Judges 2:23

2:23 This is why ¹  the Lord permitted these nations to remain and did not conquer them immediately; ²  he did not hand them over to Joshua.

Judges 20:44

20:44 Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead.

Judges 2:4

2:4 When the Lord’s messenger finished speaking these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly. ³ 

Judges 3:1

3:1 These were the nations the Lord permitted to remain so he could use them to test Israel – he wanted to test all those who had not experienced battle against the Canaanites. ⁴ 

Judges 18:18

18:18 When these men broke into Micah’s house and stole ⁵  the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

Judges 20:46

20:46 That day twenty-five thousand ⁶  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ⁷ 

Judges 9:3

9:3 His mother’s relatives ⁸  spoke on his behalf to ⁹  all the leaders of Shechem and reported his proposal. ¹⁰  The leaders were drawn to Abimelech; ¹¹  they said, “He is our close relative.” ¹² 

Judges 13:23

13:23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. ¹³  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”

Judges 18:14

18:14 The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish ¹⁴  said to their kinsmen, ¹⁵  “Do you realize that inside these houses are an ephod, some personal idols, a carved image, and a metal image? Decide now what you want to do.”

Judges 20:25

20:25 The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers. ¹⁶ 

Judges 20:35

20:35 The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. ¹⁷ 

[2:23]  ¹ tn The words “this is why” are interpretive.

[2:23]  ² tn Or “quickly.”

[2:4]  ³ tn Heb “lifted their voices and wept.”

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “did not know the wars of Canaan.”

[18:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “These went into Micah’s house and took.”

[20:46]  ⁹ sn The number given here (twenty-five thousand sword-wielding Benjaminites) is an approximate figure; v. 35 gives the more exact number (25,100). According to v. 15, the Benjaminite army numbered 26,700 (26,000 + 700). The figures in vv. 35 (rounded in vv. 44-46) and 47 add up to 25,700. What happened to the other 1,000 men? The most reasonable explanation is that they were killed during the first two days of fighting. G. F. Moore (Judges [ICC], 429) and C. F. Burney (Judges, 475) reject this proposal, arguing that the narrator is too precise and concerned about details to omit such a fact. However, the account of the first two days’ fighting emphasizes Israel’s humiliating defeat. To speak of Benjaminite casualties would diminish the literary effect. In vv. 35, 44-47 the narrator’s emphasis is the devastating defeat that Benjamin experienced on this final day of battle. To mention the earlier days’ casualties at this point is irrelevant to his literary purpose. He allows readers who happen to be concerned with such details to draw conclusions for themselves.

[20:46]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “So all the ones who fell from Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men, wielding the sword, in that day, all of these men of strength.

[9:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “brothers.”

[9:3]  ¹² tn Heb “into the ears of.”

[9:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “and all these words.”

[9:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Their heart was inclined after Abimelech.”

[9:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “our brother.”

[13:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “our hand.”

[18:14]  ¹⁵ tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX lacks the phrase “of Laish.”

[18:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “brothers.”

[20:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah the second day, and they struck down among the sons of Israel eighteen thousand men to the ground, all of these were wielding the sword.”

[20:35]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And the sons of Israel struck down in Benjamin that day 25,100 men, all of these wielding the sword.”