Hakim-hakim 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ¹  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?’” ² 

Hakim-hakim 10:6

The Lord’s Patience Runs Short

10:6 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ³  They worshiped ⁴  the Baals and the Ashtars, ⁵  as well as the gods of Syria, Sidon, ⁶  Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines. ⁷  They abandoned the Lord and did not worship ⁸  him.

Hakim-hakim 11:26

11:26 Israel has been living in Heshbon and its nearby towns, in Aroer and its nearby towns, and in all the cities along the Arnon for three hundred years! Why did you not reclaim them during that time?

Hakim-hakim 12:6

12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” ⁹  If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word ¹⁰  correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.

Hakim-hakim 14:16

14:16 So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder ¹¹  and said, “You must ¹²  hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men ¹³  a riddle, but you have not told me the solution.” He said to her, “Look, I have not even told my father or mother. Do you really expect me to tell you?” ¹⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 16:15

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

Hakim-hakim 18:19

18:19 They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser ¹⁶  and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?” ¹⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

² tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your exhausted men bread?”

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.

³ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

⁴ tn Or “served;” or “followed.”

⁵ sn The Ashtars were local manifestations of the goddess Ashtar (i.e., Astarte).

⁶ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

⁷ tn Heb “the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.”

⁸ tn Or “serve”; or “follow.”

⁹ sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew mss.

¹¹ tn Heb “on him.”

¹² tn Heb “only”; or “simply.”

¹³ tn Heb “the sons of my people.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “Should I tell you?”

¹⁵ tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”

¹⁶ tn See the note on the word “adviser” in 17:10.

¹⁷ tn Heb “Is it better for you to be priest for the house of one man or for you to be priest for a tribe, for a clan in Israel?”