Judges 8:27

8:27 Gideon used all this to make ¹  an ephod, ²  which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites ³  prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it ⁴  there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Judges 11:24

11:24 You have the right to take what Chemosh your god gives you, but we will take the land of all whom the Lord our God has driven out before us. ⁵ 

Judges 14:11

14:11 When the Philistines saw he had no attendants, they gave him thirty groomsmen who kept him company. ⁶ 

Judges 2:9

2:9 The people ⁷  buried him in his allotted land ⁸  in Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Judges 8:8

8:8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request. ⁹  The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth had. ¹⁰ 

Judges 16:21

16:21 The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze chains. He became a grinder in the prison.

Judges 20:42

20:42 They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook ¹¹  them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. ¹² 

Judges 6:31

6:31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, ¹³  “Must you fight Baal’s battles? ¹⁴  Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause ¹⁵  will die by morning! ¹⁶  If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! ¹⁷  After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” ¹⁸ 

Judges 7:5

7:5 So he brought the men ¹⁹  down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.” ²⁰ 

Judges 11:11

11:11 So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander. Jephthah repeated the terms of the agreement ²¹  before the Lord in Mizpah.

Judges 12:6

12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” ²²  If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word ²³  correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.

Judges 16:5

16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate ²⁴  him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

Judges 16:25

16:25 When they really started celebrating, ²⁵  they said, “Call for Samson so he can entertain us!” So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them. ²⁶  They made him stand between two pillars.

Judges 16:31

16:31 His brothers and all his family ²⁷  went down and brought him back. ²⁸  They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led ²⁹  Israel for twenty years.

[8:27]  ¹ tn Heb “made it into.”

[8:27]  ² sn In Exod 28:4-6 and several other texts an ephod is described as a priestly or cultic garment. In some cases an ephod is used to obtain a divine oracle (1 Sam 23:9; 30:7). Here the ephod is made of gold and is described as being quite heavy (70-75 lbs?). Some identify it as an idol, but it was more likely a cultic object fashioned in the form of a garment which was used for oracular purposes. For discussion of the ephod in the OT, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 236-43, and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 349-52.

[8:27]  ³ tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).

[8:27]  ⁴ tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is it not so that what Chemosh your god causes you to possess, you possess, and all whom the Lord our God dispossesses before us we will possess?” Jephthah speaks of Chemosh as if he is on a par with the Lord God of Israel. This does not necessarily mean that Jephthah is polytheistic or that he recognizes the Lord as only a local deity. He may simply be assuming the Ammonite king’s perspective for the sake of argument. Other texts, as well as the extrabiblical Mesha inscription, associate Chemosh with Moab, while Milcom is identified as the god of the Ammonites. Why then does Jephthah refer to Chemosh as the Ammonite god? Ammon had likely conquered Moab and the Ammonite king probably regarded himself as heir of all territory formerly held by Moab. Originally Moab had owned the disputed territory (cf. Num 21:26-29), meaning that Chemosh was regarded as the god of the region (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 203-4). Jephthah argues that Chemosh had long ago relinquished claim to the area (by allowing Sihon to conquer it), while the Lord had long ago established jurisdiction over it (by taking it from Sihon and giving it to Israel). Both sides should abide by the decisions of the gods which had stood firm for three hundred years.

[14:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “When they saw him, they gave him thirty companions and they were with him.” Instead of כִּרְאוֹתָם (kir’otam, “when they saw”) some ancient witnesses (e.g., some mss of the LXX) assume the reading בְּיִרְאָתָם (bÿyir’atam, “because they feared”).

[2:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the territory of his inheritance.”

[8:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and spoke to them in the same way.”

[8:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth answered.”

[20:42]  ²¹ tn Heb “clung to”; or “stuck close.”

[20:42]  ²² tn Heb “and those from the cities were striking them down in their midst.”

[6:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to all who stood against him.”

[6:31]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Do you fight for Baal?”

[6:31]  ²⁷ tn Heb “fights for him.”

[6:31]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ tn Heb “fight for himself.”

[6:31]  ³⁰ 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).

[7:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the people.”

[7:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”

[11:11]  ³³ tn Heb “spoke all his words.” This probably refers to the “words” recorded in v. 9. Jephthah repeats the terms of the agreement at the Lord’s sanctuary, perhaps to ratify the contract or to emphasize the Gileadites’ obligation to keep their part of the bargain. Another option is to translate, “Jephthah conducted business before the Lord in Mizpah.” In this case, the statement is a general reference to the way Jephthah ruled. He recognized the Lord’s authority and made his decisions before the Lord.

[12:6]  ³⁷ sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.

[12:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew mss.

[16:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”

[16:25]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “When their heart was good.”

[16:25]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “before them.”

[16:31]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and all the house of his father.”

[16:31]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”

[16:31]  ⁵¹ tn Traditionally, “judged.”