Judges 3:28

3:28 He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” ¹  They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River ²  opposite Moab, ³  and did not let anyone cross.

Judges 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ⁴  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ⁵  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ⁶  and he died.

Judges 12:4

12:4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, ⁷  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ⁸ 

Judges 16:24

16:24 When the people saw him, ⁹  they praised their god, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, the one who ruined our land and killed so many of us!” ¹⁰ 

[3:28]  ¹ tn Heb “for the Lord has given your enemies, Moab, into your hand.” The verb form (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the Lord speaks of it as a “done deal.”

[3:28]  ² tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for clarity.

[3:28]  ³ tn Or “against Moab,” that is, so as to prevent the Moabites from crossing.

[4:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

[12:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “because they said.”

[12:4]  ⁸ tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ’amru pÿlitey ’efrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yo’mÿru pelitey ’efrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”

[16:24]  ¹⁰ tn Most interpret this as a reference to Samson, but this seems premature, since v. 25 suggests he was not yet standing before them. Consequently some prefer to see this statement as displaced and move it to v. 25 (see C. F. Burney, Judges, 387). It seems more likely that the pronoun refers to an image of Dagon.

[16:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”