Judges 1:17

1:17 The men of Judah went with their brothers the men of Simeon ¹  and defeated the Canaanites living in Zephath. They wiped out Zephath. ²  So people now call the city Hormah. ³ 

Judges 1:19

1:19 The Lord was with the men of Judah. They conquered ⁴  the hill country, but they could not ⁵  conquer the people living in the coastal plain, because they had chariots with iron-rimmed wheels. ⁶ 

Judges 3:1

3:1 These were the nations the Lord permitted to remain so he could use them to test Israel – he wanted to test all those who had not experienced battle against the Canaanites. ⁷ 

Judges 3:4

3:4 They were left to test Israel, so the Lord would know if his people would obey the commands he gave their ancestors through Moses. ⁸ 

Judges 3:7

Othniel: A Model Leader

3:7 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. ⁹  They forgot the Lord their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs. ¹⁰ 

Judges 3:13

3:13 Eglon formed alliances with ¹¹  the Ammonites and Amalekites. He came and defeated Israel, and they seized the City of Date Palm Trees.

Judges 8:7

8:7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help, ¹²  after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh ¹³  your skin ¹⁴  with ¹⁵  desert thorns and briers.”

[1:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Judah went with Simeon, his brother.”

[1:17]  ² tn Heb “it”; the referent (the city of Zephath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ³ sn The name Hormah (חָרְמָה, khormah) sounds like the Hebrew verb translated “wipe out” (חָרַם, kharam).

[1:19]  ⁴ tn Or “seized possession of”; or “occupied.”

[1:19]  ⁵ tc Several textual witnesses support the inclusion of this verb.

[1:19]  ⁶ tn Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255, and the article by R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.

[3:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “did not know the wars of Canaan.”

[3:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to know if they would hear the commands of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”

[3:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

[3:7]  ¹⁴ sn The Asherahs were local manifestations of the Canaanite goddess Asherah.

[3:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he gathered to him.”

[8:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Therefore.”

[8:7]  ²⁰ sn I will thresh. The metaphor is agricultural. Threshing was usually done on a hard threshing floor. As farm animals walked over the stalks, pulling behind them a board embedded with sharp stones, the stalks and grain would be separated. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63-65. Gideon threatens to use thorns and briers on his sledge.

[8:7]  ²¹ tn Or “flesh.”

[8:7]  ²² tn This is apparently a rare instrumental use of the Hebrew preposition אֵת (’et, note the use of ב [bet] in v. 16). Some, however, argue that אֵת more naturally indicates accompaniment (“together with”). In this case Gideon envisions threshing their skin along with thorns and briers, just as the stalks and grain are intermingled on the threshing floor. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 229-30.