Judges 3:16

3:16 Ehud made himself a sword – it had two edges and was eighteen inches long. ¹  He strapped it under his coat on his right thigh.

Judges 3:21

3:21 Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and drove it into Eglon’s ²  belly.

Judges 5:26

5:26 Her left ³  hand reached for the tent peg,

her right hand for the workmen’s hammer.

She “hammered” ⁴  Sisera,

she shattered his skull, ⁵ 

she smashed his head, ⁶ 

she drove the tent peg through his temple. ⁷ 

Judges 7:20

7:20 All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. ⁸  Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

Judges 16:29

16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that supported the temple ⁹  and he leaned against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other.

Judges 20:16

20:16 Among this army ¹⁰  were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers. ¹¹  Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target. ¹² 

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ¹³  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ¹⁴  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ¹⁵ 

[3:16]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term גֹּמֶד (gomed) denotes a unit of linear measure, perhaps a cubit (the distance between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger – approximately 18 inches [45 cm]). Some suggest it is equivalent to the short cubit (the distance between the elbow and the knuckles of the clenched fist – approximately 13 inches [33 cm]) or to the span (the distance between the end of the thumb and the end of the little finger in a spread hand – approximately 9 inches [23 cm]). See BDB 167 s.v.; HALOT 196 s.v.; B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 142.

[3:21]  ² tn Heb “his”; the referent (Eglon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:26]  ³ tn The adjective “left” is interpretive, based on the context. Note that the next line pictures Jael holding the hammer with her right hand.

[5:26]  ⁴ tn The verb used here is from the same root as the noun “hammer” in the preceding line.

[5:26]  ⁵ tn Or “head.”

[5:26]  ⁶ tn The phrase “his head” (an implied direct object) is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “she pierced his temple.”

[7:20]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds, “in order to blow [them].” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house was founded.”

[20:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “And from all this people.”

[20:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “seven hundred choice men, bound/restricted in the right hand.” On the significance of the idiom, “bound/restricted in the right hand,” see the translator’s note on 3:15.

[20:16]  ⁸ tn “at a single hair and not miss.”

[3:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”