Hakim-hakim 5:22

5:22 The horses’ ¹  hooves pounded the ground; ² 

the stallions galloped madly. ³ 

Hakim-hakim 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ⁴  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 13:7

13:7 He said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and have a son. ⁶  So now, do not drink wine or beer and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. ⁷  For the child will be dedicated ⁸  to God from birth till the day he dies.’”

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.”

[5:22]  ¹ tc The MT as it stands has a singular noun, but if one moves the prefixed mem (מ) from the beginning of the next word to the end of סוּס (sus), the expected plural form is achieved. Another possibility is to understand an error of scribal haplography here, in which case the letter mem should appear in both places.

[5:22]  ² tn The words “the ground” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:22]  ³ tn Heb “galloped, galloped.” The repetition is for emphasis and is more appropriately indicated in English with an adverb.

[8:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “gleanings.”

[8:2]  ⁵ sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.

[13:7]  ⁶ tn See the note on the word “son” in 13:5, where this same statement occurs.

[13:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

[13:7]  ⁸ tn Traditionally “a Nazirite.”