Judges 6:15

6:15 Gideon ¹  said to him, “But Lord, ²  how ³  can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” ⁴ 

Judges 9:31

9:31 He sent messengers to Abimelech, who was in Arumah, ⁵  reporting, “Beware! ⁶  Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers are coming ⁷  to Shechem and inciting the city to rebel against you. ⁸ 

Judges 9:37

9:37 Gaal again said, “Look, men are coming down from the very center ⁹  of the land. A unit ¹⁰  is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners.” ¹¹ 

Judges 13:3

13:3 The Lord’s angelic ¹²  messenger appeared to the woman and said to her, “You ¹³  are infertile and childless, ¹⁴  but you will conceive and have a son.

Judges 13:10

13:10 The woman ran at once and told her husband, ¹⁵  “Come quickly, ¹⁶  the man who visited ¹⁷  me the other day has appeared to me!”

Judges 16:10

16:10 Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you deceived ¹⁸  me and told me lies! Now tell me how you can be subdued.”

Judges 19:12

19:12 But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. ¹⁹  We will travel on to Gibeah.”

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

² tn Note the switch to אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”). Gideon seems aware that he is speaking to someone other than, and superior to, the messenger, whom he addressed as אֲדֹנִי (’adoniy, “my lord”) in v. 13.

³ tn Heb “with what.”

⁴ tn Heb “in my father’s house.”

⁵ tn The form בְּתָרְמָה (bÿtarmah) in the Hebrew text, which occurs only here, has traditionally been understood to mean “secretly” or “with deception.” If this is correct, it is derived from II רָמָה (ramah, “to deceive”). Some interpreters object, pointing out that this would imply Zebul was trying to deceive Abimelech, which is clearly not the case in this context. But this objection is unwarranted. If retained, the phrase would refer instead to deceptive measures used by Zebul to avoid the suspicion of Gaal when he dispatched the messengers from Shechem. The present translation assumes an emendation to “in Arumah” (בָּארוּמָה, ba’rumah), a site mentioned in v. 41 as the headquarters of Abimelech. Confusion of alef and tav in archaic Hebrew script, while uncommon, is certainly not unimaginable.

⁶ tn Heb “Look!”

⁷ tn The participle, as used here, suggests Gaal and his brothers are in the process of arriving, but the preceding verses imply they have already settled in. Perhaps Zebul uses understatement to avoid the appearance of negligence on his part. After all, if he made the situation sound too bad, Abimelech, when he was informed, might ask why he had allowed this rebellion to reach such a stage.

⁸ tn The words “to rebel” are interpretive. The precise meaning of the Hebrew verb צוּר (tsur) is unclear here. It is best to take it in the sense of “to instigate; to incite; to provoke” (see Deut 2:9, 19 and R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 178).

⁹ tn Heb “navel.” On the background of the Hebrew expression “the navel of the land,” see R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 178-79.

¹⁰ tn Heb “head.”

¹¹ tn Some English translations simply transliterated this as a place name (Heb “Elon-meonenim”); cf. NAB, NRSV.

¹³ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive (also in vv. 6, 9).

¹⁴ tn Heb “Look, you.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “and have not given birth.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “and said to him.” This phrase has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

¹⁸ tn Heb “Look.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “came to.”

²¹ tn See Gen 31:7; Exod 8:29 [8:25 HT]; Job 13:9; Isa 44:20; Jer 9:4 for other uses of this Hebrew word (II תָּלַל, talal), which also occurs in v. 13.

²⁵ tn Heb “who are not from the sons of Israel.”