Judges 5:16

5:16 Why do you remain among the sheepfolds, ¹ 

listening to the shepherds playing their pipes ²  for their flocks? ³ 

As for the clans of Reuben – there was intense searching of heart.

Judges 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ⁴  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ⁵ 

Judges 13:12

13:12 Manoah said, “Now, when your announcement comes true, ⁶  how should the child be raised and what should he do?” ⁷ 

Judges 13:18

13:18 The Lord’s messenger said to him, “You should not ask me my name, because you cannot comprehend it.” ⁸ 

Judges 18:8

18:8 When the Danites returned to their tribe ⁹  in Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen ¹⁰  asked them, “How did it go?” ¹¹ 

Judges 18:23

18:23 When they called out to the Danites, the Danites ¹²  turned around and said to Micah, “Why have you gathered together?”

Judges 21:16

21:16 The leaders ¹³  of the assembly said, “How can we find wives for those who are left? ¹⁴  After all, the Benjaminite women have been wiped out.

¹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word מִשְׁפְּתַיִם (mishpÿtayim) is uncertain. Some understand the word to mean “campfires.”

² tn Or “whistling.”

³ tn Heb “listening to the pipe playing for the flocks.”

⁴ tn Heb “gleanings.”

⁵ sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.

⁷ tn Heb “Now, [when] your word comes [to pass].”

⁸ tn Heb “what will be the child’s rule [i.e., way of life] and his work?”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Why do you ask for my name, for it is incomprehensible?” The Hebrew adjective פִּלְאִי (pile’iy, “wonderful, incomprehensible”) refers to what is in a category of its own and is beyond full human understanding. Note the use of this word in Ps 139:6, where God’s knowledge is described as incomprehensible and unattainable.

¹³ tn Heb “They came to their brothers.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “brothers.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “What you?”

¹⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Danites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ tn Or “elders.”

²⁰ tn Heb “What should we do for the remaining ones concerning wives?”