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 

Judges 4:22

4:22 Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, “Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.” He went with her into the tent, ⁹  and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead ¹⁰  with the tent peg in his temple.

Judges 11:34

11:34 When Jephthah came home to Mizpah, there was his daughter hurrying out ¹¹  to meet him, dancing to the rhythm of tambourines. ¹²  She was his only child; except for her he had no son or daughter.

Judges 15:14

15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered ¹³  him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in ¹⁴  fire, and they ¹⁵  melted away from his hands.

Judges 19:3

19:3 her husband came ¹⁶  after her, hoping he could convince her to return. ¹⁷  He brought with him his servant ¹⁸  and a pair of donkeys. When she brought him into her father’s house and the girl’s father saw him, he greeted him warmly. ¹⁹ 

Judges 20:25

20:25 The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers. ²⁰ 

Judges 20:31

20:31 The Benjaminites attacked ²¹  the army, leaving the city unguarded. ²²  They began to strike down their enemy ²³  just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, ²⁴  the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down ²⁵  about thirty Israelites.

Judges 7:24

Gideon Appeases the Ephraimites

7:24 Now Gideon sent messengers throughout the Ephraimite hill country who announced, “Go down and head off the Midianites. ²⁶  Take control of the fords of the streams ²⁷  all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.” ²⁸  When all the Ephraimites had assembled, ²⁹  they took control of the fords ³⁰  all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.

[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.”

[4:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “he went to her.”

[4:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fallen, dead.”

[11:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Look! His daughter was coming out.”

[11:34]  ¹² tn Heb “with tambourines and dancing.”

[15:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “rushed on.”

[15:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “burned with.”

[15:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his bonds.”

[19:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “arose and came.”

[19:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to speak to her heart to bring her back.”

[19:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “young man.”

[19:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he was happy to meet him.”

[20:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah the second day, and they struck down among the sons of Israel eighteen thousand men to the ground, all of these were wielding the sword.”

[20:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “went out to meet.”

[20:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and they were drawn away from the city.”

[20:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “from the army wounded ones.”

[20:31]  ²² map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[20:31]  ²³ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[7:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “to meet Midian.”

[7:24]  ²² tn Heb “capture before them the waters.”

[7:24]  ²³ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification (also later in this verse).

[7:24]  ²⁴ tn Heb “And all the men of Ephraim were summoned.”

[7:24]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they captured the waters.”