Judges 7:3

7:3 Now, announce to the men, ¹  ‘Whoever is shaking with fear ²  may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” ³  Twenty-two thousand men ⁴  went home; ⁵  ten thousand remained.

Judges 10:4

10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys and possessed thirty cities. To this day these towns are called Havvoth Jair ⁶  – they are in the land of Gilead. ⁷ 

Judges 10:8

10:8 They ruthlessly oppressed ⁸  the Israelites that eighteenth year ⁹  – that is, all the Israelites living east of the Jordan in Amorite country in Gilead.

Judges 11:2

11:2 Gilead’s wife also gave ¹⁰  him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they made Jephthah leave and said to him, “You are not going to inherit any of our father’s wealth, ¹¹  because you are another woman’s son.”

Judges 11:9

11:9 Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, “All right! ¹²  If you take me back to fight with the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, ¹³  I will be your leader.” ¹⁴ 

Judges 11:11

11:11 So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah repeated the terms of the agreement ¹⁵  before the Lord in Mizpah.

Judges 21:8

21:8 So they asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?” Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering. ¹⁶ 

Judges 21:10

21:10 So the assembly sent 12,000 capable warriors ¹⁷  against Jabesh Gilead. ¹⁸  They commanded them, “Go and kill with your swords ¹⁹  the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, including the women and little children.

Judges 21:12

21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins – they had never had sexual relations with a male. ²⁰  They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

² tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

³ 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).

⁴ 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.)

⁵ tn Or “turned around, back.”

⁶ sn The name Habboth Jair means “tent villages of Jair” in Hebrew.

⁷ tn Heb “they call them Havvoth Jair to this day – which are in the land of Gilead.”

¹¹ tn Heb “shattered and crushed.” The repetition of similar sounding synonyms (רָעַץ [ra’ats] and רָצַץ [ratsats]) is for emphasis; רָצַץ appears in the Polel, adding further emphasis to the affirmation.

¹² tn The phrase שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה (shemoneh ’esreh shanah) could be translated “eighteen years,” but this would be difficult after the reference to “that year.” It is possible that v. 8b is parenthetical, referring to an eighteen year long period of oppression east of the Jordan which culminated in hostilities against all Israel (including Judah, see v. 9) in the eighteenth year. It is simpler to translate the phrase as an ordinal number, though the context does not provide the point of reference. (See Gen 14:4-5 and R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 191-92.) In this case, the following statement specifies which “Israelites” are in view.

¹⁶ tn Heb “bore.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “in the house of our father.”

²¹ tn “All right” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

²² tn Heb “places them before me.”

²³ tn Some translate the final statement as a question, “will I really be your leader?” An affirmative sentence is preferable. Jephthah is repeating the terms of the agreement in an official manner. In v. 10 the leaders legally agree to these terms.

²⁶ tn Heb “spoke all his words.” This probably refers to the “words” recorded in v. 9. Jephthah repeats the terms of the agreement at the Lord’s sanctuary, perhaps to ratify the contract or to emphasize the Gileadites’ obligation to keep their part of the bargain. Another option is to translate, “Jephthah conducted business before the Lord in Mizpah.” In this case, the statement is a general reference to the way Jephthah ruled. He recognized the Lord’s authority and made his decisions before the Lord.

³¹ tn Heb “Look, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly.”

³⁶ tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”

³⁷ tn Heb “there.”

³⁸ tn Heb “the edge of the sword.”

⁴¹ tn Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”