Hakim-hakim 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ¹  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ² 

Hakim-hakim 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ³  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?’” ⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 9:15-16

9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ⁵  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ⁶  Otherwise ⁷  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

9:16 “Now, if you have shown loyalty and integrity when you made Abimelech king, if you have done right to Jerub-Baal and his family, ⁸  if you have properly repaid him ⁹  –

Hakim-hakim 13:16

13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, ¹⁰  I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) ¹¹ 

Hakim-hakim 14:12

14:12 Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, ¹²  I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets ¹³  of clothes.

[8:2]  ¹ tn Heb “gleanings.”

[8:2]  ² sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.

[8:15]  ³ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your exhausted men bread?”

[8:15]  sn Gideon changes their actual statement (see v. 6) by saying exhausted men rather than “army.” In this way he emphasizes the crisis his men were facing and highlights the insensitivity of the men of Succoth.

[9:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

[9:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “in my shade.”

[9:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “If not.”

[9:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[9:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “if according to the deeds of his hands you have done to him.”

[13:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “If you detain me.”

[13:16]  ¹¹ tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the Lord. In the preceding narrative the narrator has informed the reader that the visitor is the Lord’s messenger, but Manoah and his wife did not perceive this. In vv. 5 and 7 the angel refers to “God” (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim), not the Lord (יְהוַה, yÿhvah). Manoah’s wife calls the visitor “a man sent from God” and “God’s messenger” (v. 6), while Manoah prays to the “Lord” (אֲדוֹנָי, ’adonay) and calls the visitor “a man sent from God” (v. 8).

[14:12]  ¹² tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”

[14:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “changes.”