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 9:36

9:36 Gaal saw the men ⁶  and said to Zebul, “Look, men are coming down from the tops of the hills.” But Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadows on the hills – it just looks like men.” ⁷ 

Judges 20:31

20:31 The Benjaminites attacked ⁸  the army, leaving the city unguarded. ⁹  They began to strike down their enemy ¹⁰  just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, ¹¹  the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down ¹²  about thirty Israelites.

[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.”

[9:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “the people” (also in vv. 38, 43, 48). These were warriors, so “men” has been used in the translation, since in ancient Israelite culture soldiers would have been exclusively males.

[9:36]  ⁷ tn Heb “the shadow on the hills you are seeing, like men.”

[20:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “went out to meet.”

[20:31]  ¹² tn Heb “and they were drawn away from the city.”

[20:31]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the army wounded ones.”

[20:31]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[20:31]  ¹⁵ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.