Judges 6:13

6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, ¹  but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster ²  overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ³  ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Judges 11:8

11:8 The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That may be true, ⁴  but now we pledge to you our loyalty. ⁵  Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the leader ⁶  of all who live in Gilead.” ⁷ 

Judges 18:19

18:19 They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser ⁸  and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?” ⁹ 

¹ tn Heb “But my lord.”

² tn Heb “all this.”

³ tn Heb “saying.”

⁴ tn Heb “therefore”; “even so.” For MT לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) the LXX has an opposite reading, “not so,” which seems to be based on the Hebrew words לֹא כֵן (lo’ khen).

⁵ tn Heb “we have returned to you.” For another example of שׁוּב אֶל (shuv ’el) in the sense of “give allegiance to,” see 1 Kgs 12:27b.

⁶ sn Then you will become the leader. The leaders of Gilead now use the word רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head, leader”), the same term that appeared in their original, general offer (see 10:18). In their initial offer to Jephthah they had simply invited him to be their קָצִין (qatsin, “commander”; v. 6). When he resists they must offer him a more attractive reward – rulership over the region. See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 198.

⁷ tn Heb “leader of us and all who live in Gilead.”

⁷ tn See the note on the word “adviser” in 17:10.

⁸ tn Heb “Is it better for you to be priest for the house of one man or for you to be priest for a tribe, for a clan in Israel?”