Judges 4:3

4:3 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, because Sisera ¹  had nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels, ²  and he cruelly ³  oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

Judges 7:3

7:3 Now, announce to the men, ⁴  ‘Whoever is shaking with fear ⁵  may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” ⁶  Twenty-two thousand men ⁷  went home; ⁸  ten thousand remained.

Judges 11:33

11:33 He defeated them from Aroer all the way to Minnith – twenty cities in all, even as far as Abel Keramim! He wiped them out! ⁹  The Israelites humiliated the Ammonites. ¹⁰ 

Judges 16:31

16:31 His brothers and all his family ¹¹  went down and brought him back. ¹²  They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led ¹³  Israel for twenty years.

Judges 20:15

20:15 That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ¹⁴ 

Judges 20:35

20:35 The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn 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.

³ tn Heb “with strength.”

⁴ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

⁵ tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

⁶ tc Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).

⁷ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)

⁸ tn Or “turned around, back.”

⁷ tn Heb “with a very great slaughter.”

⁸ tn Heb “The Ammonites were humbled before the Israelites.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and all the house of his father.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”

¹² tn Traditionally, “judged.”

¹³ tn Heb “besides from the ones living in Gibeah they mustered seven hundred choice men.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “And the sons of Israel struck down in Benjamin that day 25,100 men, all of these wielding the sword.”