Judges 1:27

1:27 The men of Manasseh did not conquer Beth Shan, Taanach, or their surrounding towns. Nor did they conquer the people living in Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo ¹  or their surrounding towns. ²  The Canaanites managed ³  to remain in those areas. ⁴ 

Judges 1:33

1:33 The men of Naphtali did not conquer the people living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath. ⁵  They live among the Canaanites residing in the land. The Canaanites ⁶  living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were forced to do hard labor for them.

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ⁷  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ⁸  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ⁹ 

Judges 12:1

Civil Strife Mars the Victory

12:1 The Ephraimites assembled ¹⁰  and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight ¹¹  with the Ammonites without asking ¹²  us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” ¹³ 

Judges 14:3

14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ¹⁴  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ¹⁵  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ¹⁶  because she is the right one for me.” ¹⁷ 

[1:27]  ¹ map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.

[1:27]  ² tn Heb “The men of Manasseh did not conquer Beth Shan and its surrounding towns, Taanach and its surrounding towns, the people living in Dor and its surrounding towns, the people living in Ibleam and its surrounding towns, or the people living in Megiddo and its surrounding towns.”

[1:27]  ³ tn Or “were determined.”

[1:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “in this land.”

[1:33]  ⁵ tn Heb “the people living in Beth Shemesh or the people living in Beth Anath.”

[1:33]  ⁶ tn The term “Canaanites” is supplied here both for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

[12:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”

[12:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “cross over to fight.”

[12:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”

[12:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”

[14:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.

[14:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”

[14:3]  ¹⁹ tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.

[14:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”