Judges 21:1-7

600 Brides for 600 Brothers

21:1 The Israelites had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.” 21:2 So the people came to Bethel ¹  and sat there before God until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably. ²  21:3 They said, “Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel?” An entire ³  tribe has disappeared from Israel today!”

21:4 The next morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered up burnt sacrifices and token of peace. ⁴  21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed. ⁵  21:6 The Israelites regretted what had happened to ⁶  their brother Benjamin. They said, “Today we cut off an entire ⁷  tribe from Israel! 21:7 How can we find wives for those who are left? ⁸  After all, we took an oath in the Lord’s name not to give them our daughters as wives.”

Judges 21:1

600 Brides for 600 Brothers

21:1 The Israelites had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.”

Judges 14:1

Samson’s Unconsummated Marriage

14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. ⁹ 

Judges 14:1

Samson’s Unconsummated Marriage

14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. ¹⁰ 

Matthew 14:7-9

14:7 so much that he promised with an oath ¹¹  to give her whatever she asked. 14:8 Instructed by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 14:9 Although it grieved the king, ¹²  because of his oath and the dinner guests he commanded it to be given.

Acts 23:14

23:14 They ¹³  went ¹⁴  to the chief priests ¹⁵  and the elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath ¹⁶  not to partake ¹⁷  of anything until we have killed Paul.

[21:2]  ¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[21:2]  ² tn Heb “and they lifted up their voice[s] and wept with great weeping.” Both the cognate accusative בְּכִי (bekhi, “weeping”) and the attributive adjective גָדוֹל (gadol, “great”) emphasize their degree of sorrow.

[21:3]  ¹ tn Heb “one.”

[21:4]  ¹ tn Or “peace offerings.”

[21:5]  ¹ tn Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”

[21:6]  ¹ tn Or “felt sorry for.”

[21:6]  ² tn Heb “cut off one.”

[21:7]  ¹ tn Heb “What should we do for them, for the remaining ones, concerning wives?”

[14:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and he saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”

[14:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and he saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”

[14:7]  ¹ tn The Greek text reads here ὁμολογέω (Jomologew); though normally translated “acknowledge, confess,” BDAG (708 s.v. 1) lists “assure, promise with an oath” for certain contexts such as here.

[14:9]  ¹ tn Grk “and being grieved, the king commanded.”

[23:14]  ¹ tn Grk “who.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (“whom”) was translated by the third person plural pronoun (“them”) and a new sentence begun in the translation.

[23:14]  ² tn Grk “going.” The participle προσελθόντες (proselqonte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:14]  ³ sn They went to the chief priests. The fact that the high priest knew of this plot and did nothing shows the Jewish leadership would even become accomplices to murder to stop Paul. They would not allow Roman justice to take its course. Paul’s charge in v. 3 of superficially following the law is thus shown to be true.

[23:14]  ⁴ tn Or “bound ourselves under a curse.” BDAG 63 s.v. ἀναθεματίζω 1 has “trans. put under a curse τινά someone…pleonastically ἀναθέματι ἀ. ἑαυτόν Ac 23:14…ἀ. ἑαυτόν vss. 12, 21, 13 v.l.” The pleonastic use ἀναθέματι ἀνεθεματίσαμεν (literally “we have cursed ourselves with a curse”) probably serves as an intensifier following Semitic usage, and is represented in the translation by the word “solemn.” On such oaths see m. Nedarim 3:1, 3.

[23:14]  ⁵ tn This included both food and drink (γεύομαι [geuomai] is used of water turned to wine in John 2:9).