Judges 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ¹  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ²  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ³  and he died.

Judges 10:4

10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys and possessed thirty cities. To this day these towns are called Havvoth Jair ⁴  – they are in the land of Gilead. ⁵ 

Judges 10:8

10:8 They ruthlessly oppressed ⁶  the Israelites that eighteenth year ⁷  – that is, all the Israelites living east of the Jordan in Amorite country in Gilead.

Judges 18:7

18:7 So the five men journeyed on ⁸  and arrived in Laish. They noticed that the people there ⁹  were living securely, like the Sidonians do, ¹⁰  undisturbed and unsuspecting. No conqueror was troubling them in any way. ¹¹  They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. ¹² 

Judges 18:10

18:10 When you invade, ¹³  you will encounter ¹⁴  unsuspecting people. The land is wide! ¹⁵  God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” ¹⁶ 

Judges 21:12

21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins – they had never had sexual relations with a male. ¹⁷  They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

[4:21]  ¹ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ² tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ³ 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.”

[10:4]  ⁴ sn The name Habboth Jair means “tent villages of Jair” in Hebrew.

[10:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “they call them Havvoth Jair to this day – which are in the land of Gilead.”

[10:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “shattered and crushed.” The repetition of similar sounding synonyms (רָעַץ [ra’ats] and רָצַץ [ratsats]) is for emphasis; רָצַץ appears in the Polel, adding further emphasis to the affirmation.

[10:8]  ⁸ tn The phrase שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה (shemoneh ’esreh shanah) could be translated “eighteen years,” but this would be difficult after the reference to “that year.” It is possible that v. 8b is parenthetical, referring to an eighteen year long period of oppression east of the Jordan which culminated in hostilities against all Israel (including Judah, see v. 9) in the eighteenth year. It is simpler to translate the phrase as an ordinal number, though the context does not provide the point of reference. (See Gen 14:4-5 and R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 191-92.) In this case, the following statement specifies which “Israelites” are in view.

[18:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “went.”

[18:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who were in its midst.”

[18:7]  ¹² tn Heb “according to the custom of the Sidonians.”

[18:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “and there was no one humiliating anything in the land, one taking possession [by] force.”

[18:7]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “and a thing there was not to them with men.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX and Symmachus read “Syria” here rather than the MT’s “men.” This reading presupposes a Hebrew Vorlage אֲרָם (’aram, “Aram,” i.e., Arameans) rather than the MT reading אָדָם (’adam). This reading is possibly to be preferred over the MT.

[18:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “When you enter.”

[18:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you will come to.”

[18:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”

[18:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

[21:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”