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 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ⁵  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ⁶  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ⁷  and he died.

Judges 6:13

6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, ⁸  but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster ⁹  overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ¹⁰  ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Judges 6:25

Gideon Destroys the Altar

6:25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ¹¹  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Judges 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ¹²  Zebah and Zalmunna! You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” ¹³ 

Judges 11:17

11:17 Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us ¹⁴  to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request. ¹⁵  Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate. ¹⁶  So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

Judges 11:35

11:35 When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! ¹⁷  You have brought me disaster! ¹⁸  I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it.” ¹⁹ 

Judges 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ²⁰  I risked my life ²¹  and advanced against ²²  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ²³  to fight with me today?”

Judges 12:6

12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” ²⁴  If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word ²⁵  correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.

Judges 16:5

16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate ²⁶  him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

Judges 16:9

16:9 They hid ²⁷  in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here, ²⁸  Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire. ²⁹  The secret of his strength was not discovered. ³⁰ 

Judges 18:19

18:19 They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser ³¹  and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?” ³² 

Judges 20:10

20:10 We will take ten of every group of a hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (and a hundred of every group of a thousand, and a thousand of every group of ten thousand) to get supplies for the army. ³³  When they arrive in Gibeah of Benjamin they will punish them for the atrocity which they committed in Israel.” ³⁴ 

[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.”

[4:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ⁷ 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.”

[6:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “But my lord.”

[6:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all this.”

[6:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “saying.”

[6:25]  ¹³ tn Or “Take a bull from your father’s herd, the second one, the one seven years old.” Apparently Gideon would need the bulls to pull down the altar.

[8:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your exhausted men bread?”

[11:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “me.” (Collective Israel is the speaker.)

[11:17]  ²² tn Heb “did not listen.”

[11:17]  ²³ tn Heb “Also to the king of Moab he sent, but he was unwilling.”

[11:35]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you have brought me very low,” or “you have knocked me to my knees.” The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.

[11:35]  ²⁶ tn Heb “You are among [or “like”] those who trouble me.”

[11:35]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I opened my mouth to the Lord and I am not able to return.”

[12:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

[12:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

[12:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

[12:3]  ³² tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[12:6]  ³³ sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.

[12:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew mss.

[16:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”

[16:9]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).

[16:9]  ⁴² tn Heb “are upon you.”

[16:9]  ⁴³ tn Heb “when it smells fire.”

[16:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “His strength was not known.”

[18:19]  ⁴⁵ tn See the note on the word “adviser” in 17:10.

[18:19]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Is it better for you to be priest for the house of one man or for you to be priest for a tribe, for a clan in Israel?”

[20:10]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “people.”

[20:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “to do at their arrival in Geba of Benjamin according to all the disgraceful [thing] which he [collective = “Benjamin”] did in Israel.” Here “Geba” must be an error for “Gibeah.”