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 15:6

15:6 The Philistines asked, ⁵  “Who did this?” They were told, ⁶  “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite ⁷  took Samson’s ⁸  bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. ⁹ 

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 Or “said.”

⁶ tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.