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? ¹  Serve the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem! But why should we serve Abimelech? ² 

Judges 12:1

Civil Strife Mars the Victory

12:1 The Ephraimites assembled ³  and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight ⁴  with the Ammonites without asking ⁵  us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” ⁶ 

Judges 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ⁷  I risked my life ⁸  and advanced against ⁹  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ¹⁰  to fight with me today?”

Judges 17:3

17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate ¹¹  this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.” ¹² 

Judges 19:22

19:22 They were having a good time, ¹³  when suddenly ¹⁴  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ¹⁵  surrounded the house and kept beating ¹⁶  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.” ¹⁷ 

Judges 20:28

20:28 Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving the Lord ¹⁸  in those days), “Should we ¹⁹  once more march out to fight the Benjaminites our brothers, ²⁰  or should we ²¹  quit?” The Lord said, “Attack, for tomorrow I will hand them ²²  over to you.”

Judges 20:31

20:31 The Benjaminites attacked ²³  the army, leaving the city unguarded. ²⁴  They began to strike down their enemy ²⁵  just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, ²⁶  the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down ²⁷  about thirty Israelites.

Judges 21:5

21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed. ²⁸ 

[9:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and Zebul his appointee.”

[9:28]  ² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abimelech) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:1]  ³ tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”

[12:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “cross over to fight.”

[12:1]  ⁵ tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”

[12:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”

[12:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

[12:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

[12:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

[12:3]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

[17:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.

[19:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”

[19:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and look.”

[19:22]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.

[19:22]  ¹³ 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).

[20:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “standing before him.”

[20:28]  ¹² tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

[20:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

[20:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

[20:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “him” (collective singular).

[20:31]  ¹³ tn Heb “went out to meet.”

[20:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and they were drawn away from the city.”

[20:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from the army wounded ones.”

[20:31]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[20:31]  ¹⁷ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[21:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”