Judges 12:4

12:4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, ¹  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ² 

Judges 18:27

18:27 Now the Danites ³  took what Micah had made, as well as his priest, and came to Laish, where the people were undisturbed and unsuspecting. They struck them down with the sword and burned the city. ⁴ 

Judges 20:45

20:45 The rest ⁵  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ⁶  caught ⁷  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ⁸  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

¹ tn Heb “because they said.”

² tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ’amru pÿlitey ’efrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yo’mÿru pelitey ’efrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”

³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Danites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn The Hebrew adds “with fire.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “stuck close after them.”