Hakim-hakim 1:25

1:25 He showed them a secret entrance into the city, and they put the city to the sword. But they let the man and his extended family leave safely.

Hakim-hakim 1:35

1:35 The Amorites managed ¹  to remain in Har Heres, ²  Aijalon, and Shaalbim. Whenever the tribe of Joseph was strong militarily, ³  the Amorites were forced to do hard labor.

Hakim-hakim 2:2

2:2 but you must not make an agreement with the people who live in this land. You should tear down the altars where they worship.’ ⁴  But you have disobeyed me. ⁵  Why would you do such a thing? ⁶ 

Hakim-hakim 4:17

4:17 Now Sisera ran away on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, for King Jabin of Hazor ⁷  and the family of Heber the Kenite had made a peace treaty. ⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 4:19

4:19 He said to her, “Give me a little water to drink, because I’m thirsty.” She opened a goatskin container of milk and gave him some milk to drink. Then she covered him up again.

Hakim-hakim 5:23

5:23 ‘Call judgment down on ⁹  Meroz,’ says the Lord’s angelic ¹⁰  messenger;

‘Be sure ¹¹  to call judgment down on ¹²  those who live there,

because they did not come to help in the Lord’s battle, ¹³ 

to help in the Lord’s battle against the warriors.’ ¹⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 6:30

6:30 The men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so we can execute him! ¹⁵  He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.”

Hakim-hakim 8:5

8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Give ¹⁶  some loaves of bread to the men ¹⁷  who are following me, ¹⁸  because they are exhausted. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

Hakim-hakim 8:8

8:8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request. ¹⁹  The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth had. ²⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 9:3

9:3 His mother’s relatives ²¹  spoke on his behalf to ²²  all the leaders of Shechem and reported his proposal. ²³  The leaders were drawn to Abimelech; ²⁴  they said, “He is our close relative.” ²⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 9:19

9:19 So if you have shown loyalty and integrity to Jerub-Baal and his family ²⁶  today, then may Abimelech bring you happiness and may you bring him happiness! ²⁷ 

Hakim-hakim 9:24-25

9:24 He did this so the violent deaths of Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons might be avenged and Abimelech, their half-brother ²⁸  who murdered them, might have to pay for their spilled blood, along with the leaders of Shechem who helped him murder them. ²⁹  9:25 The leaders of Shechem rebelled against Abimelech by putting ³⁰  bandits in ³¹  the hills, who robbed everyone who traveled by on the road. But Abimelech found out about it. ³² 

Hakim-hakim 9:31

9:31 He sent messengers to Abimelech, who was in Arumah, ³³  reporting, “Beware! ³⁴  Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers are coming ³⁵  to Shechem and inciting the city to rebel against you. ³⁶ 

Hakim-hakim 9:45

9:45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed all the people in it. Then he leveled ³⁷  the city and spread salt over it. ³⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 11:8

11:8 The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That may be true, ³⁹  but now we pledge to you our loyalty. ⁴⁰  Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the leader ⁴¹  of all who live in Gilead.” ⁴² 

Hakim-hakim 20:5

20:5 The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. ⁴³  They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

Hakim-hakim 20:15

20:15 That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ⁴⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 21:12

21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins – they had never had sexual relations with a male. ⁴⁵  They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

[1:35]  ¹ tn Or “were determined.”

[1:35]  ² tn Or “Mount Heres”; the term הַר (har) means “mount” or “mountain” in Hebrew.

[1:35]  ³ tn Heb “Whenever the hand of the tribe of Joseph was heavy.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “their altars.”

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “you have not listened to my voice.”

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “What is this you have done?”

[4:17]  ⁷ map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.

[4:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “for there was peace between.”

[5:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “Curse Meroz.”

[5:23]  ¹⁰ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

[5:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Curse, cursing.” The Hebrew construction is emphatic.

[5:23]  ¹² tn Heb “[to] curse.”

[5:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “to the help of the Lord” (the same Hebrew phrase occurs in the following line). Another option is to read “to aid the Lord’s cause.”

[5:23]  ¹⁴ tn Or “along with the other warriors.”

[6:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and let him die.” The jussive form with vav after the imperative is best translated as a purpose clause.

[8:5]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

[8:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because these were warriors and in ancient Israelite culture would have been exclusively males.

[8:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “who are at my feet.”

[8:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and spoke to them in the same way.”

[8:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth answered.”

[9:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “brothers.”

[9:3]  ²² tn Heb “into the ears of.”

[9:3]  ²³ tn Heb “and all these words.”

[9:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Their heart was inclined after Abimelech.”

[9:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “our brother.”

[9:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[9:19]  ²⁷ tn Heb “then rejoice in Abimelech, and may he also rejoice in you.”

[9:24]  ²⁸ tn Heb “their brother.”

[9:24]  ²⁹ tn Heb “so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerub-Baal might come, and their blood might be placed on Abimelech, their brother, who murdered them, and upon the leaders of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to murder his brothers.”

[9:25]  ³⁰ tn Heb “set against him bandits.”

[9:25]  sn Putting bandits in the hills. This piracy certainly interrupted or discouraged trade, and probably deprived Abimelech of tariffs or tribute. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 277; G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 253.

[9:25]  ³¹ tn Heb “on the tops of.”

[9:25]  ³² tn Heb “It was told to Abimelech.”

[9:31]  ³³ tn The form בְּתָרְמָה (bÿtarmah) in the Hebrew text, which occurs only here, has traditionally been understood to mean “secretly” or “with deception.” If this is correct, it is derived from II רָמָה (ramah, “to deceive”). Some interpreters object, pointing out that this would imply Zebul was trying to deceive Abimelech, which is clearly not the case in this context. But this objection is unwarranted. If retained, the phrase would refer instead to deceptive measures used by Zebul to avoid the suspicion of Gaal when he dispatched the messengers from Shechem. The present translation assumes an emendation to “in Arumah” (בָּארוּמָה, ba’rumah), a site mentioned in v. 41 as the headquarters of Abimelech. Confusion of alef and tav in archaic Hebrew script, while uncommon, is certainly not unimaginable.

[9:31]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Look!”

[9:31]  ³⁵ tn The participle, as used here, suggests Gaal and his brothers are in the process of arriving, but the preceding verses imply they have already settled in. Perhaps Zebul uses understatement to avoid the appearance of negligence on his part. After all, if he made the situation sound too bad, Abimelech, when he was informed, might ask why he had allowed this rebellion to reach such a stage.

[9:31]  ³⁶ tn The words “to rebel” are interpretive. The precise meaning of the Hebrew verb צוּר (tsur) is unclear here. It is best to take it in the sense of “to instigate; to incite; to provoke” (see Deut 2:9, 19 and R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 178).

[9:45]  ³⁷ tn Or “destroyed.”

[9:45]  ³⁸ tn Heb “sowed it with salt.”

[9:45]  sn The spreading of salt over the city was probably a symbolic act designed to place the site under a curse, deprive it of fertility, and prevent any future habitation. The practice is referred to outside the Bible as well. For example, one of the curses in the Aramaic Sefire treaty states concerning Arpad: “May Hadad sow in them salt and weeds, and may it not be mentioned again!” See J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire (BibOr), 15, 53. Deut 29:23, Jer 17:6, and Zeph 2:9 associate salt flats or salty regions with infertility and divine judgment.

[11:8]  ³⁹ tn Heb “therefore”; “even so.” For MT לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) the LXX has an opposite reading, “not so,” which seems to be based on the Hebrew words לֹא כֵן (lo’ khen).

[11:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “we have returned to you.” For another example of שׁוּב אֶל (shuv ’el) in the sense of “give allegiance to,” see 1 Kgs 12:27b.

[11:8]  ⁴¹ sn Then you will become the leader. The leaders of Gilead now use the word רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head, leader”), the same term that appeared in their original, general offer (see 10:18). In their initial offer to Jephthah they had simply invited him to be their קָצִין (qatsin, “commander”; v. 6). When he resists they must offer him a more attractive reward – rulership over the region. See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 198.

[11:8]  ⁴² tn Heb “leader of us and all who live in Gilead.”

[20:5]  ⁴³ tn Heb “arose against me and surrounded against me the house at night.”

[20:15]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “besides from the ones living in Gibeah they mustered seven hundred choice men.”

[21:12]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”