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 ¹  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ²  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ³  because she is the right one for me.” ⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ⁵  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ⁶  If you refuse, ⁷  we will burn up ⁸  you and your father’s family. ⁹  Did you invite us here ¹⁰  to make us poor?” ¹¹ 

Hakim-hakim 15:11

15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.”

Hakim-hakim 18:19

18:19 They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser ¹²  and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?” ¹³ 

Hakim-hakim 21:16

21:16 The leaders ¹⁴  of the assembly said, “How can we find wives for those who are left? ¹⁵  After all, the Benjaminite women have been wiped out.

[14:3]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

[14:15]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

[14:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “lest.”

[14:15]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “house.”

[14:15]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

[18:19]  ¹² tn See the note on the word “adviser” in 17:10.

[18:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “Is it better for you to be priest for the house of one man or for you to be priest for a tribe, for a clan in Israel?”

[21:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “elders.”

[21:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “What should we do for the remaining ones concerning wives?”