Judges 4:3

4:3 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, because Sisera ¹  had nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels, ²  and he cruelly ³  oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

Judges 6:38

6:38 The Lord did as he asked. ⁴  When he got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece, and enough dew dripped from it to fill a bowl. ⁵ 

Judges 8:25

8:25 They said, “We are happy to give you earrings.” ⁶  So they ⁷  spread out a garment, and each one threw an earring from his plunder onto it.

Judges 9:4

9:4 They paid him seventy silver shekels out of the temple of Baal-Berith. Abimelech then used the silver to hire some lawless, dangerous ⁸  men as his followers. ⁹ 

Judges 11:3

11:3 So Jephthah left ¹⁰  his half-brothers ¹¹  and lived in the land of Tob. Lawless men joined Jephthah’s gang and traveled with him. ¹² 

Judges 11:24

11:24 You have the right to take what Chemosh your god gives you, but we will take the land of all whom the Lord our God has driven out before us. ¹³ 

[4:3]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:3]  ² tn Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255, and the article by R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “with strength.”

[6:38]  ⁴ tn Heb “And it was so.”

[6:38]  ⁵ tn Heb “dew dripped from the fleece – a bowl full of water.”

[8:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “We will indeed give.”

[8:25]  ⁸ tc In the LXX the subject of this verb is singular, referring to Gideon rather than to the Israelites.

[9:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “empty and reckless.”

[9:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they followed him.”

[11:3]  ¹³ tn Or “fled from.”

[11:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “brothers.”

[11:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Empty men joined themselves to Jephthah and went out with him.”

[11:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Is it not so that what Chemosh your god causes you to possess, you possess, and all whom the Lord our God dispossesses before us we will possess?” Jephthah speaks of Chemosh as if he is on a par with the Lord God of Israel. This does not necessarily mean that Jephthah is polytheistic or that he recognizes the Lord as only a local deity. He may simply be assuming the Ammonite king’s perspective for the sake of argument. Other texts, as well as the extrabiblical Mesha inscription, associate Chemosh with Moab, while Milcom is identified as the god of the Ammonites. Why then does Jephthah refer to Chemosh as the Ammonite god? Ammon had likely conquered Moab and the Ammonite king probably regarded himself as heir of all territory formerly held by Moab. Originally Moab had owned the disputed territory (cf. Num 21:26-29), meaning that Chemosh was regarded as the god of the region (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 203-4). Jephthah argues that Chemosh had long ago relinquished claim to the area (by allowing Sihon to conquer it), while the Lord had long ago established jurisdiction over it (by taking it from Sihon and giving it to Israel). Both sides should abide by the decisions of the gods which had stood firm for three hundred years.