Judges 19:21

19:21 So he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys. They washed their feet and had a meal. ¹ 

Judges 13:4

13:4 Now be careful! Do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. ² 

Judges 7:6

7:6 Three hundred men lapped; ³  the rest of the men ⁴  kneeled to drink water.

Judges 9:27

9:27 They went out to the field, harvested their grapes, ⁵  squeezed out the juice, ⁶  and celebrated. They came to the temple ⁷  of their god and ate, drank, and cursed Abimelech.

Judges 19:4

19:4 His father-in-law, the girl’s father, persuaded him to stay with him for three days, and they ate and drank together, and spent the night there.

Judges 19:6

19:6 So the two of them sat down and had a meal together. ⁸  Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Why not stay another night and have a good time!” ⁹ 

Judges 7:5

7:5 So he brought the men ¹⁰  down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.” ¹¹ 

Judges 13:7

13:7 He said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and have a son. ¹²  So now, do not drink wine or beer and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. ¹³  For the child will be dedicated ¹⁴  to God from birth till the day he dies.’”

Judges 13:14

13:14 She should not drink ¹⁵  anything that the grapevine produces. She must not drink wine or beer, and she must not eat any food that will make her ritually unclean. ¹⁶  She should obey everything I commanded her to do.”

Judges 15:19

15:19 So God split open the basin ¹⁷  at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength ¹⁸  was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring ¹⁹  En Hakkore. ²⁰  It remains in Lehi to this very day.

¹ tn Heb “ate and drank.”

² tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

³ tc The Hebrew text adds, “with their hands to their mouths,” This makes no sense in light of v. 5, which distinguishes between dog-like lappers (who would not use their hands to drink) and those who kneel (who would use their hands). It seems likely that the words “with their hands to their mouths” have been misplaced from v. 6. They fit better at the end of v. 5 or v. 6. Perhaps these words were originally a marginal scribal note which was later accidentally inserted into the text in the wrong place.

⁴ tn Heb “the people.”

⁴ tn Heb “vineyards.”

⁵ tn Heb “stomped” or “trampled.” This refers to the way in which the juice was squeezed out in the wine vats by stepping on the grapes with one’s bare feet. For a discussion of grape harvesting in ancient Israel, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-14.

⁶ tn Heb “house.”

⁵ tn Heb “And they sat and ate, the two of them together, and they drank.”

⁶ tn Heb “Be willing and spend the night so that your heart might be good.”

⁶ tn Heb “the people.”

⁷ tn Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”

⁷ tn See the note on the word “son” in 13:5, where this same statement occurs.

⁸ tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

⁹ tn Traditionally “a Nazirite.”

⁸ tn Heb “eat.”

⁹ tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

⁹ tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.

¹⁰ tn Heb “spirit.”

¹¹ tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹² sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”