Judges 4:9

4:9 She said, “I will indeed go with you. But you will not gain fame ¹  on the expedition you are undertaking, ²  for the Lord will turn Sisera over to a woman.” ³  Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

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, ⁴  and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead ⁵  with the tent peg in his temple.

Judges 8:21

8:21 Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, ⁶  “Come on, ⁷  you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength.” ⁸  So Gideon killed ⁹  Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.

Judges 9:15

9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ¹⁰  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ¹¹  Otherwise ¹²  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

Judges 9:18

9:18 But you have attacked ¹³  my father’s family ¹⁴  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate ¹⁵  sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative. ¹⁶ 

Judges 9:36

9:36 Gaal saw the men ¹⁷  and said to Zebul, “Look, men are coming down from the tops of the hills.” But Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadows on the hills – it just looks like men.” ¹⁸ 

Judges 11:2

11:2 Gilead’s wife also gave ¹⁹  him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they made Jephthah leave and said to him, “You are not going to inherit any of our father’s wealth, ²⁰  because you are another woman’s son.”

Judges 11:9

11:9 Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, “All right! ²¹  If you take me back to fight with the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, ²²  I will be your leader.” ²³ 

Judges 11:27

11:27 I have not done you wrong, ²⁴  but you are doing wrong ²⁵  by attacking me. May the Lord, the Judge, judge this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites!’”

Judges 11:35

11:35 When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! ²⁶  You have brought me disaster! ²⁷  I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it.” ²⁸ 

Judges 12:4-5

12:4 Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, ²⁹  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ³⁰  12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River ³¹  opposite Ephraim. ³²  Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive ³³  said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked ³⁴  him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

Judges 14:3

14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ³⁵  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ³⁶  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ³⁷  because she is the right one for me.” ³⁸ 

Judges 15:18

15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant ³⁹  this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” ⁴⁰ 

Judges 17:2

17:2 He said to his mother, “You know ⁴¹  the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen ⁴²  from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole ⁴³  it, but now I am giving it back to you.” ⁴⁴  His mother said, “May the Lord reward ⁴⁵  you, my son!”

Judges 18:3

18:3 As they approached ⁴⁶  Micah’s house, they recognized the accent ⁴⁷  of the young Levite. So they stopped ⁴⁸  there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” ⁴⁹ 

Judges 18:9

18:9 They said, “Come on, let’s attack them, ⁵⁰  for ⁵¹  we saw their land and it is very good. You seem lethargic, ⁵²  but don’t hesitate ⁵³  to invade and conquer ⁵⁴  the land.

Judges 21:22

21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, ⁵⁵  we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, ⁵⁶  for we could not get each one a wife through battle. ⁵⁷  Don’t worry about breaking your oath! ⁵⁸  You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’” ⁵⁹ 

[4:9]  ¹ tn Or “honor.”

[4:9]  ² tn Heb “on [account of (?)] the way which you are walking.” Another option is to translate, “due to the way you are going about this.” In this case direct reference is made to Barak’s hesitancy as the reason for his loss of glory.

[4:9]  ³ tn Heb “for into the hands of a woman the Lord will sell Sisera.”

[4:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “he went to her.”

[4:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “fallen, dead.”

[8:21]  ⁷ tn The words “to Gideon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:21]  ⁸ tn Or “Arise.”

[8:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “for as the man is his strength.”

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “arose and killed.”

[9:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

[9:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in my shade.”

[9:15]  ¹² tn Heb “If not.”

[9:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “have risen up against.”

[9:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[9:18]  ¹⁵ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your brother.”

[9:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the people” (also in vv. 38, 43, 48). These were warriors, so “men” has been used in the translation, since in ancient Israelite culture soldiers would have been exclusively males.

[9:36]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the shadow on the hills you are seeing, like men.”

[11:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “bore.”

[11:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the house of our father.”

[11:9]  ²² tn “All right” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[11:9]  ²³ tn Heb “places them before me.”

[11:9]  ²⁴ tn Some translate the final statement as a question, “will I really be your leader?” An affirmative sentence is preferable. Jephthah is repeating the terms of the agreement in an official manner. In v. 10 the leaders legally agree to these terms.

[11:27]  ²⁵ tn Or “sinned against you.”

[11:27]  ²⁶ tn Or “evil.”

[11:35]  ²⁸ tn Heb “you have brought me very low,” or “you have knocked me to my knees.” The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.

[11:35]  ²⁹ tn Heb “You are among [or “like”] those who trouble me.”

[11:35]  ³⁰ tn Heb “I opened my mouth to the Lord and I am not able to return.”

[12:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “because they said.”

[12:4]  ³² tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ’amru pÿlitey ’efrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yo’mÿru pelitey ’efrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”

[12:5]  ³⁴ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:5]  ³⁵ tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.

[12:5]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.

[12:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “say to.”

[14:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.

[14:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”

[14:3]  ³⁹ tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.

[14:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

[15:18]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”

[15:18]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.

[17:2]  ⁴³ tn The words “You know” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[17:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “taken.”

[17:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “took.”

[17:2]  ⁴⁶ tn In the Hebrew text the statement, “but now I am giving it back to you,” appears at the end of v. 3 and is spoken by the mother. But v. 4 indicates that she did not give the money back to her son. Unless the statement is spoken by the woman to the LORD, it appears to be misplaced and fits much better in v. 2. It may have been accidentally omitted from a manuscript, written in the margin, and then later inserted in the wrong place in another manuscript.

[17:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Traditionally, “bless.”

[18:3]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “When they were near.”

[18:3]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “voice.” This probably means that “his speech was Judahite [i.e., southern] like their own, not Israelite [i.e., northern]” (R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 263).

[18:3]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “turned aside.”

[18:3]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “What [is there] to you here?”

[18:9]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “Arise, and let us go up against them.”

[18:9]  ⁵⁰ tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX adds “we entered and walked around in the land as far as Laish and.”

[18:9]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “But you are inactive.”

[18:9]  ⁵² tn Or “be lazy.”

[18:9]  ⁵³ tn Heb “to go”; “to enter”; “to possess.”

[21:22]  ⁵² tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

[21:22]  ⁵³ tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[21:22]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “for we did not take each his wife in battle.”

[21:22]  ⁵⁵ tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

[21:22]  ⁵⁶ tc Heb “You did not give to them, now you are guilty.” The MT as it stands makes little sense. It is preferable to emend לֹא (lo’, “not”) to לוּא (lu’, “if”). This particle introduces a purely hypothetical condition, “If you had given to them [but you didn’t].” See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 453-54.