Judges 6:31

6:31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, ¹  “Must you fight Baal’s battles? ²  Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause ³  will die by morning! ⁴  If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! ⁵  After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” ⁶ 

Judges 9:15

9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ⁷  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ⁸  Otherwise ⁹  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

Judges 11:9

11:9 Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, “All right! ¹⁰  If you take me back to fight with the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, ¹¹  I will be your leader.” ¹² 

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, ¹³  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ¹⁴ 

Judges 21:22

21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, ¹⁵  we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, ¹⁶  for we could not get each one a wife through battle. ¹⁷  Don’t worry about breaking your oath! ¹⁸  You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’” ¹⁹ 

[6:31]  ¹ tn Heb “to all who stood against him.”

[6:31]  ² tn Heb “Do you fight for Baal?”

[6:31]  ³ tn Heb “fights for him.”

[6:31]  ⁴ sn Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning. This may be a warning to the crowd that Joash intends to defend his son and to kill anyone who tries to execute Gideon. Then again, it may be a sarcastic statement about Baal’s apparent inability to defend his own honor. Anyone who takes up Baal’s cause may end up dead, perhaps by the same hand that pulled down the pagan god’s altar.

[6:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “fight for himself.”

[6:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “for he pulled down his altar.” The subject of the verb, if not Gideon, is indefinite (in which case a passive translation is permissible).

[9:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

[9:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “in my shade.”

[9:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “If not.”

[11:9]  ¹³ tn “All right” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[11:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “places them before me.”

[11:9]  ¹⁵ 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.

[12:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “because they said.”

[12:4]  ²⁰ 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.”

[21:22]  ²⁵ tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

[21:22]  ²⁶ tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[21:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for we did not take each his wife in battle.”

[21:22]  ²⁸ tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

[21:22]  ²⁹ 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.