Judges 6:36

6:36 Gideon said to God, “If you really intend to use me to deliver Israel, ¹  as you promised, then give me a sign as proof. ² 

Judges 3:9

3:9 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ³  raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who rescued ⁴  them. His name was Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ⁵ 

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ⁶  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ⁷  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ⁸ 

Judges 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ⁹  I risked my life ¹⁰  and advanced against ¹¹  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ¹²  to fight with me today?”

¹ tn More literally, “you are about to deliver Israel by my hand.”

² tn The words “then give me a sign as proof” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

³ tn Heb “the Lord.”

⁴ tn Or “delivered.”

⁵ tn “Caleb’s younger brother” may refer to Othniel or to Kenaz (in which case Othniel is Caleb’s nephew).

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn 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.

⁷ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

⁷ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

⁸ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

⁹ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.