Judges 12:1

Civil Strife Mars the Victory

12:1 The Ephraimites assembled ¹  and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight ²  with the Ammonites without asking ³  us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” ⁴ 

Judges 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ⁵  I risked my life ⁶  and advanced against ⁷  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ⁸  to fight with me today?”

Judges 19:22

19:22 They were having a good time, ⁹  when suddenly ¹⁰  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ¹¹  surrounded the house and kept beating ¹²  on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.” ¹³ 

Judges 20:31

20:31 The Benjaminites attacked ¹⁴  the army, leaving the city unguarded. ¹⁵  They began to strike down their enemy ¹⁶  just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, ¹⁷  the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down ¹⁸  about thirty Israelites.

Judges 21:5

21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed. ¹⁹ 

¹ tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”

² tn Heb “cross over to fight.”

³ tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”

⁴ tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”

⁵ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

⁶ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

⁷ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

⁸ tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and look.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.” The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.

¹² tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.

¹³ tn Heb “so we can know him.” On the surface one might think they simply wanted to meet the visitor and get to know him, but their hostile actions betray their double-talk. The old man, who has been living with them long enough to know what they are like, seems to have no doubts about the meaning of their words (see v. 23).

¹³ tn Heb “went out to meet.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and they were drawn away from the city.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “from the army wounded ones.”

¹⁶ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

¹⁷ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁷ tn Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”