Judges 5:23

5:23 ‘Call judgment down on ¹  Meroz,’ says the Lord’s angelic ²  messenger;

‘Be sure ³  to call judgment down on ⁴  those who live there,

because they did not come to help in the Lord’s battle, ⁵ 

to help in the Lord’s battle against the warriors.’ ⁶ 

Judges 12:4

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, ⁷  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ⁸ 

[5:23]  ¹ tn Heb “Curse Meroz.”

[5:23]  ² tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

[5:23]  ³ tn Heb “Curse, cursing.” The Hebrew construction is emphatic.

[5:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “[to] curse.”

[5:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “to the help of the Lord” (the same Hebrew phrase occurs in the following line). Another option is to read “to aid the Lord’s cause.”

[5:23]  ⁶ tn Or “along with the other warriors.”

[12:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “because they said.”

[12:4]  ⁸ 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.”