Judges 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ¹  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ²  If you refuse, ³  we will burn up ⁴  you and your father’s family. ⁵  Did you invite us here ⁶  to make us poor?” ⁷ 

Judges 14:17-18

14:17 She cried on his shoulder ⁸  until the party was almost over. ⁹  Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. ¹⁰  Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle. ¹¹  14:18 On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”

He said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer, ¹² 

you would not have solved my riddle!”

Judges 20:15

20:15 That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ¹³ 

Judges 20:25-26

20:25 The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers. ¹⁴ 

20:26 So all the Israelites, the whole army, ¹⁵  went up to ¹⁶  Bethel. ¹⁷  They wept and sat there before the Lord; they did not eat anything ¹⁸  that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace ¹⁹  to the Lord.

Judges 20:35

20:35 The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. ²⁰ 

[14:15]  ¹ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

[14:15]  ² tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

[14:15]  ³ tn Heb “lest.”

[14:15]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[14:15]  ⁶ tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

[14:15]  ⁷ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

[14:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “on him.”

[14:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “the seven days [during] which they held the party.” This does not mean she cried for the entire seven days; v. 15 indicates otherwise. She cried for the remainder of the seven day period, beginning on the fourth day.

[14:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because she forced him.”

[14:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “she told the riddle to the sons of her people.”

[14:18]  ¹⁵ sn Plowed with my heifer. This statement emphasizes that the Philistines had utilized a source of information which should have been off-limits to them. Heifers were used in plowing (Hos 10:11), but one typically used one’s own farm animals, not another man’s.

[20:15]  ²² tn Heb “besides from the ones living in Gibeah they mustered seven hundred choice men.”

[20:25]  ²⁹ tn Heb “And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah the second day, and they struck down among the sons of Israel eighteen thousand men to the ground, all of these were wielding the sword.”

[20:26]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and all the people.”

[20:26]  ³⁷ tn Heb “went up and came [to].”

[20:26]  ³⁸ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[20:26]  ³⁹ tn Traditionally, “fasted.”

[20:26]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “peace offerings.”

[20:35]  ⁴³ tn Heb “And the sons of Israel struck down in Benjamin that day 25,100 men, all of these wielding the sword.”