Judges 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ¹  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ² 

Judges 11:3

11:3 So Jephthah left ³  his half-brothers ⁴  and lived in the land of Tob. Lawless men joined Jephthah’s gang and traveled with him. ⁵ 

Judges 11:5

11:5 When the Ammonites attacked, ⁶  the leaders ⁷  of Gilead asked Jephthah to come back ⁸  from the land of Tob.

Judges 11:25

11:25 Are you really better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he dare to quarrel with Israel? Did he dare to fight with them? ⁹ 

Judges 9:2

9:2 “Tell ¹⁰  all the leaders of Shechem this: ‘Why would you want ¹¹  to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal’s sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.’” ¹² 

Judges 16:25

16:25 When they really started celebrating, ¹³  they said, “Call for Samson so he can entertain us!” So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them. ¹⁴  They made him stand between two pillars.

¹ tn Heb “gleanings.”

² sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.

³ tn Or “fled from.”

⁴ tn Heb “brothers.”

⁵ tn Heb “Empty men joined themselves to Jephthah and went out with him.”

⁵ tn Heb “When the Ammonites fought with Israel.”

⁶ tn Or “elders.”

⁷ tn Heb “went to take Jephthah.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew grammatical constructions of all three rhetorical questions indicate emphasis, which “really” and “dare to” are intended to express in the translation.

⁹ tn Heb “Speak into the ears of.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “What good is it to you?”

¹¹ tn Heb “your bone and your flesh.”

¹¹ tn Heb “When their heart was good.”

¹² tn Heb “before them.”