1:9 Later the men of Judah went down to attack the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev, and the lowlands. 1
1:30 The men of Zebulun did not conquer the people living in Kitron and Nahalol. 3 The Canaanites lived among them and were forced to do hard labor.
5:19 Kings came, they fought;
the kings of Canaan fought,
at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, 4
but 5 they took no silver as plunder.
9:46 When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem 18 heard the news, they went to the stronghold 19 of the temple of El-Berith. 20
1 tn Or “foothills”; Heb “the Shephelah.”
2 tn Heb “saw.”
3 tn Heb “the people living in Kitron and the people living in Nahalol.”
4 map For location see Map1-D4; Map2-C1; Map4-C2; Map5-F2; Map7-B1.
5 tn The contrastive conjunction “but” is interpretive.
5 tn Heb “They encamped against them.”
6 tn Heb “destroyed.”
7 tn Heb “the crops of the land.”
8 tn Heb “They left no sustenance in Israel.”
9 tn The words “they took away” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 tn Heb “The
7 tn Or “Arise!”
8 tn Heb “did not draw his sword for he was afraid.”
8 tn Heb “We will indeed give.”
9 tc In the LXX the subject of this verb is singular, referring to Gideon rather than to the Israelites.
9 tn Or “destroyed.”
10 tn Heb “sowed it with salt.”
10 sn Perhaps the Tower of Shechem was a nearby town, distinct from Shechem proper, or a tower within the city.
11 tn Apparently this rare word refers here to the most inaccessible area of the temple, perhaps the inner sanctuary or an underground chamber. It appears only here and in 1 Sam 13:6, where it is paired with “cisterns” and refers to subterranean or cave-like hiding places.
12 sn The name El-Berith means “God of the Covenant.” It is probably a reference to the Canaanite high god El.
11 tn Heb “the people, the officers.”
12 tn Heb “Who is the man who will begin fighting.”
12 tn Heb “Sihon.” The proper name (“Sihon”) has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) because of English style; a repetition of the proper name here would be redundant in English.
13 tn Heb “all his people” (also in the following verse).
13 tn Heb “He struck them, calf on thigh, [with] a great slaughter.” The precise meaning of the phrase “calf on thigh” is uncertain.
14 tn The Hebrew term here translated “master,” is plural. The plural indicates degree here and emphasizes the Levite’s absolute sovereignty over the woman.
15 tn Heb “The woman came at the turning of the morning and fell at the door of the house of the man where her master was until the light.”
15 tn Heb “arose against me and surrounded against me the house at night.”
16 tn Heb “And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah the second day, and they struck down among the sons of Israel eighteen thousand men to the ground, all of these were wielding the sword.”
17 tn Heb “one.”