Judges 1:8

1:8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem and captured it. They put the sword to it and set the city on fire.

Judges 3:27

3:27 When he reached Seirah, ¹  he blew a trumpet ²  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites went down with him from the hill country, with Ehud in the lead. ³ 

Judges 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ⁴  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ⁵ 

Judges 8:7

8:7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help, ⁶  after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh ⁷  your skin ⁸  with ⁹  desert thorns and briers.”

Judges 13:17

13:17 Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Tell us your name, so we can honor you when your announcement comes true.” ¹⁰ 

Judges 13:21

13:21 The Lord’s messenger did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. After all this happened Manoah realized that the visitor had been the Lord’s messenger. ¹¹ 

Judges 16:29

16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that supported the temple ¹²  and he leaned against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other.

Judges 18:18

18:18 When these men broke into Micah’s house and stole ¹³  the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

Judges 20:5

20:5 The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. ¹⁴  They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

Judges 21:7

21:7 How can we find wives for those who are left? ¹⁵  After all, we took an oath in the Lord’s name not to give them our daughters as wives.”

Judges 21:11

21:11 Do this: ¹⁶  exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. ¹⁷  But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed. ¹⁸ 

Judges 21:13

21:13 The entire assembly sent messengers to the Benjaminites at the cliff of Rimmon and assured them they would not be harmed. ¹⁹ 

[3:27]  ¹ tn Heb “When he arrived.”

[3:27]  ² tn That is, “mustered an army.”

[3:27]  ³ tn Heb “now he was before them.”

[8:2]  ¹ tn Heb “gleanings.”

[8:2]  ² sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.

[8:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Therefore.”

[8:7]  ² 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]  ³ tn Or “flesh.”

[8:7]  ⁴ 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.

[13:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Who your name? For [when] your word comes [to pass], we will honor you.” Manoah apparently gets tongue-tied and uses the wrong pronoun (“who” instead of “what”). He starts to say, “Who are you?” But then he switches to “your name” as if he began the sentence with “what.” See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 222.

[13:21]  ¹ tn Heb “Then Manoah knew that he was the Lord’s messenger.”

[16:29]  ¹ tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house was founded.”

[18:18]  ¹ tn Heb “These went into Micah’s house and took.”

[20:5]  ¹ tn Heb “arose against me and surrounded against me the house at night.”

[21:7]  ¹ tn Heb “What should we do for them, for the remaining ones, concerning wives?”

[21:11]  ¹ tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”

[21:11]  ² tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”

[21:11]  ³ tc Some Greek witnesses (notably Codex Vaticanus [B]) add the words, “‘But the virgins you should keep alive.’ And they did so.” These additional words, which probably represent the original Hebrew text, can be retroverted: וְאֶת־הַבְּתוּלוֹת תְּחַיּוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵן (ve’et-habbÿtulot tÿkhayyu vayya’asu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (vÿ’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.

[21:13]  ¹ tn Heb “And all the assembly sent and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the cliff of Rimmon and they proclaimed to them peace.”