Judges 9:7

Jotham’s Parable

9:7 When Jotham heard the news, ¹  he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim. He spoke loudly to the people below, ²  “Listen to me, leaders of Shechem, so that God may listen to you!

Judges 13:6

13:6 The woman went and said to her husband, “A man sent from God ³  came to me! He looked like God’s angelic messenger – he was very awesome. ⁴  I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.

Judges 14:9

14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned ⁵  to his father and mother, he offered them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of the lion’s carcass. ⁶ 

Judges 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ⁷  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ⁸  If you refuse, ⁹  we will burn up ¹⁰  you and your father’s family. ¹¹  Did you invite us here ¹²  to make us poor?” ¹³ 

Judges 14:19

14:19 The Lord’s spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and murdered thirty men. He took their clothes ¹⁴  and gave them ¹⁵  to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home. ¹⁶ 

Judges 16:13

16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair ¹⁷  into the fabric on the loom ¹⁸  and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:15

16:15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me? ¹⁹  Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.”

Judges 16:17

16:17 Finally he told her his secret. ²⁰  He said to her, “My hair has never been cut, ²¹  for I have been dedicated to God ²²  from the time I was conceived. ²³  If my head ²⁴  were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”

[9:7]  ¹ tn Heb “And they reported to Jotham.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

[9:7]  ² tn Heb “He lifted his voice and called and said to them.”

[13:6]  ³ tn Heb “The man of God.”

[13:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “His appearance was like the appearance of the messenger of God, very awesome.”

[14:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “went.” Samson apparently went home to his parents before going to Timnah for the marriage. Seeing and tasting the honey appears to encourage Manoah to go with his son to Timnah. Perhaps both Samson and his father viewed the honey as a good omen of future blessing. Possibly Samson considered it a symbol of sexual pleasure or an aphrodisiac. Note the use of honey imagery in Song 4:11 and 5:1.

[14:9]  ⁶ sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.

[14:15]  ⁷ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

[14:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

[14:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “lest.”

[14:15]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house.”

[14:15]  ¹² tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

[14:15]  ¹³ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

[14:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “equipment”; or “gear.”

[14:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “changes [of clothes].”

[14:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he went up to his father’s house.”

[16:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.

[16:13]  ¹² tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.

[16:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”

[16:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all his heart.”

[16:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”

[16:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).

[16:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”

[16:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).