Judges 7:3

7:3 Now, announce to the men, ¹  ‘Whoever is shaking with fear ²  may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” ³  Twenty-two thousand men ⁴  went home; ⁵  ten thousand remained.

Judges 19:6

19:6 So the two of them sat down and had a meal together. ⁶  Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Why not stay another night and have a good time!” ⁷ 

Judges 20:45

20:45 The rest ⁸  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ⁹  caught ¹⁰  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ¹¹  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

[7:3]  ¹ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

[7:3]  ² tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

[7:3]  ³ tc Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).

[7:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)

[7:3]  ⁵ tn Or “turned around, back.”

[19:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “And they sat and ate, the two of them together, and they drank.”

[19:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “Be willing and spend the night so that your heart might be good.”

[20:45]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ¹² tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ¹³ tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.

[20:45]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “stuck close after them.”