Hakim-hakim 1:36

1:36 The border of Amorite territory ran from the Scorpion Ascent ¹  to Sela and on up. ² 

Hakim-hakim 3:4

3:4 They were left to test Israel, so the Lord would know if his people would obey the commands he gave their ancestors through Moses. ³ 

Hakim-hakim 3:17

3:17 He brought the tribute payment to King Eglon of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)

Hakim-hakim 3:19

3:19 But he went back ⁴  once he reached ⁵  the carved images ⁶  at Gilgal. He said to Eglon, ⁷  “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon ⁸  said, “Be quiet!” ⁹  All his attendants left.

Hakim-hakim 3:26

3:26 Now Ehud had escaped while they were delaying. When he passed the carved images, he escaped to Seirah.

Hakim-hakim 6:20-21

6:20 God’s messenger said to him, “Put the meat and unleavened bread on this rock, ¹⁰  and pour out the broth.” Gideon did as instructed. ¹¹  6:21 The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. ¹²  Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared. ¹³ 

Hakim-hakim 6:26

6:26 Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. ¹⁴  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”

Hakim-hakim 7:25

7:25 They captured the two Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb. ¹⁵  They executed Oreb on the rock of Oreb and Zeeb ¹⁶  in the winepress of Zeeb. They chased the Midianites ¹⁷  and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now on the other side of the Jordan River. ¹⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 9:5

9:5 He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and murdered his half-brothers, ¹⁹  the seventy legitimate ²⁰  sons of Jerub-Baal, on one stone. Only Jotham, Jerub-Baal’s youngest son, escaped, ²¹  because he hid.

Hakim-hakim 9:18

9:18 But you have attacked ²²  my father’s family ²³  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate ²⁴  sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative. ²⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 9:53

9:53 a woman threw an upper millstone ²⁶  down on his ²⁷  head and shattered his skull.

Hakim-hakim 13:19

13:19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. The Lord’s messenger did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. ²⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 15:8

15:8 He struck them down and defeated them. ²⁹  Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.

Hakim-hakim 15:11

15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.”

Hakim-hakim 15:13

15:13 They said to him, “We promise! ³⁰  We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff.

Hakim-hakim 15:19

15:19 So God split open the basin ³¹  at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength ³²  was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring ³³  En Hakkore. ³⁴  It remains in Lehi to this very day.

Hakim-hakim 20:15-16

20:15 That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ³⁵  20:16 Among this army ³⁶  were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers. ³⁷  Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target. ³⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 20:45-47

20:45 The rest ³⁹  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ⁴⁰  caught ⁴¹  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ⁴²  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more. 20:46 That day twenty-five thousand ⁴³  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ⁴⁴  20:47 Six hundred survivors turned and ran away to the wilderness, to the cliff of Rimmon. They stayed there four months.

Hakim-hakim 21:13

21:13 The entire assembly sent messengers to the Benjaminites at the cliff of Rimmon and assured them they would not be harmed. ⁴⁵ 

[1:36]  ¹ tn Or “the Ascent of Scorpions” (עַקְרַבִּים [’aqrabbim] means “scorpions” in Hebrew).

[1:36]  ² tn Or “Amorite territory started at the Pass of the Scorpions at Sela and then went on up.”

[3:4]  ³ tn Heb “to know if they would hear the commands of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”

[3:19]  ⁴ tn Or “returned” (i.e., to Eglon’s palace).

[3:19]  ⁵ tn The words “when he reached” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text simply reads “from.”

[3:19]  ⁶ tn Or “idols.”

[3:19]  ⁷ tn The words “to Eglon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eglon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:19]  ⁹ tn Or “Hush!”

[6:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Take the meat…and put [it] on this rock.”

[6:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he did so.”

[6:21]  ¹² tn Heb “extended the tip of the staff which was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread.”

[6:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “went from his eyes.”

[6:26]  ¹⁴ tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.

[7:25]  ¹⁵ sn The names Oreb and Zeeb, which mean “Raven” and “Wolf” respectively, are appropriate because the Midianites had been like scavengers and predators to Israel.

[7:25]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text repeats the verb “executed.” This has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Midian.”

[7:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “beyond the Jordan.” The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity (also in 8:4).

[9:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his brothers.”

[9:5]  ²⁰ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “remained.”

[9:18]  ²² tn Heb “have risen up against.”

[9:18]  ²³ tn Heb “house.”

[9:18]  ²⁴ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “your brother.”

[9:53]  ²⁶ sn A hand mill consisted of an upper stone and larger lower stone. One would turn the upper stone with a handle to grind the grain, which was placed between the stones. An upper millstone, which was typically about two inches thick and a foot or so in diameter, probably weighed 25-30 pounds (11.4-13.6 kg). See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 268; C. F. Burney, Judges, 288.

[9:53]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Abimelech’s.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun “his” in the translation in keeping with conventions of English narrative style.

[13:19]  ²⁸ tc Heb “Doing an extraordinary deed while Manoah and his wife were watching.” The subject of the participle is missing. The translation assumes that the phrase “the Lord’s messenger” was lost by homoioteleuton. If the text originally read לַיהוָה מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה (layhavah mal’akh yÿhvah), the scribe’s eye could have jumped from the first יְהוָה to the second, accidentally omitting two of the three words. Later the conjunction וּ (shureq) would have been added to the following מַפְלִא (mafli’) for syntactical reasons. Another possibility is that a pronominal subject (הוּא, hu’) has been lost in the MT due to haplography.

[15:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “He struck them, calf on thigh, [with] a great slaughter.” The precise meaning of the phrase “calf on thigh” is uncertain.

[15:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.

[15:19]  ³¹ tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.

[15:19]  ³² tn Heb “spirit.”

[15:19]  ³³ tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:19]  ³⁴ sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”

[20:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “besides from the ones living in Gibeah they mustered seven hundred choice men.”

[20:16]  ³⁶ tn Heb “And from all this people.”

[20:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “seven hundred choice men, bound/restricted in the right hand.” On the significance of the idiom, “bound/restricted in the right hand,” see the translator’s note on 3:15.

[20:16]  ³⁸ tn “at a single hair and not miss.”

[20:45]  ³⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:45]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.

[20:45]  ⁴² tn Heb “stuck close after them.”

[20:46]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ 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.

[21:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “And all the assembly sent and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the cliff of Rimmon and they proclaimed to them peace.”