Judges 4:18

4:18 Jael came out to welcome Sisera. She said to him, “Stop and rest, ¹  my lord. Stop and rest with me. Don’t be afraid.” So Sisera ²  stopped to rest in her tent, and she put a blanket over him.

Judges 6:35

6:35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh and summoned them to follow him as well. ³  He also sent messengers throughout Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet him.

Judges 11:31

11:31 then whoever is the first to come through ⁴  the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites – he ⁵  will belong to the Lord and ⁶  I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice.”

Judges 14:5

14:5 Samson went down to Timnah. When he approached ⁷  the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a roaring young lion attacking him. ⁸ 

[4:18]  ¹ tn Heb “Turn aside” (also a second time later in this verse).

[4:18]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:35]  ³ tn Heb “and he also was summoned after him.”

[11:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one coming out, who comes out from.” The text uses a masculine singular participle with prefixed article, followed by a relative pronoun and third masculine singular verb. The substantival masculine singular participle הַיּוֹצֵא (hayyotse’, “the one coming out”) is used elsewhere of inanimate objects (such as a desert [Num 21:13] or a word [Num 32:24]) or persons (Jer 5:6; 21:9; 38:2). In each case context must determine the referent. Jephthah may have envisioned an animal meeting him, since the construction of Iron Age houses would allow for an animal coming through the doors of a house (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 208). But the fact that he actually does offer up his daughter indicates the language of the vow is fluid enough to encompass human beings, including women. He probably intended such an offering from the very beginning, but he obviously did not expect his daughter to meet him first.

[11:31]  ⁶ tn The language is fluid enough to include women and perhaps even animals, but the translation uses the masculine pronoun because the Hebrew form is grammatically masculine.

[11:31]  ⁷ tn Some translate “or,” suggesting that Jephthah makes a distinction between humans and animals. According to this view, if a human comes through the door, then Jephthah will commit him/her to the Lord’s service, but if an animal comes through the doors, he will offer it up as a sacrifice. However, it is far more likely that the Hebrew construction (vav [ו] + perfect) specifies how the subject will become the Lord’s, that is, by being offered up as a sacrifice. For similar constructions, where the apodosis of a conditional sentence has at least two perfects (each with vav) in sequence, see Gen 34:15-16; Exod 18:16.

[14:5]  ⁷ tc The MT reads, “Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. When they approached…” Verse 6b states that Samson did not tell his parents about his encounter with the lion (vv. 5b-6a), but v. 5a gives the impression they would have seen the entire episode. One could assume that Samson separated from his parents prior to the lion’s attack, but the Hebrew text does not indicate this. It seems more likely that the words “with his father and his mother” were accidentally copied into the text, perhaps under the influence of v. 4a, where the same phrase appears. An original singular verb (“he approached”) may have been changed to the plural form (“they approached”) after the words “his father and his mother” were accidentally added to the text.

[14:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and look, a young lion of the lions was roaring to meet him.”