Judges 7:3

7:3 Now, announce to the men,¹ ‘Whoever is shaking with fear² may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’”³ Twenty-two thousand men⁴ went home;⁵ ten thousand remained.

Judges 9:28

9:28 Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerub-Baal, and is not Zebul the deputy he appointed?⁶ Serve the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem! But why should we serve Abimelech?⁷

Judges 9:38

9:38 Zebul said to him, “Where now are your bragging words,⁸ ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the men⁹ you insulted?¹⁰ Go out now and fight them!”

Judges 10:18

10:18 The leaders¹¹ of Gilead said to one another, “Who is willing to lead the charge¹² against the Ammonites? He will become the leader of all who live in Gilead!”

Judges 15:6

15:6 The Philistines asked,¹³ “Who did this?” They were told,¹⁴ “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite¹⁵ took Samson’s¹⁶ bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father.¹⁷

Judges 18:3

18:3 As they approached¹⁸ Micah’s house, they recognized the accent¹⁹ of the young Levite. So they stopped²⁰ there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?”²¹

Judges 20:18

20:18 The Israelites went up to Bethel²² and asked God,²³ “Who should lead the charge against the Benjaminites?”²⁴ The Lord said, “Judah should lead.”

Judges 21:5

21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed.²⁵

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.²⁶

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

²tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

³tc 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).

⁴tn 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.)

⁵tn Or “turned around, back.”

⁶tn Heb “and Zebul his appointee.”

⁷tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abimelech) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹tn Heb “is your mouth that says.”

¹²tn Heb “the people.”

¹³tn Or “despised.”

¹⁶tn Heb “the people, the officers.”

¹⁷tn Heb “Who is the man who will begin fighting.”

²¹tn Or “said.”

²²tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

²³tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁵tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.

²⁶tn Or “When they were near.”

²⁷tn Heb “voice.” This probably means that “his speech was Judahite [i.e., southern] like their own, not Israelite [i.e., northern]” (R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 263).

²⁸tn Heb “turned aside.”

²⁹tn Heb “What [is there] to you here?”

³¹map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

³²tn Heb “They arose and went up to Bethel and asked God, and the Israelites said.”

³³tn Heb “Who should go up for us first for battle against the sons of Benjamin?”

³⁶tn Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”

⁴¹tn Heb “Look, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly.”