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 ¹  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ²  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ³  because she is the right one for me.” ⁴ 

Judges 8:32

8:32 Gideon son of Joash died at a very ⁵  old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash located in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Judges 6:27

6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants ⁶  and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family ⁷  and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime. ⁸ 

Judges 9:5

9:5 He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and murdered his half-brothers, ⁹  the seventy legitimate ¹⁰  sons of Jerub-Baal, on one stone. Only Jotham, Jerub-Baal’s youngest son, escaped, ¹¹  because he hid.

Judges 14:9

14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned ¹²  to his father and mother, he offered them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of the lion’s carcass. ¹³ 

Judges 16:31

16:31 His brothers and all his family ¹⁴  went down and brought him back. ¹⁵  They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led ¹⁶  Israel for twenty years.

[14:3]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

[8:32]  ⁵ tn Heb “good.”

[6:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

[6:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “house.”

[6:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

[9:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “his brothers.”

[9:5]  ¹⁴ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “remained.”

[14:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “went.” Samson apparently went home to his parents before going to Timnah for the marriage. Seeing and tasting the honey appears to encourage Manoah to go with his son to Timnah. Perhaps both Samson and his father viewed the honey as a good omen of future blessing. Possibly Samson considered it a symbol of sexual pleasure or an aphrodisiac. Note the use of honey imagery in Song 4:11 and 5:1.

[14:9]  ¹⁸ sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.

[16:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “and all the house of his father.”

[16:31]  ²² tn Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”

[16:31]  ²³ tn Traditionally, “judged.”