Judges 5:16

5:16 Why do you remain among the sheepfolds, ¹ 

listening to the shepherds playing their pipes ²  for their flocks? ³ 

As for the clans of Reuben – there was intense searching of heart.

Judges 13:18

13:18 The Lord’s messenger said to him, “You should not ask me my name, because you cannot comprehend it.” ⁴ 

Judges 5:17

5:17 Gilead stayed put ⁵  beyond the Jordan River.

As for Dan – why did he seek temporary employment in the shipyards? ⁶ 

Asher remained ⁷  on the seacoast,

he stayed ⁸  by his harbors. ⁹ 

Judges 15:10

15:10 The men of Judah said, “Why are you attacking ¹⁰  us?” The Philistines ¹¹  said, “We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.”

Judges 21:3

21:3 They said, “Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel?” An entire ¹²  tribe has disappeared from Israel today!”

[5:16]  ¹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word מִשְׁפְּתַיִם (mishpÿtayim) is uncertain. Some understand the word to mean “campfires.”

[5:16]  ² tn Or “whistling.”

[5:16]  ³ tn Heb “listening to the pipe playing for the flocks.”

[13:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “Why do you ask for my name, for it is incomprehensible?” The Hebrew adjective פִּלְאִי (pile’iy, “wonderful, incomprehensible”) refers to what is in a category of its own and is beyond full human understanding. Note the use of this word in Ps 139:6, where God’s knowledge is described as incomprehensible and unattainable.

[5:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “lived” or “settled down.”

[5:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “Dan, why did he live as a resident alien, ships.” The verb גּוּר (gur) usually refers to taking up residence outside one’s native land. Perhaps the Danites, rather than rallying to Barak, were content to move to the Mediterranean coast and work in the shipyards. For further discussion, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 262.

[5:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “lived.”

[5:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “lived” or “settled down.”

[5:17]  ¹¹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word מִפְרָץ (mifrats) is uncertain, but the parallelism (note “seacoast”) suggests “harbors.”

[15:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “come up against.”

[15:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “one.”