Judges 2:11

A Monotonous Cycle

2:11 The Israelites did evil before ¹  the Lord by worshiping ²  the Baals.

Judges 4:1

Deborah Summons Barak

4:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight ³  after Ehud’s death.

Judges 6:1

Oppression and Confrontation

6:1 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, ⁴  so the Lord turned them over to ⁵  Midian for seven years.

Judges 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ⁶  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ⁷ 

Judges 9:56

9:56 God repaid Abimelech for the evil he did to his father by murdering his seventy half-brothers. ⁸ 

Judges 13:15

13:15 Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Please stay here awhile, ⁹  so we can prepare a young goat for you to eat.” ¹⁰ 

Judges 15:3

15:3 Samson said to them, ¹¹  “This time I am justified in doing the Philistines harm!” ¹² 

Judges 15:7

15:7 Samson said to them, “Because you did this, ¹³  I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” ¹⁴ 

Judges 17:6

17:6 In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right. ¹⁵ 

Judges 18:4

18:4 He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, ¹⁶  “He hired me and I became his priest.”

Judges 21:11

21:11 Do this: ¹⁷  exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. ¹⁸  But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed. ¹⁹ 

Judges 21:15-16

21:15 The people regretted what had happened to ²⁰  Benjamin because the Lord had weakened ²¹  the Israelite tribes. 21:16 The leaders ²²  of the assembly said, “How can we find wives for those who are left? ²³  After all, the Benjaminite women have been wiped out.

Judges 21:25

21:25 In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right. ²⁴ 

[2:11]  ¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[2:11]  ² tn Or “serving”; or “following.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

[6:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[6:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “gave them into the hand of.”

[8:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “gleanings.”

[8:2]  ⁸ 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.

[9:56]  ⁹ tn Heb “seventy brothers.”

[13:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Please allow us to detain you.”

[13:15]  ¹² tn Heb “so we can prepare before you a young goat of the goats.”

[15:3]  ¹³ tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the (original) LXX has the singular “to him.”

[15:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I am innocent this time from the Philistines when I do with them harm.”

[15:7]  ¹⁵ tn The Niphal of נָקָם (naqam, “to avenge, to take vengeance”) followed by the preposition ב (bet) has the force “to get revenge against.” See 1 Sam 18:25; Jer 50:15; Ezek 25:12.

[15:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and afterward I will stop.”

[17:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Each was doing what was right in his [own] eyes.”

[18:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “He said to them, ‘Such and such Micah has done for me.’” Though the statement is introduced and presented, at least in part, as a direct quotation (note especially “for me”), the phrase “such and such” appears to be the narrator’s condensed version of what the Levite really said.

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

[21:11]  ²² tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”

[21:11]  ²³ 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.

[21:15]  ²³ tn Or “felt sorry for.”

[21:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “had made a gaping hole in.” The narrator uses imagery that compares Israel to a wall that has been breached.

[21:16]  ²⁵ tn Or “elders.”

[21:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “What should we do for the remaining ones concerning wives?”

[21:25]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Each was doing what was right in his [own] eyes.”