Judges 3:20

3:20 When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated¹ upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God² for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat,³

Judges 4:6

4:6 She summoned⁴ Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Is it not true that the Lord God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun!

Judges 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other.⁵ She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground⁶ while he was asleep from exhaustion,⁷ and he died.

Judges 6:13

6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me,⁸ but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster⁹ overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said,¹⁰ ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Judges 6:19

6:19 Gideon went and prepared a young goat,¹¹ 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 food¹² to him under the oak tree and presented it to him.

Judges 6:27

6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants¹³ and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family¹⁴ and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime.¹⁵

Judges 8:1

8:1 The Ephraimites said to him, “Why have you done such a thing to us? You did not summon us¹⁶ when you went to fight the Midianites!” They argued vehemently with him.

Judges 9:36

9:36 Gaal saw the men¹⁷ and said to Zebul, “Look, men are coming down from the tops of the hills.” But Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadows on the hills – it just looks like men.”¹⁸

Judges 9:38

9:38 Zebul said to him, “Where now are your bragging words,¹⁹ ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the men²⁰ you insulted?²¹ Go out now and fight them!”

Judges 11:36

11:36 She said to him, “My father, since²² you made an oath to the Lord, do to me as you promised.²³ After all, the Lord vindicated you before²⁴ your enemies, the Ammonites.”

Judges 16:9

16:9 They hid²⁵ in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here,²⁶ Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire.²⁷ The secret of his strength was not discovered.²⁸

Judges 16:15

16:15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me?²⁹ Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.”

Judges 19:18

19:18 The Levite³⁰ said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem³¹ in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home.³² But no one has invited me into their home.

Judges 20:23

20:23 The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we³³ again march out to fight³⁴ the Benjaminites, our brothers?”³⁵ The Lord said, “Attack them!”³⁶

¹tn Or “cool.” This probably refers to a room with latticed windows which allowed the breeze to pass through. See B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 144.

²tn Heb “word of [i.e., from] God.”

³tn Or “throne.”

⁴tn Heb “sent and summoned.”

⁷tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

⁸tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

⁹tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

¹⁰tn Heb “But my lord.”

¹¹tn Heb “all this.”

¹²tn Heb “saying.”

¹³tn Heb “a kid from among the goats.”

¹⁴tn 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.

¹⁶tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

¹⁷tn Heb “house.”

¹⁸tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

¹⁹tn Heb “by not summoning us.”

²²tn Heb “the people” (also in vv. 38, 43, 48). These were warriors, so “men” has been used in the translation, since in ancient Israelite culture soldiers would have been exclusively males.

²³tn Heb “the shadow on the hills you are seeing, like men.”

²⁵tn Heb “is your mouth that says.”

²⁶tn Heb “the people.”

²⁷tn Or “despised.”

²⁸tn The conjunction “since” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

²⁹tn Heb “you opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to [what] went out from your mouth.”

³⁰tn Or “has given you vengeance against.”

³¹tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).

³²tn Heb “are upon you.”

³³tn Heb “when it smells fire.”

³⁴tn Heb “His strength was not known.”

³⁴tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”

³⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁸map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

³⁹tn Heb “I went to Bethlehem in Judah, but [to] the house of the LORD I am going.” The Hebrew text has “house of the LORD,” which might refer to the shrine at Shiloh. The LXX reads “to my house.”

⁴⁰tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

⁴¹tn Heb “approach for battle.”

⁴²tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

⁴³tn Heb “Go up against him” (collective singular).