Judges 2:20

A Divine Decision

2:20 The Lord was furious with Israel. ¹  He said, “This nation ²  has violated the terms of the agreement I made with their ancestors ³  by disobeying me. ⁴ 

Judges 8:8

8:8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request. ⁵  The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth had. ⁶ 

Judges 10:10

10:10 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord: “We have sinned against you. We abandoned our God and worshiped ⁷  the Baals.”

Judges 11:23-24

11:23 Since ⁸  the Lord God of Israel has driven out ⁹  the Amorites before his people Israel, do you think you can just take it from them? ¹⁰  11:24 You have the right to take what Chemosh your god gives you, but we will take the land of all whom the Lord our God has driven out before us. ¹¹ 

Judges 13:2-3

13:2 There was a man named Manoah from Zorah, from the Danite tribe. His wife was infertile and childless. ¹²  13:3 The Lord’s angelic ¹³  messenger appeared to the woman and said to her, “You ¹⁴  are infertile and childless, ¹⁵  but you will conceive and have a son.

[2:20]  ¹ tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”

[2:20]  ² tn Heb “Because this nation.”

[2:20]  ³ tn Heb “my covenant which I commanded their fathers.”

[2:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “and has not listened to my voice.” The expression “to not listen to [God’s] voice” is idiomatic here for disobeying him.

[8:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “and spoke to them in the same way.”

[8:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth answered.”

[10:10]  ⁹ tn Or “served”; or “followed.”

[11:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “Now.”

[11:23]  ¹⁴ tn Or “dispossessed.”

[11:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will you dispossess him [i.e., Israel; or possibly “it,” i.e., the territory]?” There is no interrogative marker in the Hebrew text.

[11:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Is it not so that what Chemosh your god causes you to possess, you possess, and all whom the Lord our God dispossesses before us we will possess?” Jephthah speaks of Chemosh as if he is on a par with the Lord God of Israel. This does not necessarily mean that Jephthah is polytheistic or that he recognizes the Lord as only a local deity. He may simply be assuming the Ammonite king’s perspective for the sake of argument. Other texts, as well as the extrabiblical Mesha inscription, associate Chemosh with Moab, while Milcom is identified as the god of the Ammonites. Why then does Jephthah refer to Chemosh as the Ammonite god? Ammon had likely conquered Moab and the Ammonite king probably regarded himself as heir of all territory formerly held by Moab. Originally Moab had owned the disputed territory (cf. Num 21:26-29), meaning that Chemosh was regarded as the god of the region (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 203-4). Jephthah argues that Chemosh had long ago relinquished claim to the area (by allowing Sihon to conquer it), while the Lord had long ago established jurisdiction over it (by taking it from Sihon and giving it to Israel). Both sides should abide by the decisions of the gods which had stood firm for three hundred years.

[13:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “and had not given birth.”

[13:3]  ²⁵ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive (also in vv. 6, 9).

[13:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Look, you.”

[13:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and have not given birth.”