Judges 1:15

1:15 She answered, “Please give me a special present.¹ Since you have given me land in the Negev, now give me springs of water.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs.²

Judges 4:6

4:6 She summoned³ Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Is it not true that the Lord God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun!

Judges 4:9

4:9 She said, “I will indeed go with you. But you will not gain fame⁴ on the expedition you are undertaking,⁵ for the Lord will turn Sisera over to a woman.”⁶ Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Judges 4:14

4:14 Deborah said to Barak, “Spring into action,⁷ for this is the day the Lord is handing Sisera over to you!⁸ Has the Lord not taken the lead?”⁹ Barak quickly went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

Judges 4:22

4:22 Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, “Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.” He went with her into the tent,¹⁰ and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead¹¹ with the tent peg in his temple.

Judges 11:36-37

11:36 She said to him, “My father, since¹² you made an oath to the Lord, do to me as you promised.¹³ After all, the Lord vindicated you before¹⁴ your enemies, the Ammonites.” 11:37 She then said to her father, “Please grant me this one wish.¹⁵ For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.”¹⁶

Judges 13:6

13:6 The woman went and said to her husband, “A man sent from God¹⁷ came to me! He looked like God’s angelic messenger – he was very awesome.¹⁸ I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.

Judges 13:23

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.¹⁹ He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”

Judges 14:16

14:16 So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder²⁰ and said, “You must²¹ hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men²² a riddle, but you have not told me the solution.” He said to her, “Look, I have not even told my father or mother. Do you really expect me to tell you?”²³

Judges 16:9

16:9 They hid²⁴ in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here,²⁵ Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire.²⁶ The secret of his strength was not discovered.²⁷

Judges 16:13

16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair²⁸ into the fabric on the loom²⁹ and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:15

16:15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me?³⁰ Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.”

Judges 17:2-3

17:2 He said to his mother, “You know³¹ the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen³² from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole³³ it, but now I am giving it back to you.”³⁴ His mother said, “May the Lord reward³⁵ you, my son!” 17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate³⁶ this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.”³⁷

¹tn Elsewhere the Hebrew word בְרָכָה (vÿrakhah) is often translated “blessing,” but here it refers to a gift (as in Gen 33:11; 1 Sam 25:27; 30:26; and 2 Kgs 5:15).

²tn Some translations regard the expressions “springs of water” (גֻּלֹּת מָיִם, gullot mayim) and “springs” (גֻּלֹּת) as place names here (cf. NRSV).

³tn Heb “sent and summoned.”

⁵tn Or “honor.”

⁶tn Heb “on [account of (?)] the way which you are walking.” Another option is to translate, “due to the way you are going about this.” In this case direct reference is made to Barak’s hesitancy as the reason for his loss of glory.

⁷tn Heb “for into the hands of a woman the Lord will sell Sisera.”

⁷tn Heb “Arise!”

⁸tn The verb form (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the Lord speaks of it as a “done deal.”

⁹tn Heb “Has the Lord not gone out before you?”

⁹tn Heb “he went to her.”

¹⁰tn Heb “fallen, dead.”

¹¹tn The conjunction “since” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹²tn Heb “you opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to [what] went out from your mouth.”

¹³tn Or “has given you vengeance against.”

¹³tn Heb “Let this thing be done for me.”

¹⁴tn Heb “Leave me alone for two months so I can go and go down on the hills and weep over my virginity – I and my friends.”

¹⁵tn Heb “The man of God.”

¹⁶tn Heb “His appearance was like the appearance of the messenger of God, very awesome.”

¹⁷tn Heb “our hand.”

¹⁹tn Heb “on him.”

²⁰tn Heb “only”; or “simply.”

²¹tn Heb “the sons of my people.”

²²tn Heb “Should I tell you?”

²¹tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).

²²tn Heb “are upon you.”

²³tn Heb “when it smells fire.”

²⁴tn Heb “His strength was not known.”

²³tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.

²⁴tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.

²⁵tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”

²⁷tn The words “You know” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

²⁸tn Heb “taken.”

²⁹tn Heb “took.”

³⁰tn In the Hebrew text the statement, “but now I am giving it back to you,” appears at the end of v. 3 and is spoken by the mother. But v. 4 indicates that she did not give the money back to her son. Unless the statement is spoken by the woman to the LORD, it appears to be misplaced and fits much better in v. 2. It may have been accidentally omitted from a manuscript, written in the margin, and then later inserted in the wrong place in another manuscript.

³¹tn Traditionally, “bless.”

²⁹tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

³⁰tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.