Judges 3:9

3:9 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ¹  raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who rescued ²  them. His name was Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ³ 

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ⁴  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ⁵  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ⁶ 

Judges 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ⁷  I risked my life ⁸  and advanced against ⁹  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ¹⁰  to fight with me today?”

[3:9]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord.”

[3:9]  ² tn Or “delivered.”

[3:9]  ³ tn “Caleb’s younger brother” may refer to Othniel or to Kenaz (in which case Othniel is Caleb’s nephew).

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:15]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

[12:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

[12:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

[12:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

[12:3]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.