Judges 1:7

1:7 Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, with thumbs and big toes cut off, used to lick up ¹  food scraps ²  under my table. God has repaid me for what I did to them.” ³  They brought him to Jerusalem, ⁴  where he died.

Judges 2:17

2:17 But they did not obey ⁵  their leaders. Instead they prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped ⁶  them. They quickly turned aside from the path ⁷  their ancestors ⁸  had walked. Their ancestors had obeyed the Lord’s commands, but they did not. ⁹ 

Judges 6:22

6:22 When Gideon realized ¹⁰  that it was the Lord’s messenger, he ¹¹  said, “Oh no! ¹²  Master, Lord! ¹³  I have seen the Lord’s messenger face to face!”

Judges 11:8

11:8 The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That may be true, ¹⁴  but now we pledge to you our loyalty. ¹⁵  Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the leader ¹⁶  of all who live in Gilead.” ¹⁷ 

Judges 12:6

12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” ¹⁸  If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word ¹⁹  correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.

Judges 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.”

Judges 15:19

15:19 So God split open the basin ²⁰  at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength ²¹  was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring ²²  En Hakkore. ²³  It remains in Lehi to this very day.

Judges 18:12

18:12 They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan. ²⁴  It is west ²⁵  of Kiriath Jearim.)

Judges 21:23

21:23 The Benjaminites did as instructed. ²⁶  They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives. ²⁷  They went home ²⁸  to their own territory, ²⁹  rebuilt their cities, and settled down. ³⁰ 

¹ tn Elsewhere this verb usually carries the sense of “to gather; to pick up; to glean,” but “lick up” seems best here in light of the peculiar circumstances described by Adoni-Bezek.

² tn The words “food scraps” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

³ tn Heb “Just as I did, so God has repaid me.” Note that the phrase “to them” has been supplied in the translation to clarify what is meant.

⁴ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁵ tn Or “did not listen to.”

⁶ tn Or “bowed before.”

⁷ tn Or “way [of life].”

⁸ tn Or “fathers.”

⁹ tn Heb “…walked, obeying the Lord’s commands. They did not do this.”

⁹ tn Heb “saw.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Gideon.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹¹ tn Or “Ah!”

¹² tn The Hebrew text reads אֲדֹנַי יְהוִה (’adonay yÿhvih, “Lord [the same title used in v. 15], Lord”).

¹³ tn Heb “therefore”; “even so.” For MT לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) the LXX has an opposite reading, “not so,” which seems to be based on the Hebrew words לֹא כֵן (lo’ khen).

¹⁴ tn Heb “we have returned to you.” For another example of שׁוּב אֶל (shuv ’el) in the sense of “give allegiance to,” see 1 Kgs 12:27b.

¹⁵ sn Then you will become the leader. The leaders of Gilead now use the word רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head, leader”), the same term that appeared in their original, general offer (see 10:18). In their initial offer to Jephthah they had simply invited him to be their קָצִין (qatsin, “commander”; v. 6). When he resists they must offer him a more attractive reward – rulership over the region. See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 198.

¹⁶ tn Heb “leader of us and all who live in Gilead.”

¹⁷ sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.

¹⁸ tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew mss.

²¹ tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.

²² tn Heb “spirit.”

²³ tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴ sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”

²⁵ tn Or “Mahaneh Dan”; the Hebrew term “Mahaneh” means “camp [of].” Many English versions retain the transliterated Hebrew expression, but cf. CEV “Dan’s Camp.”

²⁶ tn Heb “behind.”

²⁹ tn Heb “did so.”

³⁰ tn Heb “And they took wives according to their number from the dancing girls whom they abducted.”

³¹ tn Heb “went and returned.”

³² tn Heb “inheritance.”

³³ tn Heb “and lived in them.”