Judges 14:10

14:10 Then Samson’s father accompanied him to Timnah for the marriage. ¹  Samson hosted a party ²  there, for this was customary for bridegrooms ³  to do.

Judges 6:27

6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants ⁴  and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family ⁵  and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime. ⁶ 

Judges 3:16

3:16 Ehud made himself a sword – it had two edges and was eighteen inches long. ⁷  He strapped it under his coat on his right thigh.

Judges 6:20

6:20 God’s messenger said to him, “Put the meat and unleavened bread on this rock, ⁸  and pour out the broth.” Gideon did as instructed. ⁹ 

Judges 6:40

6:40 That night God did as he asked. ¹⁰  Only the fleece was dry and the ground around it was covered with dew.

Judges 8:27

8:27 Gideon used all this to make ¹¹  an ephod, ¹²  which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites ¹³  prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it ¹⁴  there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Judges 17:5

17:5 Now this man Micah owned a shrine. ¹⁵  He made an ephod ¹⁶  and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest. ¹⁷ 

Judges 6:19

6:19 Gideon went and prepared a young goat, ¹⁸  along with unleavened bread made from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought the food ¹⁹  to him under the oak tree and presented it to him.

Judges 11:39

11:39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin. ²⁰  Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel. ²¹ 

¹ tn Heb “And his father went down to the woman.”

² tn Or “[wedding] feast.”

³ tn Heb “the young men.”

⁴ tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

⁵ tn Heb “house.”

⁶ tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew term גֹּמֶד (gomed) denotes a unit of linear measure, perhaps a cubit (the distance between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger – approximately 18 inches [45 cm]). Some suggest it is equivalent to the short cubit (the distance between the elbow and the knuckles of the clenched fist – approximately 13 inches [33 cm]) or to the span (the distance between the end of the thumb and the end of the little finger in a spread hand – approximately 9 inches [23 cm]). See BDB 167 s.v.; HALOT 196 s.v.; B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 142.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Take the meat…and put [it] on this rock.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and he did so.”

¹³ tn Heb “God did so that night.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “made it into.”

¹⁷ sn In Exod 28:4-6 and several other texts an ephod is described as a priestly or cultic garment. In some cases an ephod is used to obtain a divine oracle (1 Sam 23:9; 30:7). Here the ephod is made of gold and is described as being quite heavy (70-75 lbs?). Some identify it as an idol, but it was more likely a cultic object fashioned in the form of a garment which was used for oracular purposes. For discussion of the ephod in the OT, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 236-43, and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 349-52.

¹⁸ tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).

¹⁹ tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ tn Heb “house of God.”

²⁰ sn Here an ephod probably refers to a priestly garment (cf. Exod 28:4-6).

²¹ tn Heb “and he filled the hand of one of his sons and he became his priest.”

²² tn Heb “a kid from among the goats.”

²³ tn The words “the food” are not in the Hebrew text (an implied direct object). They are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

²⁵ tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.

²⁶ tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”