Hakim-hakim 9:15

9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ¹  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ²  Otherwise ³  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

Hakim-hakim 11:35

11:35 When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! ⁴  You have brought me disaster! ⁵  I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it.” ⁶ 

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 ⁷  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ⁸  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ⁹  because she is the right one for me.” ¹⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 16:2

16:2 The Gazites were told, ¹¹  “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town ¹²  and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. ¹³  They relaxed ¹⁴  all night, thinking, ¹⁵  “He will not leave ¹⁶  until morning comes; ¹⁷  then we will kill him!”

[9:15]  ¹ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

[9:15]  ² tn Heb “in my shade.”

[9:15]  ³ tn Heb “If not.”

[11:35]  ⁴ tn Heb “you have brought me very low,” or “you have knocked me to my knees.” The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.

[11:35]  ⁵ tn Heb “You are among [or “like”] those who trouble me.”

[11:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “I opened my mouth to the Lord and I am not able to return.”

[14:3]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

[16:2]  ¹¹ tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”

[16:2]  ¹² tn Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.

[16:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”

[16:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “were silent.”

[16:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “saying.”

[16:2]  ¹⁶ tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[16:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”