Judges 8:8

8:8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request. ¹  The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth had. ² 

Judges 8:17

8:17 He also tore down the tower of Penuel and executed the city’s men.

Judges 20:44

20:44 Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead.

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, ³  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ⁴ 

Judges 8:16

8:16 He seized the leaders ⁵  of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men of Succoth with them. ⁶ 

Judges 9:57

9:57 God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell ⁷  on them.

Judges 20:46

20:46 That day twenty-five thousand ⁸  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ⁹ 

Judges 19:22

19:22 They were having a good time, ¹⁰  when suddenly ¹¹  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ¹²  surrounded the house and kept beating ¹³  on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.” ¹⁴ 

Judges 6:27-28

6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants ¹⁵  and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family ¹⁶  and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime. ¹⁷ 

6:28 When the men of the city got up the next morning, they saw ¹⁸  the Baal altar pulled down, the nearby Asherah pole cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar.

Judges 6:30

6:30 The men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so we can execute him! ¹⁹  He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.”

Judges 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ²⁰  Zebah and Zalmunna! You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” ²¹ 

Judges 9:28

9:28 Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerub-Baal, and is not Zebul the deputy he appointed? ²²  Serve the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem! But why should we serve Abimelech? ²³ 

Judges 9:49

9:49 So each of his men also cut off a branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches ²⁴  against the stronghold and set fire to it. ²⁵  All the people ²⁶  of the Tower of Shechem died – about a thousand men and women.

Judges 12:5

12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River ²⁷  opposite Ephraim. ²⁸  Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive ²⁹  said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked ³⁰  him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

Judges 14:18

14:18 On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”

He said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer, ³¹ 

you would not have solved my riddle!”

[8:8]  ¹ tn Heb “and spoke to them in the same way.”

[8:8]  ² tn Heb “The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth answered.”

[12:4]  ³ tn Heb “because they said.”

[12:4]  ⁴ 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.”

[8:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “elders.”

[8:16]  ⁶ tc The translation follows the reading of several ancient versions (LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate) in assuming the form וַיָּדָשׁ (vayyadash) from the verb דּוֹשׁ (dosh, “thresh”) as in v. 7. The MT reads instead the form וַיֹּדַע (vayyoda’, “make known”), a Hiphil form of יָדַע (yadah). In this case one could translate, “he used them [i.e., the thorns and briers] to teach the men of Succoth a lesson.”

[9:57]  ⁷ tn Heb “came.”

[20:46]  ⁹ sn The number given here (twenty-five thousand sword-wielding Benjaminites) is an approximate figure; v. 35 gives the more exact number (25,100). According to v. 15, the Benjaminite army numbered 26,700 (26,000 + 700). The figures in vv. 35 (rounded in vv. 44-46) and 47 add up to 25,700. What happened to the other 1,000 men? The most reasonable explanation is that they were killed during the first two days of fighting. G. F. Moore (Judges [ICC], 429) and C. F. Burney (Judges, 475) reject this proposal, arguing that the narrator is too precise and concerned about details to omit such a fact. However, the account of the first two days’ fighting emphasizes Israel’s humiliating defeat. To speak of Benjaminite casualties would diminish the literary effect. In vv. 35, 44-47 the narrator’s emphasis is the devastating defeat that Benjamin experienced on this final day of battle. To mention the earlier days’ casualties at this point is irrelevant to his literary purpose. He allows readers who happen to be concerned with such details to draw conclusions for themselves.

[20:46]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “So all the ones who fell from Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men, wielding the sword, in that day, all of these men of strength.

[19:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”

[19:22]  ¹² tn Heb “and look.”

[19:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.” The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.

[19:22]  ¹⁴ tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.

[19:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so we can know him.” On the surface one might think they simply wanted to meet the visitor and get to know him, but their hostile actions betray their double-talk. The old man, who has been living with them long enough to know what they are like, seems to have no doubts about the meaning of their words (see v. 23).

[6:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

[6:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[6:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

[6:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “look!” The narrator uses this word to invite his audience/readers to view the scene through the eyes of the men.

[6:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and let him die.” The jussive form with vav after the imperative is best translated as a purpose clause.

[8:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your exhausted men bread?”

[9:28]  ²¹ tn Heb “and Zebul his appointee.”

[9:28]  ²² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abimelech) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:49]  ²³ tn The words “the branches” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:49]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they kindled over them the stronghold with fire.”

[9:49]  ²⁵ tn Or “men,” but the word seems to have a more general sense here, as the conclusion to the sentence suggests.

[12:5]  ²⁵ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:5]  ²⁶ tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.

[12:5]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.

[12:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “say to.”

[14:18]  ²⁷ sn Plowed with my heifer. This statement emphasizes that the Philistines had utilized a source of information which should have been off-limits to them. Heifers were used in plowing (Hos 10:11), but one typically used one’s own farm animals, not another man’s.