Judges 2:18

2:18 When the Lord raised up leaders for them, the Lord was with each leader and delivered the people ¹  from their enemies while the leader remained alive. The Lord felt sorry for them ²  when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them. ³ 

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ⁴  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ⁵  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ⁶ 

Judges 6:31

6:31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, ⁷  “Must you fight Baal’s battles? ⁸  Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause ⁹  will die by morning! ¹⁰  If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! ¹¹  After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” ¹² 

Judges 6:37

6:37 Look, I am putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and the ground around it ¹³  is dry, then I will be sure ¹⁴  that you will use me to deliver Israel, ¹⁵  as you promised.”

Judges 7:2

7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. ¹⁶  Israel might brag, ¹⁷  ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’ ¹⁸ 

Judges 7:7

7:7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will deliver the whole army ¹⁹  and I will hand Midian over to you. ²⁰  The rest of the men should go home.” ²¹ 

Judges 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ²²  I risked my life ²³  and advanced against ²⁴  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ²⁵  to fight with me today?”

Judges 13:5

13:5 Look, you will conceive and have a son. ²⁶  You must never cut his hair, ²⁷  for the child will be dedicated to God ²⁸  from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power ²⁹  of the Philistines.”

[2:18]  ¹ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:18]  ² tn The phrase “for them” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:18]  ³ tn Heb “the ones oppressing them and afflicting them.” The synonyms “oppressing” and “afflicting” are joined together in the translation as “harsh oppressors” to emphasize the cruel character of their enemies.

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ⁵ tn The phrase, which refers to Ehud, literally reads “bound/restricted in the right hand,” apparently a Hebrew idiom for a left-handed person. See Judg 20:16, where 700 Benjaminites are described in this way. Perhaps the Benjaminites purposely trained several of their young men to be left-handed warriors by restricting the use of the right hand from an early age so the left hand would become dominant. Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking city gates. See B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon: The First Locked-Room Murder Mystery,” BRev 4 (1988): 35.

[3:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

[6:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “to all who stood against him.”

[6:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “Do you fight for Baal?”

[6:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “fights for him.”

[6:31]  ¹⁰ sn Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning. This may be a warning to the crowd that Joash intends to defend his son and to kill anyone who tries to execute Gideon. Then again, it may be a sarcastic statement about Baal’s apparent inability to defend his own honor. Anyone who takes up Baal’s cause may end up dead, perhaps by the same hand that pulled down the pagan god’s altar.

[6:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fight for himself.”

[6:31]  ¹² tn Heb “for he pulled down his altar.” The subject of the verb, if not Gideon, is indefinite (in which case a passive translation is permissible).

[6:37]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all the ground.”

[6:37]  ¹¹ tn Or “know.”

[6:37]  ¹² tn Heb “you will deliver Israel by my hand.”

[7:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “might glorify itself against me.”

[7:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my hand has delivered me.”

[7:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you.” The Hebrew pronoun is masculine plural, probably referring to the entire army.

[7:7]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew pronoun here is singular.

[7:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “All the people should go, each to his place.”

[12:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

[12:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

[12:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

[12:3]  ²² tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:5]  ²² tn Another option is to translate, “you are already pregnant and will have a son.” The earlier reference to her being infertile (v. 3) suggests that her conception is still future, but it is possible that the earlier statement only reflects her perspective (as far as she is concerned, she is infertile). According to this interpretation, in v. 5 the angel reveals the truth to her – actually she has recently conceived and is now pregnant (see the translation in R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 217). Usage favors this interpretation. The predicate adjective הָרָה (harah, “[be/become] pregnant”) elsewhere has a past (1 Sam 4:19) or present (Gen 16:11; 38:25; 2 Sam 11:5) translation value. (The usage in Isa 7:14 is debated, but a present translation is definitely possible there.) A final, but less likely possibility, is that she miraculously conceived during the angel’s speech, sometime between his statements recorded in vv. 3 and 5.

[13:5]  ²³ tn Heb “a razor should not go up on his head.”

[13:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).

[13:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “hand.”