Judges 5:21

5:21 The Kishon River carried them off;

the river confronted them ¹  – the Kishon River.

Step on the necks of the strong! ² 

Judges 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ³  I risked my life ⁴  and advanced against ⁵  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ⁶  to fight with me today?”

Judges 16:30

16:30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed hard ⁷  and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life. ⁸ 

[5:21]  ¹ tn Possibly “the ancient river,” but it seems preferable in light of the parallel line (which has a verb) to emend the word (attested only here) to a verb (קָדַם, qadam) with pronominal object suffix.

[5:21]  ² tn This line is traditionally taken as the poet-warrior’s self-exhortation, “March on, my soul, in strength!” The present translation (a) takes the verb (a second feminine singular form) as addressed to Deborah (cf. v. 12), (b) understands נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in its well-attested sense of “throat; neck” (cf. Jonah 2:6), (c) takes the final yod (י) on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy) as an archaic construct indicator (rather than a suffix), and (d) interprets עֹז (’oz, “strength”) as an attributive genitive (literally, “necks of strength,” i.e., “strong necks”). For fuller discussion and various proposals, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 270-71.

[12:3]  ³ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

[12:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

[12:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

[12:3]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “he stretched out with strength.”

[16:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the ones whom he killed in his death were many more than he killed in his life.”