Hakim-hakim 12:5

12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River ¹  opposite Ephraim. ²  Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive ³  said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked ⁴  him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

Hakim-hakim 13:6

13:6 The woman went and said to her husband, “A man sent from God ⁵  came to me! He looked like God’s angelic messenger – he was very awesome. ⁶  I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.

Hakim-hakim 15:1

Samson Versus the Philistines

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ⁷  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ⁸  He said to her father, ⁹  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ¹⁰  But her father would not let him enter.

[12:5]  ¹ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:5]  ² tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.

[12:5]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.

[12:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “say to.”

[13:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “The man of God.”

[13:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “His appearance was like the appearance of the messenger of God, very awesome.”

[15:1]  ⁷ sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

[15:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”

[15:1]  ⁹ tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).

[15:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).