Hakim-hakim 6:25-27

Gideon Destroys the Altar

6:25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ¹  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole. 6:26 Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. ²  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.” 6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants ³  and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family ⁴  and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime. ⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 6:37

6:37 Look, I am putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and the ground around it ⁶  is dry, then I will be sure ⁷  that you will use me to deliver Israel, ⁸  as you promised.”

Hakim-hakim 7:11

7:11 and listen to what they are saying. Then you will be brave ⁹  and attack the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to where the sentries were guarding the camp. ¹⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 7:24

Gideon Appeases the Ephraimites

7:24 Now Gideon sent messengers throughout the Ephraimite hill country who announced, “Go down and head off the Midianites. ¹¹  Take control of the fords of the streams ¹²  all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.” ¹³  When all the Ephraimites had assembled, ¹⁴  they took control of the fords ¹⁵  all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.

Hakim-hakim 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ¹⁶  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?’” ¹⁷ 

Hakim-hakim 9:2

9:2 “Tell ¹⁸  all the leaders of Shechem this: ‘Why would you want ¹⁹  to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal’s sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.’” ²⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 9:18

9:18 But you have attacked ²¹  my father’s family ²²  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate ²³  sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative. ²⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 9:51

9:51 There was a fortified ²⁵  tower ²⁶  in the center of the city, so all the men and women, as well as the city’s leaders, ran into it and locked the entrance. Then they went up to the roof of the tower.

Hakim-hakim 11:17-18

11:17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us ²⁷  to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request. ²⁸  Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate. ²⁹  So Israel stayed at Kadesh. 11:18 Then Israel ³⁰  went through the desert and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They traveled east of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon River; ³¹  they did not go through Moabite territory (the Arnon was Moab’s border).

Hakim-hakim 11:26

11:26 Israel has been living in Heshbon and its nearby towns, in Aroer and its nearby towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon for three hundred years! Why did you not reclaim them during that time?

Hakim-hakim 12:1

Civil Strife Mars the Victory

12:1 The Ephraimites assembled ³²  and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight ³³  with the Ammonites without asking ³⁴  us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” ³⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 14:12

14:12 Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, ³⁶  I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets ³⁷  of clothes.

Hakim-hakim 16:3

16:3 Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. ³⁸  He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. ³⁹  He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. ⁴⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 16:5

16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate ⁴¹  him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

Hakim-hakim 16:24

16:24 When the people saw him, ⁴²  they praised their god, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, the one who ruined our land and killed so many of us!” ⁴³ 

Hakim-hakim 16:31

16:31 His brothers and all his family ⁴⁴  went down and brought him back. ⁴⁵  They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led ⁴⁶  Israel for twenty years.

Hakim-hakim 18:17

18:17 The five men who had gone to spy out the land broke in and stole ⁴⁷  the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men. ⁴⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 18:27

18:27 Now the Danites ⁴⁹  took what Micah had made, as well as his priest, and came to Laish, where the people were undisturbed and unsuspecting. They struck them down with the sword and burned the city. ⁵⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 19:22

19:22 They were having a good time, ⁵¹  when suddenly ⁵²  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ⁵³  surrounded the house and kept beating ⁵⁴  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.” ⁵⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 20:48

20:48 The Israelites returned to the Benjaminite towns ⁵⁶  and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities, ⁵⁷  the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path. ⁵⁸ 

[6:25]  ¹ tn Or “Take a bull from your father’s herd, the second one, the one seven years old.” Apparently Gideon would need the bulls to pull down the altar.

[6:26]  ² tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.

[6:27]  ³ tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

[6:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[6:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

[6:37]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the ground.”

[6:37]  ⁷ tn Or “know.”

[6:37]  ⁸ tn Heb “you will deliver Israel by my hand.”

[7:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “your hands will be strengthened.”

[7:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the edge of the ones in battle array who were in the camp.”

[7:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to meet Midian.”

[7:24]  ¹² tn Heb “capture before them the waters.”

[7:24]  ¹³ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification (also later in this verse).

[7:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And all the men of Ephraim were summoned.”

[7:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they captured the waters.”

[8:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:15]  ¹⁷ 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.

[9:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Speak into the ears of.”

[9:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “What good is it to you?”

[9:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your bone and your flesh.”

[9:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “have risen up against.”

[9:18]  ²² tn Heb “house.”

[9:18]  ²³ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “your brother.”

[9:51]  ²⁵ tn Or “strong.”

[9:51]  ²⁶ tn Or “fortress.” The same Hebrew term occurs once more in this verse and twice in v. 52.

[11:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “me.” (Collective Israel is the speaker.)

[11:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “did not listen.”

[11:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Also to the king of Moab he sent, but he was unwilling.”

[11:18]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel; the pronoun in the Hebrew text represents a collective singular) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:18]  ³¹ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[12:1]  ³² tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”

[12:1]  ³³ tn Heb “cross over to fight.”

[12:1]  ³⁴ tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”

[12:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”

[14:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”

[14:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “changes.”

[16:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”

[16:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “with the bar.”

[16:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”

[16:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”

[16:24]  ⁴² tn Most interpret this as a reference to Samson, but this seems premature, since v. 25 suggests he was not yet standing before them. Consequently some prefer to see this statement as displaced and move it to v. 25 (see C. F. Burney, Judges, 387). It seems more likely that the pronoun refers to an image of Dagon.

[16:24]  ⁴³ tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”

[16:31]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and all the house of his father.”

[16:31]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”

[16:31]  ⁴⁶ tn Traditionally, “judged.”

[18:17]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “went up, went in there, took.”

[18:17]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “six hundred men, equipped with the weapons of war.”

[18:27]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Danites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:27]  ⁵⁰ tn The Hebrew adds “with fire.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

[19:22]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”

[19:22]  ⁵² tn Heb “and look.”

[19:22]  ⁵³ 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]  ⁵⁴ tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.

[19:22]  ⁵⁵ 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).

[20:48]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”

[20:48]  ⁵⁷ tc The translation is based on the reading מֵעִיר מְתִים (me’ir mÿtim, “from a city of men,” i.e., “an inhabited city”), rather than the reading מֵעִיר מְתֹם (me’ir mÿtom, “from a city of soundness”) found in the Leningrad Codex (L).

[20:48]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”