Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ¹  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ²  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ³ 

Judges 3:31

3:31 After Ehud ⁴  came ⁵  Shamgar son of Anath; he killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad and, like Ehud, ⁶  delivered Israel.

Judges 4:9

4:9 She said, “I will indeed go with you. But you will not gain fame ⁷  on the expedition you are undertaking, ⁸  for the Lord will turn Sisera over to a woman.” ⁹  Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Judges 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ¹⁰  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ¹¹  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ¹²  and he died.

Judges 6:15

6:15 Gideon ¹³  said to him, “But Lord, ¹⁴  how ¹⁵  can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 41:14-15

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ¹⁷ 

men of ¹⁸  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ¹⁹  the Holy One of Israel. ²⁰ 

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ²¹  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ²² 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ²³ 

Isaiah 41:1

The Lord Challenges the Nations

41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands! ²⁴ 

Let the nations find renewed strength!

Let them approach and then speak;

let us come together for debate! ²⁵ 

Colossians 1:27

1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious ²⁶  riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[3:15]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ² 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.

[3:15]  ³ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

[3:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “was.”

[3:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “also he”; the referent (Ehud) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:9]  ⁷ tn Or “honor.”

[4:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “on [account of (?)] the way which you are walking.” Another option is to translate, “due to the way you are going about this.” In this case direct reference is made to Barak’s hesitancy as the reason for his loss of glory.

[4:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “for into the hands of a woman the Lord will sell Sisera.”

[4:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ¹² tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

[6:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:15]  ¹⁴ tn Note the switch to אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”). Gideon seems aware that he is speaking to someone other than, and superior to, the messenger, whom he addressed as אֲדֹנִי (’adoniy, “my lord”) in v. 13.

[6:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “with what.”

[6:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in my father’s house.”

[41:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ¹⁸ tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ²⁰ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[41:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ²² tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ²³ sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.

[41:1]  ²⁴ tn Or “islands” (KJV, NIV, CEV); TEV “distant lands”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”

[41:1]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) could be translated “judgment,” but here it seems to refer to the dispute or debate between the Lord and the nations.

[1:27]  ²⁶ tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”