Judges 1:25

1:25 He showed them a secret entrance into the city, and they put the city to the sword. But they let the man and his extended family leave safely.

Judges 3:24

3:24 When Ehud had left, Eglon’s ¹  servants came and saw the locked doors of the upper room. They said, “He must be relieving himself ²  in the well-ventilated inner room.” ³ 

Judges 5:8

5:8 God chose new leaders, ⁴ 

then fighters appeared in the city gates; ⁵ 

but, I swear, not a shield or spear could be found, ⁶ 

among forty military units ⁷  in Israel.

Judges 7:17

7:17 He said to them, “Watch me and do as I do. Watch closely! ⁸  I am going to the edge of the camp. Do as I do!

Judges 9:43

9:43 he took his men ⁹  and divided them into three units and set an ambush in the field. When he saw the people coming out of the city, ¹⁰  he attacked and struck them down. ¹¹ 

Judges 13:3

13:3 The Lord’s angelic ¹²  messenger appeared to the woman and said to her, “You ¹³  are infertile and childless, ¹⁴  but you will conceive and have a son.

Judges 13:10

13:10 The woman ran at once and told her husband, ¹⁵  “Come quickly, ¹⁶  the man who visited ¹⁷  me the other day has appeared to me!”

Judges 13:19-21

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. ¹⁸  13:20 As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord’s messenger went up in it ¹⁹  while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown ²⁰  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. ²¹ 

Judges 14:2

14:2 When he got home, ²²  he told his father and mother, “A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. ²³  Now get her for my wife.”

Judges 14:8

14:8 Some time later, when he went back to marry ²⁴  her, he turned aside to see the lion’s remains. He saw ²⁵  a swarm of bees in the lion’s carcass, as well as some honey.

Judges 16:27

16:27 Now the temple ²⁶  was filled with men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. There were three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain.

Judges 18:26

18:26 The Danites went on their way; when Micah realized ²⁷  they were too strong to resist, ²⁸  he turned around and went home.

Judges 19:17

19:17 When he looked up and saw the traveler ²⁹  in the town square, the old man said, “Where are you heading? Where do you come from?”

Judges 20:36

20:36 Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated.

The Israelites retreated before ³⁰  Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.

¹ tn Heb “his.”

² tn Heb “covering his feet” (i.e., with his outer garments while he relieves himself).

³ tn The Hebrew expression translated “well-ventilated inner room” may refer to the upper room itself or to a bathroom attached to or within it.

¹ tn Or “warriors.” The Hebrew text reads literally, “He chose God/gods new.” Some take “Israel” as the subject of the verb, “gods” as object, and “new” as an adjective modifying “gods.” This yields the translation, “(Israel) chose new gods.” In this case idolatry is the cause of the trouble alluded to in the context. The present translation takes “God” as subject of the verb and “new” as substantival, referring to the new leaders raised up by God (see v. 9a). For a survey of opinions and a defense of the present translation, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40.

² tn The translation of this difficult line is speculative because the second word, לָחֶם (lakhem), appears only here. The line in the Hebrew text literally reads, “Then [?] gates.” Interpretations and emendations of the Hebrew text abound (see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40). The translation assumes a repointing of the form as a Qal participle לֹחֵם (lokhem) from the verbal root לָחַם (lakham, “fight”) and understands a substantival use (“fighter”). “Fighter” is a collective reference to the military leaders or warriors mentioned in the preceding line and in v. 9. (For other occurrences of the Qal of לָחַם, see Pss 35:1; 56:2-3.)

³ tn Heb “A shield, it could not be seen, nor a spear.” The translation assumes that the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) introduces an oath of denial (see GKC 472 §149.e).

⁴ tn Traditionally “forty thousand,” but this may be an instance where Hebrew term אֶלֶף (’elef) refers to a military unit. This is the view assumed by the translation (“forty military units”).

¹ tn Or “look.”

¹ tn Heb “his people.”

² tn Heb “And he saw and, look, the people were coming out of the city.”

³ tn Heb “he arose against them and struck them.”

¹ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive (also in vv. 6, 9).

² tn Heb “Look, you.”

³ tn Heb “and have not given birth.”

¹ tn Heb “and said to him.” This phrase has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

² tn Heb “Look.”

³ tn Heb “came to.”

¹ 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 Lord’s messenger” was lost by homoioteleuton. If the text originally read לַיהוָה מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה (layhavah mal’akh yÿhvah), the scribe’s eye could have jumped from the first יְהוָה to the second, accidentally omitting two of the three words. Later the conjunction וּ (shureq) would have been added to the following מַפְלִא (mafli’) for syntactical reasons. Another possibility is that a pronominal subject (הוּא, hu’) has been lost in the MT due to haplography.

¹ tn Heb “in the flame from the altar.”

² tn Heb “on their faces.”

¹ tn Heb “Then Manoah knew that he was the Lord’s messenger.”

¹ tn Heb “and he went up.”

² tn Heb “I have seen a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”

¹ tn Heb “get.”

² tn Heb “and look, a swarm of bees…”

¹ tn Heb “house.”

¹ tn Heb “saw.”

² tn Heb “they were stronger than he.”

¹ tn Heb “the man, the traveler.”

¹ tn Heb “gave place to.”