Hakim-hakim 12:1--13:25
Konteks12:1 The Ephraimites assembled 1 and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight 2 with the Ammonites without asking 3 us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” 4
12:2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites. 5 I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power. 6 12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, 7 I risked my life 8 and advanced against 9 the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up 10 to fight with me today?” 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, 11 “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” 12 12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River 13 opposite Ephraim. 14 Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive 15 said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked 16 him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” 17 If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word 18 correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead. 12:7 Jephthah led 19 Israel for six years; then he 20 died and was buried in his city in Gilead. 21
12:8 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem 22 led 23 Israel. 12:9 He had thirty sons. He arranged for thirty of his daughters to be married outside his extended family, 24 and he arranged for thirty young women to be brought from outside as wives for his sons. 25 Ibzan 26 led 27 Israel for seven years; 12:10 then he 28 died and was buried in Bethlehem.
12:11 After him Elon the Zebulunite led 29 Israel for ten years. 30 12:12 Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
12:13 After him Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite led 31 Israel. 12:14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel for eight years. 12:15 Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
13:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight, 32 so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.
13:2 There was a man named Manoah from Zorah, from the Danite tribe. His wife was infertile and childless. 33 13:3 The Lord’s angelic 34 messenger appeared to the woman and said to her, “You 35 are infertile and childless, 36 but you will conceive and have a son. 13:4 Now be careful! Do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. 37 13:5 Look, you will conceive and have a son. 38 You must never cut his hair, 39 for the child will be dedicated to God 40 from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power 41 of the Philistines.”
13:6 The woman went and said to her husband, “A man sent from God 42 came to me! He looked like God’s angelic messenger – he was very awesome. 43 I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name. 13:7 He said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and have a son. 44 So now, do not drink wine or beer and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. 45 For the child will be dedicated 46 to God from birth till the day he dies.’”
13:8 Manoah prayed to the Lord, 47 “Please, Lord, allow the man sent from God 48 to visit 49 us again, so he can teach 50 us how we should raise 51 the child who will be born.” 13:9 God answered Manoah’s prayer. 52 God’s angelic messenger visited 53 the woman again while she was sitting in the field. But her husband Manoah was not with her. 13:10 The woman ran at once and told her husband, 54 “Come quickly, 55 the man who visited 56 me the other day has appeared to me!” 13:11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he met 57 the man, he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” 58 He said, “Yes.” 59 13:12 Manoah said, “Now, when your announcement comes true, 60 how should the child be raised and what should he do?” 61 13:13 The Lord’s messenger told 62 Manoah, “Your wife should pay attention to everything I told her. 63 13:14 She should not drink 64 anything that the grapevine produces. She must not drink wine or beer, and she must not eat any food that will make her ritually unclean. 65 She should obey everything I commanded her to do.” 13:15 Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Please stay here awhile, 66 so we can prepare a young goat for you to eat.” 67 13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, 68 I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) 69 13:17 Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Tell us your name, so we can honor you when your announcement comes true.” 70 13:18 The Lord’s messenger said to him, “You should not ask me my name, because you cannot comprehend it.” 71 13:19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. The Lord’s messenger did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. 72 13:20 As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord’s messenger went up in it 73 while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown 74 to the ground.
13:21 The Lord’s messenger did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. After all this happened Manoah realized that the visitor had been the Lord’s messenger. 75 13:22 Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, because we have seen a supernatural being!” 76 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. 77 He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”
13:24 Manoah’s wife 78 gave birth to a son and named him Samson. 79 The child grew and the Lord empowered 80 him. 13:25 The Lord’s spirit began to control him 81 in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.
[12:1] 1 tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”
[12:1] 2 tn Heb “cross over to fight.”
[12:1] 3 tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”
[12:1] 4 tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”
[12:2] 5 tn Heb A man of great strife I was and my people and the Ammonites.”
[12:3] 7 tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”
[12:3] 8 tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”
[12:3] 9 tn Heb “crossed over to.”
[12:3] 10 tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[12:4] 11 tn Heb “because they said.”
[12:4] 12 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.”
[12:5] 13 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[12:5] 14 tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.
[12:5] 15 tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.
[12:6] 17 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] 18 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
[12:7] 19 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
[12:7] 20 tn Heb “Jephthah the Gileadite.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[12:7] 21 tc The Hebrew text has “in the cities of Gilead.” The present translation has support from some ancient Greek textual witnesses.
[12:8] 22 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
[12:8] 23 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
[12:9] 24 tn Heb “thirty daughters he sent off outside.” Another option is to translate, “He arranged for his thirty daughters…” It is not clear if he had more than the “thirty daughters” mentioned in the text.
[12:9] 25 tn Heb “and thirty daughters he brought for his sons from the outside.”
[12:9] 26 tn Heb “He”; the referent (Ibzan) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for English stylistic reasons.
[12:9] 27 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
[12:10] 28 tn Heb “Ibzan.” The pronoun “he” is used in the translation in keeping with English style, which tends to use a proper name first in a sentence followed by a pronoun rather than vice versa.
[12:11] 29 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
[12:11] 30 tn Heb “…led Israel. He led Israel for ten years.”
[12:13] 31 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
[13:1] 32 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[13:2] 33 tn Heb “and had not given birth.”
[13:3] 34 tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive (also in vv. 6, 9).
[13:3] 36 tn Heb “and have not given birth.”
[13:4] 37 tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”
[13:5] 38 tn Another option is to translate, “you are already pregnant and will have a son.” The earlier reference to her being infertile (v. 3) suggests that her conception is still future, but it is possible that the earlier statement only reflects her perspective (as far as she is concerned, she is infertile). According to this interpretation, in v. 5 the angel reveals the truth to her – actually she has recently conceived and is now pregnant (see the translation in R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 217). Usage favors this interpretation. The predicate adjective הָרָה (harah, “[be/become] pregnant”) elsewhere has a past (1 Sam 4:19) or present (Gen 16:11; 38:25; 2 Sam 11:5) translation value. (The usage in Isa 7:14 is debated, but a present translation is definitely possible there.) A final, but less likely possibility, is that she miraculously conceived during the angel’s speech, sometime between his statements recorded in vv. 3 and 5.
[13:5] 39 tn Heb “a razor should not go up on his head.”
[13:5] 40 tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).
[13:6] 42 tn Heb “The man of God.”
[13:6] 43 tn Heb “His appearance was like the appearance of the messenger of God, very awesome.”
[13:7] 44 tn See the note on the word “son” in 13:5, where this same statement occurs.
[13:7] 45 tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”
[13:7] 46 tn Traditionally “a Nazirite.”
[13:8] 47 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[13:8] 48 tn Heb “the man of God.”
[13:8] 50 tc The LXX has “enlighten,” understanding the Hebrew to read וִיאִירֵנוּ (vi’irenu, “to give light”) rather than the reading of the MT, וְיוֹרֵנוּ (vÿyorenu, “to teach”).
[13:8] 51 tn Heb “what we should do for.”
[13:9] 52 tn Heb “God listened to the voice of Manoah.”
[13:10] 54 tn Heb “and said to him.” This phrase has not been translated for stylistic reasons.
[13:11] 58 tn Heb “the woman.”
[13:12] 60 tn Heb “Now, [when] your word comes [to pass].”
[13:12] 61 tn Heb “what will be the child’s rule [i.e., way of life] and his work?”
[13:13] 63 tn Heb “To everything I said to the woman she should pay attention.” The Hebrew word order emphasizes “to everything,” probably because Manoah’s wife did not tell her husband everything the angel had said to her (cf. vv. 3-5 with v. 7). If she had, Manoah probably would not have been so confused about the child’s mission.
[13:14] 65 tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”
[13:15] 66 tn Heb “Please allow us to detain you.”
[13:15] 67 tn Heb “so we can prepare before you a young goat of the goats.”
[13:16] 68 tn Heb “If you detain me.”
[13:16] 69 tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the
[13:17] 70 tn Heb “Who your name? For [when] your word comes [to pass], we will honor you.” Manoah apparently gets tongue-tied and uses the wrong pronoun (“who” instead of “what”). He starts to say, “Who are you?” But then he switches to “your name” as if he began the sentence with “what.” See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 222.
[13:18] 71 tn Heb “Why do you ask for my name, for it is incomprehensible?” The Hebrew adjective פִּלְאִי (pile’iy, “wonderful, incomprehensible”) refers to what is in a category of its own and is beyond full human understanding. Note the use of this word in Ps 139:6, where God’s knowledge is described as incomprehensible and unattainable.
[13:19] 72 tc Heb “Doing an extraordinary deed while Manoah and his wife were watching.” The subject of the participle is missing. The translation assumes that the phrase “the
[13:20] 73 tn Heb “in the flame from the altar.”
[13:20] 74 tn Heb “on their faces.”
[13:21] 75 tn Heb “Then Manoah knew that he was the
[13:22] 76 tn Or “seen God.” Some take the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) as the divine name (“God”) here, but this seems unlikely since v. 21 informs us that Manoah realized this was the
[13:24] 78 tn Heb “the woman.” For clarity this has been specified in the translation as “Manoah’s wife.”
[13:24] 79 tn The name appears to mean “sun-like” or “solar.”
