Judges 11:38

11:38 He said, “You may go.” He permitted her to leave ¹  for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity as she walked through the hills. ² 

Judges 19:2

19:2 However, she ³  got angry at him ⁴  and went home ⁵  to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. When she had been there four months,

Judges 20:47

20:47 Six hundred survivors turned and ran away to the wilderness, to the cliff of Rimmon. They stayed there four months.

Judges 11:37

11:37 She then said to her father, “Please grant me this one wish. ⁶  For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.” ⁷ 

Judges 11:39

11:39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin. ⁸  Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel. ⁹ 

[11:38]  ¹ tn Heb “he sent her.”

[11:38]  ² tn Heb “on the hills.” The words “as she walked” are supplied.

[19:2]  ³ tn Heb “and his concubine.” The pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:2]  ⁴ tn Or “was unfaithful to him.” Many have understood the Hebrew verb וַתִּזְנֶה (vattizneh) as being from זָנָה (zanah, “to be a prostitute”), but it may be derived from a root meaning “to be angry; to hate” attested in Akkadian (see HALOT 275 s.v. II זנה).

[19:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “went from him.”

[11:37]  ⁵ tn Heb “Let this thing be done for me.”

[11:37]  ⁶ tn Heb “Leave me alone for two months so I can go and go down on the hills and weep over my virginity – I and my friends.”

[11:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.

[11:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”