Hakim-hakim 2:10

2:10 That entire generation passed away; ¹  a new generation grew up ²  that had not personally experienced the Lord’s presence or seen what he had done for Israel. ³ 

Hakim-hakim 3:2

3:2 He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. ⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 18:3

18:3 As they approached ⁵  Micah’s house, they recognized the accent ⁶  of the young Levite. So they stopped ⁷  there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?” ⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 11:39

11:39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin. ⁹  Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel. ¹⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 3:1

3:1 These were the nations the Lord permitted to remain so he could use them to test Israel – he wanted to test all those who had not experienced battle against the Canaanites. ¹¹ 

Hakim-hakim 21:11-12

21:11 Do this: ¹²  exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. ¹³  But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed. ¹⁴  21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins – they had never had sexual relations with a male. ¹⁵  They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

Hakim-hakim 1:22

Partial Success

1:22 When the men ¹⁶  of Joseph attacked ¹⁷  Bethel, ¹⁸  the Lord was with them.

Hakim-hakim 5:21

5:21 The Kishon River carried them off;

the river confronted them ¹⁹  – the Kishon River.

Step on the necks of the strong! ²⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 2:19

2:19 When a leader died, the next generation ²¹  would again ²²  act more wickedly than the previous one. ²³  They would follow after other gods, worshiping them ²⁴  and bowing down to them. They did not give up ²⁵  their practices or their stubborn ways.

Hakim-hakim 14:3

14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ²⁶  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ²⁷  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ²⁸  because she is the right one for me.” ²⁹ 

Hakim-hakim 15:18

15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant ³⁰  this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” ³¹ 

Hakim-hakim 19:3

19:3 her husband came ³²  after her, hoping he could convince her to return. ³³  He brought with him his servant ³⁴  and a pair of donkeys. When she brought him into her father’s house and the girl’s father saw him, he greeted him warmly. ³⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 19:22

19:22 They were having a good time, ³⁶  when suddenly ³⁷  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ³⁸  surrounded the house and kept beating ³⁹  on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.” ⁴⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 19:25

19:25 The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite ⁴¹  grabbed his concubine and made her go outside. ⁴²  They raped ⁴³  her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.

[2:10]  ¹ tn Heb “All that generation were gathered to their fathers.”

[2:10]  ² tn Heb “arose after them.”

[2:10]  ³ tn Heb “that did not know the Lord or the work which he had done for Israel.” The expressions “personally experienced” and “seen” are interpretive.

[3:2]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew syntax of v. 2 is difficult. The Hebrew text reads literally, “only in order that the generations of the Israelites might know, to teach them war – only those who formerly did not know them.”

[3:2]  sn The stated purpose for leaving the nations (to teach the subsequent generations…how to conduct holy war) seems to contradict 2:22 and 3:4, which indicate the nations were left to test Israel’s loyalty to the Lord. However, the two stated purposes can be harmonized. The willingness of later generations to learn and engage in holy war would measure their allegiance to the Lord (see B. G. Webb, Judges [JSOTSup], 114-15).

[18:3]  ⁵ tn Or “When they were near.”

[18:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “voice.” This probably means that “his speech was Judahite [i.e., southern] like their own, not Israelite [i.e., northern]” (R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 263).

[18:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “turned aside.”

[18:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “What [is there] to you here?”

[11:39]  ⁹ tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.

[11:39]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”

[3:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “did not know the wars of Canaan.”

[21:11]  ¹² tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”

[21:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”

[21:11]  ¹⁴ tc Some Greek witnesses (notably Codex Vaticanus [B]) add the words, “‘But the virgins you should keep alive.’ And they did so.” These additional words, which probably represent the original Hebrew text, can be retroverted: וְאֶת־הַבְּתוּלוֹת תְּחַיּוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵן (ve’et-habbÿtulot tÿkhayyu vayya’asu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (vÿ’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.

[21:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”

[1:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “house.” This is a metonymy for the warriors from the tribe.

[1:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “went up.”

[1:22]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[5:21]  ¹⁹ tn Possibly “the ancient river,” but it seems preferable in light of the parallel line (which has a verb) to emend the word (attested only here) to a verb (קָדַם, qadam) with pronominal object suffix.

[5:21]  ²⁰ tn This line is traditionally taken as the poet-warrior’s self-exhortation, “March on, my soul, in strength!” The present translation (a) takes the verb (a second feminine singular form) as addressed to Deborah (cf. v. 12), (b) understands נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in its well-attested sense of “throat; neck” (cf. Jonah 2:6), (c) takes the final yod (י) on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy) as an archaic construct indicator (rather than a suffix), and (d) interprets עֹז (’oz, “strength”) as an attributive genitive (literally, “necks of strength,” i.e., “strong necks”). For fuller discussion and various proposals, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 270-71.

[2:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the next generation) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:19]  ²² tn The verb שׁוּב (shuv, “to return; to turn”) is sometimes translated “turn back” here, but it is probably used in an adverbial sense, indicating that the main action (“act wickedly”) is being repeated.

[2:19]  ²³ tn Heb “their fathers.”

[2:19]  sn The statement the next generation would again act more wickedly than the previous one must refer to the successive sinful generations after Joshua, not Joshua’s godly generation (cf. vv. 7, 17).

[2:19]  ²⁴ tn Or “serving [them]”; or “following [them].”

[2:19]  ²⁵ tn Or “drop.”

[14:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.

[14:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”

[14:3]  ²⁸ tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.

[14:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

[15:18]  ³⁰ tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”

[15:18]  ³¹ tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.

[19:3]  ³² tn Heb “arose and came.”

[19:3]  ³³ tn Heb “to speak to her heart to bring her back.”

[19:3]  ³⁴ tn Or “young man.”

[19:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he was happy to meet him.”

[19:22]  ³⁶ tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”

[19:22]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and look.”

[19:22]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.” The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.

[19:22]  ³⁹ tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.

[19:22]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “so we can know him.” On the surface one might think they simply wanted to meet the visitor and get to know him, but their hostile actions betray their double-talk. The old man, who has been living with them long enough to know what they are like, seems to have no doubts about the meaning of their words (see v. 23).

[19:25]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:25]  ⁴² tn Heb “and he caused [her] to go outside to them.”

[19:25]  ⁴³ tn Heb “knew,” in the sexual sense.