Judges 3:20

3:20 When Ehud approached him, he was sitting in his well-ventilated ¹  upper room all by himself. Ehud said, “I have a message from God ²  for you.” When Eglon rose up from his seat, ³ 

Judges 6:8

6:8 he ⁴  sent a prophet ⁵  to the Israelites. He said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you up from Egypt ⁶  and took you out of that place of slavery. ⁷ 

Judges 6:10

6:10 I said to you, “I am the Lord your God! Do not worship ⁸  the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living!” But you have disobeyed me.’” ⁹ 

Judges 6:26

6:26 Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. ¹⁰  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”

Judges 7:14

7:14 The other man said, ¹¹  “Without a doubt this symbolizes ¹²  the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.”

Judges 8:3

8:3 It was to you that God handed over the Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb! What did I accomplish to rival that?” ¹³  When he said this, they calmed down. ¹⁴ 

Judges 9:7

Jotham’s Parable

9:7 When Jotham heard the news, ¹⁵  he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim. He spoke loudly to the people below, ¹⁶  “Listen to me, leaders of Shechem, so that God may listen to you!

Judges 9:27

9:27 They went out to the field, harvested their grapes, ¹⁷  squeezed out the juice, ¹⁸  and celebrated. They came to the temple ¹⁹  of their god and ate, drank, and cursed Abimelech.

Judges 11:21

11:21 The Lord God of Israel handed Sihon and his whole army over to Israel and they defeated them. Israel took ²⁰  all the land of the Amorites who lived in that land.

Judges 13:5

13:5 Look, you will conceive and have a son. ²¹  You must never cut his hair, ²²  for the child will be dedicated to God ²³  from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power ²⁴  of the Philistines.”

Judges 13:8

13:8 Manoah prayed to the Lord, ²⁵  “Please, Lord, allow the man sent from God ²⁶  to visit ²⁷  us again, so he can teach ²⁸  us how we should raise ²⁹  the child who will be born.”

Judges 18:10

18:10 When you invade, ³⁰  you will encounter ³¹  unsuspecting people. The land is wide! ³²  God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” ³³ 

Judges 20:2

20:2 The leaders ³⁴  of all the people from all the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God’s people, which numbered ³⁵  four hundred thousand sword-wielding foot soldiers.

[3:20]  ¹ tn Or “cool.” This probably refers to a room with latticed windows which allowed the breeze to pass through. See B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 144.

[3:20]  ² tn Heb “word of [i.e., from] God.”

[3:20]  ³ tn Or “throne.”

[6:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “a man, a prophet.” Hebrew idiom sometimes puts a generic term before a more specific designation.

[6:8]  ⁶ tc Some ancient witnesses read “from the land of Egypt.” מֵאֶרֶץ (me’erets, “from the land [of]”) could have been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton (note the following מִמִּצְרַיִם [mimmitsrayim, “from Egypt”]).

[6:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”

[6:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “Do not fear.”

[6:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “you have not listened to my voice.”

[6:26]  ¹⁰ tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.

[7:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[7:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”

[8:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “What was I able to do compared to you?”

[8:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Then their spirits relaxed from against him, when he spoke this word.”

[9:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And they reported to Jotham.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

[9:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “He lifted his voice and called and said to them.”

[9:27]  ²² tn Heb “vineyards.”

[9:27]  ²³ tn Heb “stomped” or “trampled.” This refers to the way in which the juice was squeezed out in the wine vats by stepping on the grapes with one’s bare feet. For a discussion of grape harvesting in ancient Israel, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-14.

[9:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[11:21]  ²⁵ tn That is, took as its own possession.

[13:5]  ²⁸ tn Another option is to translate, “you are already pregnant and will have a son.” The earlier reference to her being infertile (v. 3) suggests that her conception is still future, but it is possible that the earlier statement only reflects her perspective (as far as she is concerned, she is infertile). According to this interpretation, in v. 5 the angel reveals the truth to her – actually she has recently conceived and is now pregnant (see the translation in R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 217). Usage favors this interpretation. The predicate adjective הָרָה (harah, “[be/become] pregnant”) elsewhere has a past (1 Sam 4:19) or present (Gen 16:11; 38:25; 2 Sam 11:5) translation value. (The usage in Isa 7:14 is debated, but a present translation is definitely possible there.) A final, but less likely possibility, is that she miraculously conceived during the angel’s speech, sometime between his statements recorded in vv. 3 and 5.

[13:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “a razor should not go up on his head.”

[13:5]  ³⁰ tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).

[13:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “hand.”

[13:8]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:8]  ³² tn Heb “the man of God.”

[13:8]  ³³ tn Heb “come to.”

[13:8]  ³⁴ tc The LXX has “enlighten,” understanding the Hebrew to read וִיאִירֵנוּ (vi’irenu, “to give light”) rather than the reading of the MT, וְיוֹרֵנוּ (vÿyorenu, “to teach”).

[13:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “what we should do for.”

[18:10]  ³⁴ tn Heb “When you enter.”

[18:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “you will come to.”

[18:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”

[18:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

[20:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the cornerstones”; or “the supports.” The word is used of leaders in only three other texts – 1 Sam 14:38; Isa 19:13; Zech 10:4.

[20:2]  ³⁸ tn The words “which numbered” are supplied in the translation for clarification.