one might think they simply wanted to meet the visitor and get to know him, but their hostile actions betray their double-talk. The old man, who has been living with them long enough to know what they are like, seems to have no doubts about the meaning of their words (see v. 23).

[19:24]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the visiting Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:24]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

[21:21]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and look.”

[21:21]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and look, when.”

[21:21]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “in the dances.”