Judges 3:13

3:13 Eglon formed alliances with ¹  the Ammonites and Amalekites. He came and defeated Israel, and they seized the City of Date Palm Trees.

Judges 10:9

10:9 The Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight with Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. ²  Israel suffered greatly. ³ 

Judges 10:11

10:11 The Lord said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you from Egypt, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines,

Judges 11:5

11:5 When the Ammonites attacked, ⁴  the leaders ⁵  of Gilead asked Jephthah to come back ⁶  from the land of Tob.

Judges 11:12

Jephthah Gives a History Lesson

11:12 Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king, saying, “Why have ⁷  you come against me to attack my land?”

Judges 11:15

11:15 and said to him, “This is what Jephthah says, ‘Israel did not steal ⁸  the land of Moab and the land of the Ammonites.

Judges 11:31

11:31 then whoever is the first to come through ⁹  the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites – he ¹⁰  will belong to the Lord and ¹¹  I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice.”

Judges 12:2

12:2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites. ¹²  I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power. ¹³ 

[3:13]  ¹ tn Heb “and he gathered to him.”

[10:9]  ² tn Heb “the house of Ephraim.”

[10:9]  ³ tn Or “Israel experienced great distress.” Perhaps here the verb has the nuance “hemmed in.”

[11:5]  ³ tn Heb “When the Ammonites fought with Israel.”

[11:5]  ⁴ tn Or “elders.”

[11:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “went to take Jephthah.”

[11:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “What to me and to you that…?”

[11:15]  ⁵ tn Or “take”; or “seize.”

[11:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one coming out, who comes out from.” The text uses a masculine singular participle with prefixed article, followed by a relative pronoun and third masculine singular verb. The substantival masculine singular participle הַיּוֹצֵא (hayyotse’, “the one coming out”) is used elsewhere of inanimate objects (such as a desert [Num 21:13] or a word [Num 32:24]) or persons (Jer 5:6; 21:9; 38:2). In each case context must determine the referent. Jephthah may have envisioned an animal meeting him, since the construction of Iron Age houses would allow for an animal coming through the doors of a house (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 208). But the fact that he actually does offer up his daughter indicates the language of the vow is fluid enough to encompass human beings, including women. He probably intended such an offering from the very beginning, but he obviously did not expect his daughter to meet him first.

[11:31]  ⁷ tn The language is fluid enough to include women and perhaps even animals, but the translation uses the masculine pronoun because the Hebrew form is grammatically masculine.

[11:31]  ⁸ tn Some translate “or,” suggesting that Jephthah makes a distinction between humans and animals. According to this view, if a human comes through the door, then Jephthah will commit him/her to the Lord’s service, but if an animal comes through the doors, he will offer it up as a sacrifice. However, it is far more likely that the Hebrew construction (vav [ו] + perfect) specifies how the subject will become the Lord’s, that is, by being offered up as a sacrifice. For similar constructions, where the apodosis of a conditional sentence has at least two perfects (each with vav) in sequence, see Gen 34:15-16; Exod 18:16.

[12:2]  ⁷ tn Heb A man of great strife I was and my people and the Ammonites.”

[12:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “hand.”