Judges 6:31

Context
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 cause³ 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 9:48

Context
9:48 He and all his men⁷ went up on Mount Zalmon. He⁸ took an ax⁹ in his hand and cut off a tree branch. He put it¹⁰ on his shoulder and said to his men, “Quickly, do what you have just seen me do!”¹¹

Judges 16:3

Context
16:3 Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left.¹² He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all.¹³ He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron.¹⁴

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

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

[6:31] ³tn Heb “fights for him.”

[6:31] ⁴sn 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] ⁵tn Heb “fight for himself.”

[6:31] ⁶tn 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).

[9:48] ⁷tn Heb “his people.”

[9:48] ⁸tn Heb “Abimelech.” The proper name has been replaced with the pronoun (“he”) due to considerations of English style.

[9:48] ⁹tn The Hebrew text has the plural here.

[9:48] ¹⁰tn Heb “he lifted it and put [it].”

[9:48] ¹¹tn Heb “What you have seen me do, quickly do like me.”

[16:3] ¹³tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”

[16:3] ¹⁴tn Heb “with the bar.”

[16:3] ¹⁵tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”