Hakim-hakim 2:7

2:7 The people worshiped ¹  the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and as long as the elderly men ²  who outlived him remained alive. These men had witnessed ³  all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. ⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ⁵  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ⁶  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ⁷  and he died.

Hakim-hakim 6:11

Gideon Meets Some Visitors

6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger ⁸  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ⁹  was threshing ¹⁰  wheat in a winepress ¹¹  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ¹² 

Hakim-hakim 6:21

6:21 The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. ¹³  Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared. ¹⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 6:25

Gideon Destroys the Altar

6:25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ¹⁵  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Hakim-hakim 6:27

6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants ¹⁶  and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family ¹⁷  and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime. ¹⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 6:37

6:37 Look, I am putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and the ground around it ¹⁹  is dry, then I will be sure ²⁰  that you will use me to deliver Israel, ²¹  as you promised.”

Hakim-hakim 8:27

8:27 Gideon used all this to make ²²  an ephod, ²³  which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites ²⁴  prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it ²⁵  there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Hakim-hakim 12:5

12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River ²⁶  opposite Ephraim. ²⁷  Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive ²⁸  said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked ²⁹  him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

Hakim-hakim 13:7

13:7 He said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and have a son. ³⁰  So now, do not drink wine or beer and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. ³¹  For the child will be dedicated ³²  to God from birth till the day he dies.’”

Hakim-hakim 14:17

14:17 She cried on his shoulder ³³  until the party was almost over. ³⁴  Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. ³⁵  Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle. ³⁶ 

Hakim-hakim 16:12

16:12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ³⁷  Samson!” (The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.) ³⁸  But he tore the ropes ³⁹  from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.

Hakim-hakim 16:24

16:24 When the people saw him, ⁴⁰  they praised their god, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, the one who ruined our land and killed so many of us!” ⁴¹ 

Hakim-hakim 17:4

17:4 When he gave the silver back to his mother, she ⁴²  took two hundred pieces of silver ⁴³  to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal image. She then put them in Micah’s house. ⁴⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 18:2

18:2 The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives, ⁴⁵  capable men ⁴⁶  from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house. ⁴⁷ 

Hakim-hakim 21:23

21:23 The Benjaminites did as instructed. ⁴⁸  They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives. ⁴⁹  They went home ⁵⁰  to their own territory, ⁵¹  rebuilt their cities, and settled down. ⁵² 

[2:7]  ¹ tn Or “served”; or “followed.”

[2:7]  ² tn Or perhaps “elders,” which could be interpreted to mean “leaders.”

[2:7]  ³ tn Heb “all the days of Joshua and all the days of the old men who outlived him, who had seen.”

[2:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.”

[4:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

[4:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

[4:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

[6:11]  ⁸ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

[6:11]  sn The Lord’s angelic messenger is also mentioned in Judg 2:1.

[6:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “Now Gideon his son…” The Hebrew circumstantial clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + predicate) breaks the narrative sequence and indicates that the angel’s arrival coincided with Gideon’s threshing.

[6:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “beating out.”

[6:11]  ¹¹ sn Threshing wheat in a winepress. One would normally thresh wheat at the threshing floor outside the city. Animals and a threshing sledge would be employed. Because of the Midianite threat, Gideon was forced to thresh with a stick in a winepress inside the city. For further discussion see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.

[6:11]  ¹² tn Heb “Midian.”

[6:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “extended the tip of the staff which was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread.”

[6:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “went from his eyes.”

[6:25]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Take a bull from your father’s herd, the second one, the one seven years old.” Apparently Gideon would need the bulls to pull down the altar.

[6:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

[6:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[6:27]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

[6:37]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the ground.”

[6:37]  ²⁰ tn Or “know.”

[6:37]  ²¹ tn Heb “you will deliver Israel by my hand.”

[8:27]  ²² tn Heb “made it into.”

[8:27]  ²³ sn In Exod 28:4-6 and several other texts an ephod is described as a priestly or cultic garment. In some cases an ephod is used to obtain a divine oracle (1 Sam 23:9; 30:7). Here the ephod is made of gold and is described as being quite heavy (70-75 lbs?). Some identify it as an idol, but it was more likely a cultic object fashioned in the form of a garment which was used for oracular purposes. For discussion of the ephod in the OT, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 236-43, and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 349-52.

[8:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).

[8:27]  ²⁵ tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[12:5]  ²⁶ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:5]  ²⁷ tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.

[12:5]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.

[12:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “say to.”

[13:7]  ³⁰ tn See the note on the word “son” in 13:5, where this same statement occurs.

[13:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

[13:7]  ³² tn Traditionally “a Nazirite.”

[14:17]  ³³ tn Heb “on him.”

[14:17]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the seven days [during] which they held the party.” This does not mean she cried for the entire seven days; v. 15 indicates otherwise. She cried for the remainder of the seven day period, beginning on the fourth day.

[14:17]  ³⁵ tn Heb “because she forced him.”

[14:17]  ³⁶ tn Heb “she told the riddle to the sons of her people.”

[16:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “are upon you.”

[16:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”

[16:12]  ³⁹ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:24]  ⁴⁰ tn Most interpret this as a reference to Samson, but this seems premature, since v. 25 suggests he was not yet standing before them. Consequently some prefer to see this statement as displaced and move it to v. 25 (see C. F. Burney, Judges, 387). It seems more likely that the pronoun refers to an image of Dagon.

[16:24]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”

[17:4]  ⁴² tn Heb “his mother.” The pronoun (“she”) has been substituted for the noun (“mother”) in the translation because of English style.

[17:4]  ⁴³ tn The Hebrew text has “and gave it.” The referent (the pieces of silver) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and it was in Micah’s house.”

[18:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “The Danites sent from their tribe five men, from their borders.”

[18:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”

[18:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “They came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, and spent the night there.”

[21:23]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “did so.”

[21:23]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “And they took wives according to their number from the dancing girls whom they abducted.”

[21:23]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “went and returned.”

[21:23]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “inheritance.”

[21:23]  ⁵² tn Heb “and lived in them.”