Judges 3:8-9

3:8 The Lord was furious with Israel¹ and turned them over to² King Cushan-Rishathaim³ of Aram-Naharaim. They were Cushan-Rishathaim’s subjects⁴ for eight years. 3:9 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he⁵ raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who rescued⁶ them. His name was Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.⁷

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 Israel⁹ because they had done evil in the Lord’s sight.

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he¹⁰ raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man.¹¹ The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment.¹²

Judges 4:3

4:3 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, because Sisera¹³ had nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,¹⁴ and he cruelly¹⁵ oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

Judges 6:2

6:2 The Midianites¹⁶ overwhelmed Israel.¹⁷ Because of Midian the Israelites made shelters¹⁸ for themselves in the hills, as well as caves and strongholds.

Judges 6:8

6:8 he¹⁹ sent a prophet²⁰ to the Israelites. He said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you up from Egypt²¹ and took you out of that place of slavery.²²

Judges 10:8

10:8 They ruthlessly oppressed²³ the Israelites that eighteenth year²⁴ – that is, all the Israelites living east of the Jordan in Amorite country in Gilead.

Judges 11:17

11:17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us²⁵ to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request.²⁶ Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate.²⁷ So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

Judges 18:1

The Tribe of Dan Finds an Inheritance

18:1 In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place²⁸ to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel.²⁹

Judges 20:10

20:10 We will take ten of every group of a hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (and a hundred of every group of a thousand, and a thousand of every group of ten thousand) to get supplies for the army.³⁰ When they arrive in Gibeah of Benjamin they will punish them for the atrocity which they committed in Israel.”³¹

Judges 20:13

20:13 Now, hand over the good-for-nothings³² in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.”³³ But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.

Judges 20:35

20:35 The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites.³⁴

Judges 20:39

20:39 the Israelites counterattacked.³⁵ Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites;³⁶ they struck down³⁷ about thirty men. They said, “There’s no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle.”

Judges 21:5

21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed.³⁸

¹tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned (or raged) against Israel.”

²tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”

³tn Or “Cushan the Doubly Wicked.”

⁴tn Or “they served Cushan-Rishathaim.”

⁵tn Heb “the Lord.”

⁶tn Or “delivered.”

⁷tn “Caleb’s younger brother” may refer to Othniel or to Kenaz (in which case Othniel is Caleb’s nephew).

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

¹⁰tn Heb “strengthened Eglon…against Israel.”

¹³tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁴tn The phrase, which refers to Ehud, literally reads “bound/restricted in the right hand,” apparently a Hebrew idiom for a left-handed person. See Judg 20:16, where 700 Benjaminites are described in this way. Perhaps the Benjaminites purposely trained several of their young men to be left-handed warriors by restricting the use of the right hand from an early age so the left hand would become dominant. Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking city gates. See B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon: The First Locked-Room Murder Mystery,” BRev 4 (1988): 35.

¹⁵tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

¹⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸tn Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255, and the article by R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.

¹⁹tn Heb “with strength.”

²¹tn Heb “the hand of Midian.”

²²tn Heb “The hand of Midian was strong against Israel.”

²³tn Or possibly “secret storage places.” The Hebrew word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.

²⁵tn Heb “the Lord”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

²⁶tn Heb “a man, a prophet.” Hebrew idiom sometimes puts a generic term before a more specific designation.

²⁷tc Some ancient witnesses read “from the land of Egypt.” מֵאֶרֶץ (me’erets, “from the land [of]”) could have been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton (note the following מִמִּצְרַיִם [mimmitsrayim, “from Egypt”]).

²⁸tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”

²⁹tn Heb “shattered and crushed.” The repetition of similar sounding synonyms (רָעַץ [ra’ats] and רָצַץ [ratsats]) is for emphasis; רָצַץ appears in the Polel, adding further emphasis to the affirmation.

³⁰tn The phrase שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה (shemoneh ’esreh shanah) could be translated “eighteen years,” but this would be difficult after the reference to “that year.” It is possible that v. 8b is parenthetical, referring to an eighteen year long period of oppression east of the Jordan which culminated in hostilities against all Israel (including Judah, see v. 9) in the eighteenth year. It is simpler to translate the phrase as an ordinal number, though the context does not provide the point of reference. (See Gen 14:4-5 and R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 191-92.) In this case, the following statement specifies which “Israelites” are in view.

³³tn Heb “me.” (Collective Israel is the speaker.)

³⁴tn Heb “did not listen.”

³⁵tn Heb “Also to the king of Moab he sent, but he was unwilling.”

³⁷tn Heb “an inheritance.”

³⁸tn Heb “because there had not fallen to them by that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel an inheritance.”

⁴¹tn Or “people.”

⁴²tn Heb “to do at their arrival in Geba of Benjamin according to all the disgraceful [thing] which he [collective = “Benjamin”] did in Israel.” Here “Geba” must be an error for “Gibeah.”

⁴⁵tn Heb “the men, sons of wickedness.”

⁴⁶tn Heb “and burn away wickedness from Israel.”

⁴⁹tn Heb “And the sons of Israel struck down in Benjamin that day 25,100 men, all of these wielding the sword.”

⁵³tn Heb “turned in the battle.”

⁵⁴tn Heb “And Benjamin began to strike down wounded ones among the men of Israel.”

⁵⁵tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁵⁷tn Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”