Judges 3:3

3:3 These were the nations: ¹  the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo-Hamath. ² 

Judges 16:1-2

Samson’s Downfall

16:1 Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to have sex with her. ³  16:2 The Gazites were told, ⁴  “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town ⁵  and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. ⁶  They relaxed ⁷  all night, thinking, ⁸  “He will not leave ⁹  until morning comes; ¹⁰  then we will kill him!”

Judges 16:21

16:21 The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze chains. He became a grinder in the prison.

Exodus 23:31

23:31 I will set ¹¹  your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, ¹²  for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

[3:3]  ¹ tn The words “These were the nations,” though not present in the Hebrew text, are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:3]  ² tn Or “the entrance to Hamath.”

[16:1]  ³ tn Heb “and he went in to her.” The idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations.

[16:2]  ⁴ tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”

[16:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.

[16:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”

[16:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “were silent.”

[16:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “saying.”

[16:2]  ⁹ tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[16:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”

[23:31]  ¹¹ tn The form is a perfect tense with vav consecutive.

[23:31]  ¹² tn In the Hebrew Bible “the River” usually refers to the Euphrates (cf. NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT). There is some thought that it refers to a river Nahr el Kebir between Lebanon and Syria. See further W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:447; and G. W. Buchanan, The Consequences of the Covenant (NovTSup), 91-100.