Judges 16:19

16:19 She made him go to sleep on her lap ¹  and then called a man in to shave off ²  the seven braids of his hair. ³  She made him vulnerable ⁴  and his strength left him.

Judges 20:1

Civil War Breaks Out

20:1 All the Israelites from Dan to Beer Sheba ⁵  and from the land of Gilead ⁶  left their homes ⁷  and assembled together ⁸  before the Lord at Mizpah.

Judges 20:16

20:16 Among this army ⁹  were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers. ¹⁰  Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target. ¹¹ 

[16:19]  ¹ tn Heb “on her knees.” The expression is probably euphemistic for sexual intercourse. See HALOT 160-61 s.v. בֶּרֶךְ.

[16:19]  ² tn Heb “she called for a man and she shaved off.” The point seems to be that Delilah acted through the instrumentality of the man. See J. A. Soggin, Judges (OTL), 254.

[16:19]  ³ tn Heb “head.” By metonymy the hair of his head is meant.

[16:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “She began to humiliate him.” Rather than referring to some specific insulting action on Delilah’s part after Samson’s hair was shaved off, this statement probably means that she, through the devious actions just described, began the process of Samson’s humiliation which culminates in the following verses.

[20:1]  ⁵ sn Dan was located in the far north of the country, while Beer Sheba was located in the far south. This encompassed all the territory of the land of Canaan occupied by the Israelites.

[20:1]  ⁶ sn The land of Gilead was on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

[20:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “went out.”

[20:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the assembly was convened as one man.”

[20:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “And from all this people.”

[20:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “seven hundred choice men, bound/restricted in the right hand.” On the significance of the idiom, “bound/restricted in the right hand,” see the translator’s note on 3:15.

[20:16]  ¹¹ tn “at a single hair and not miss.”