Judges 11:16

11:16 When they left ¹  Egypt, Israel traveled ²  through the desert as far as the Red Sea and then came to Kadesh.

Judges 11:22

11:22 They took all the Amorite territory from the Arnon River on the south to the Jabbok River on the north, from the desert in the east to the Jordan in the west. ³ 

Judges 8:7

8:7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help, ⁴  after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh ⁵  your skin ⁶  with ⁷  desert thorns and briers.”

Judges 8:16

8:16 He seized the leaders ⁸  of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men of Succoth with them. ⁹ 

Judges 20:42

20:42 They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook ¹⁰  them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. ¹¹ 

Judges 20:47

20:47 Six hundred survivors turned and ran away to the wilderness, to the cliff of Rimmon. They stayed there four months.

Judges 1:16

1:16 Now the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the City of Date Palm Trees to Arad in the desert of Judah, ¹²  located in the Negev. ¹³  They went and lived with the people of Judah. ¹⁴ 

Judges 11:18

11:18 Then Israel ¹⁵  went through the desert and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They traveled east of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon River; ¹⁶  they did not go through Moabite territory (the Arnon was Moab’s border).

Judges 20:45

20:45 The rest ¹⁷  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ¹⁸  caught ¹⁹  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ²⁰  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

¹ tn Heb “For when they went up from.”

² tn Or “went.”

³ tn Heb “from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the desert to the Jordan.” The word “River” has been supplied in the translation with “Arnon” and “Jabbok,” because these are less familiar to modern readers than the Jordan.

⁵ tn Heb “Therefore.”

⁶ sn I will thresh. The metaphor is agricultural. Threshing was usually done on a hard threshing floor. As farm animals walked over the stalks, pulling behind them a board embedded with sharp stones, the stalks and grain would be separated. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63-65. Gideon threatens to use thorns and briers on his sledge.

⁷ tn Or “flesh.”

⁸ tn This is apparently a rare instrumental use of the Hebrew preposition אֵת (’et, note the use of ב [bet] in v. 16). Some, however, argue that אֵת more naturally indicates accompaniment (“together with”). In this case Gideon envisions threshing their skin along with thorns and briers, just as the stalks and grain are intermingled on the threshing floor. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 229-30.

⁷ tn Heb “elders.”

⁸ tc The translation follows the reading of several ancient versions (LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate) in assuming the form וַיָּדָשׁ (vayyadash) from the verb דּוֹשׁ (dosh, “thresh”) as in v. 7. The MT reads instead the form וַיֹּדַע (vayyoda’, “make known”), a Hiphil form of יָדַע (yadah). In this case one could translate, “he used them [i.e., the thorns and briers] to teach the men of Succoth a lesson.”

⁹ tn Heb “clung to”; or “stuck close.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and those from the cities were striking them down in their midst.”

¹¹ tc Part of the Greek ms tradition lacks the words “of Judah.”

¹² tn Heb “[to] the Desert of Judah in the Negev, Arad.”

¹³ tn The phrase “of Judah” is supplied here in the translation. Some ancient textual witnesses read, “They went and lived with the Amalekites.” This reading, however, is probably influenced by 1 Sam 15:6 (see also Num 24:20-21).

¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel; the pronoun in the Hebrew text represents a collective singular) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁶ tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.

¹⁸ tn Heb “stuck close after them.”