Judges 16:8

16:8 So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried and they tied him up with them.

Judges 6:1

Oppression and Confrontation

6:1 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, ¹  so the Lord turned them over to ²  Midian for seven years.

Judges 16:7

16:7 Samson said to her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh ³  bowstrings ⁴  that have not been dried, I will become weak and be just like any other man.”

Judges 8:14

8:14 He captured a young man from Succoth ⁵  and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. ⁶ 

Judges 12:9

12:9 He had thirty sons. He arranged for thirty of his daughters to be married outside his extended family, ⁷  and he arranged for thirty young women to be brought from outside as wives for his sons. ⁸  Ibzan ⁹  led ¹⁰  Israel for seven years;

Judges 14:12

14:12 Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, ¹¹  I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets ¹²  of clothes.

Judges 14:17

14:17 She cried on his shoulder ¹³  until the party was almost over. ¹⁴  Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. ¹⁵  Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle. ¹⁶ 

Judges 16:19

16:19 She made him go to sleep on her lap ¹⁷  and then called a man in to shave off ¹⁸  the seven braids of his hair. ¹⁹  She made him vulnerable ²⁰  and his strength left him.

Judges 16:13

16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair ²¹  into the fabric on the loom ²²  and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 20:15-16

20:15 That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ²³  20:16 Among this army ²⁴  were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers. ²⁵  Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target. ²⁶ 

Judges 6:25

Gideon Destroys the Altar

6:25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ²⁷  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Judges 16:14

16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ²⁸  Samson!” ²⁹  He woke up ³⁰  and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.

Judges 8:26

8:26 The total weight of the gold earrings he requested came to seventeen hundred gold shekels. ³¹  This was in addition to the crescent-shaped ornaments, jewelry, ³²  purple clothing worn by the Midianite kings, and the necklaces on the camels. ³³ 

¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

² tn Heb “gave them into the hand of.”

¹ tn Or “moist.”

² tn The word refers to a bowstring, probably made from animal tendons. See Ps 11:2; Job 30:11.

¹ tn Heb “from the men of Succoth.”

² tn Heb “wrote down for him the officials of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.”

¹ tn Heb “thirty daughters he sent off outside.” Another option is to translate, “He arranged for his thirty daughters…” It is not clear if he had more than the “thirty daughters” mentioned in the text.

² tn Heb “and thirty daughters he brought for his sons from the outside.”

³ tn Heb “He”; the referent (Ibzan) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for English stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Traditionally, “judged.”

¹ tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”

² tn Heb “changes.”

¹ tn Heb “on him.”

² tn Heb “the seven days [during] which they held the party.” This does not mean she cried for the entire seven days; v. 15 indicates otherwise. She cried for the remainder of the seven day period, beginning on the fourth day.

³ tn Heb “because she forced him.”

⁴ tn Heb “she told the riddle to the sons of her people.”

¹ tn Heb “on her knees.” The expression is probably euphemistic for sexual intercourse. See HALOT 160-61 s.v. בֶּרֶךְ.

² tn Heb “she called for a man and she shaved off.” The point seems to be that Delilah acted through the instrumentality of the man. See J. A. Soggin, Judges (OTL), 254.

³ tn Heb “head.” By metonymy the hair of his head is meant.

⁴ tn Heb “She began to humiliate him.” Rather than referring to some specific insulting action on Delilah’s part after Samson’s hair was shaved off, this statement probably means that she, through the devious actions just described, began the process of Samson’s humiliation which culminates in the following verses.

¹ tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.

² tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.

¹ tn Heb “besides from the ones living in Gibeah they mustered seven hundred choice men.”

¹ tn Heb “And from all this people.”

² tn Heb “seven hundred choice men, bound/restricted in the right hand.” On the significance of the idiom, “bound/restricted in the right hand,” see the translator’s note on 3:15.

³ tn “at a single hair and not miss.”

¹ tn Or “Take a bull from your father’s herd, the second one, the one seven years old.” Apparently Gideon would need the bulls to pull down the altar.

¹ tn Heb “are upon you.”

² tc The MT of vv. 13b-14a reads simply, “He said to her, ‘If you weave the seven braids of my head with the web.’ And she fastened with the pin and said to him.” The additional words in the translation, “and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.’ 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom,” which without doubt represent the original text, are supplied from the ancient Greek version. (In both vv. 13b and 14a the Greek version has “to the wall” after “with the pin,” but this is an interpretive addition that reflects a misunderstanding of ancient weaving equipment. See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 353-54.) The Hebrew textual tradition was accidentally shortened during the copying process. A scribe’s eye jumped from the first instance of “with the web” to the second, causing him to leave out inadvertently the intervening words.

³ tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹ sn Seventeen hundred gold shekels would be about 42.7 pounds (19.4 kilograms) of gold.

² tn Or “pendants.”

³ tn Heb “the ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.”