Judges 2:15

2:15 Whenever they went out to fight, ¹  the Lord did them harm, ²  just as he had warned and solemnly vowed he would do. ³  They suffered greatly. ⁴ 

Judges 3:7

Othniel: A Model Leader

3:7 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. ⁵  They forgot the Lord their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs. ⁶ 

Judges 9:23

9:23 God sent a spirit to stir up hostility ⁷  between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. He made the leaders of Shechem disloyal ⁸  to Abimelech.

Judges 9:57

9:57 God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell ⁹  on them.

Judges 13:1

Samson’s Birth

13:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight, ¹⁰  so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

Judges 20:3

20:3 The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. Then the Israelites said, “Explain how this wicked thing happened!”

Judges 20:12

20:12 The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe ¹¹  of Benjamin, saying, “How could such a wicked thing take place? ¹² 

Judges 20:34

20:34 Ten thousand men, well-trained soldiers from all Israel, then made a frontal assault against Gibeah – the battle was fierce. ¹³  But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn The expression “to fight” is interpretive.

² tn Heb “the Lord’s hand was against them for harm.”

³ tn Heb “just as he had said and just as he had sworn to them.”

⁴ tn Or “they experienced great distress.”

⁵ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

⁶ sn The Asherahs were local manifestations of the Canaanite goddess Asherah.

⁹ tn Heb “an evil spirit.” A nonphysical, spirit being is in view, like the one who volunteered to deceive Ahab (1 Kgs 22:21). The traditional translation, “evil spirit,” implies the being is inherently wicked, perhaps even demonic, but this is not necessarily the case. The Hebrew adjective רָעַה (ra’ah) can have a nonethical sense, “harmful; dangerous; calamitous.” When modifying רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) it may simply indicate that the being in view causes harm to the object of God’s judgment. G. F. Moore (Judges [ICC], 253) here refers to a “mischief-making spirit.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “The leaders of Shechem were disloyal.” The words “he made” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹³ tn Heb “came.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

²¹ tc The MT reads the plural, but surely the singular (which is supported by the LXX and Vulgate) is preferable here.

²² tn Heb “What is this wicked thing which happened among you?”

²⁵ tn Heb “heavy”; or “severe.”

²⁶ tn Heb “And they did not know that touching against them was disaster.”