Judges 14:7

14:7 Samson continued on down to Timnah ¹  and spoke to the girl. In his opinion, she was just the right one. ² 

Judges 2:11

A Monotonous Cycle

2:11 The Israelites did evil before ³  the Lord by worshiping ⁴  the Baals.

Judges 4:1

Deborah Summons Barak

4:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight ⁵  after Ehud’s death.

Judges 6:1

Oppression and Confrontation

6:1 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, ⁶  so the Lord turned them over to ⁷  Midian for seven years.

Judges 3:12

Deceit, Assassination, and Deliverance

3:12 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ⁸  The Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel ⁹  because they had done evil in the Lord’s sight.

Judges 3:7

Othniel: A Model Leader

3:7 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹⁰  They forgot the Lord their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs. ¹¹ 

Judges 13:1

Samson’s Birth

13:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight, ¹²  so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

Judges 14:3

14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ¹³  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ¹⁴  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ¹⁵  because she is the right one for me.” ¹⁶ 

Judges 10:6

The Lord’s Patience Runs Short

10:6 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹⁷  They worshiped ¹⁸  the Baals and the Ashtars, ¹⁹  as well as the gods of Syria, Sidon, ²⁰  Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines. ²¹  They abandoned the Lord and did not worship ²²  him.

¹ tn Heb “He went down.”

² tn Heb “She was the right one in the eyes of Samson.”

³ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

⁴ tn Or “serving”; or “following.”

⁵ tn Heb “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

⁷ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

⁸ tn Heb “gave them into the hand of.”

⁹ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord” (also later in this verse).

¹⁰ tn Heb “strengthened Eglon…against Israel.”

¹¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

¹² sn The Asherahs were local manifestations of the Canaanite goddess Asherah.

¹³ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.

¹⁶ tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”

¹⁷ tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.

¹⁸ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

¹⁸ tn Or “served;” or “followed.”

¹⁹ sn The Ashtars were local manifestations of the goddess Ashtar (i.e., Astarte).

²⁰ map For location see Map1-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

²¹ tn Heb “the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.”

²² tn Or “serve”; or “follow.”