Judges 9:48

9:48 He and all his men ¹  went up on Mount Zalmon. He ²  took an ax ³  in his hand and cut off a tree branch. He put it ⁴  on his shoulder and said to his men, “Quickly, do what you have just seen me do!” ⁵ 

Judges 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ⁶  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ⁷  If you refuse, ⁸  we will burn up ⁹  you and your father’s family. ¹⁰  Did you invite us here ¹¹  to make us poor?” ¹² 

Judges 15:14

15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered ¹³  him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in ¹⁴  fire, and they ¹⁵  melted away from his hands.

¹ tn Heb “his people.”

² tn Heb “Abimelech.” The proper name has been replaced with the pronoun (“he”) due to considerations of English style.

³ tn The Hebrew text has the plural here.

⁴ tn Heb “he lifted it and put [it].”

⁵ tn Heb “What you have seen me do, quickly do like me.”

⁶ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

⁷ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

⁸ tn Heb “lest.”

⁹ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁰ tn Heb “house.”

¹¹ tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

¹² tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

¹¹ tn Heb “rushed on.”

¹² tn Heb “burned with.”

¹³ tn Heb “his bonds.”