Hakim-hakim 2:14

2:14 The Lord was furious with Israel ¹  and handed them over to robbers who plundered them. ²  He turned them over to ³  their enemies who lived around them. They could not withstand their enemies’ attacks. ⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 3:10

3:10 The Lord’s spirit empowered him ⁵  and he led Israel. When he went to do battle, the Lord handed over to him King Cushan-Rishathaim of Aram and he overpowered him. ⁶ 

Hakim-hakim 4:14

4:14 Deborah said to Barak, “Spring into action, ⁷  for this is the day the Lord is handing Sisera over to you! ⁸  Has the Lord not taken the lead?” ⁹  Barak quickly went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

Hakim-hakim 6:13

6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, ¹⁰  but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster ¹¹  overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ¹²  ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Hakim-hakim 7:2

7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. ¹³  Israel might brag, ¹⁴  ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’ ¹⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 7:7

7:7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will deliver the whole army ¹⁶  and I will hand Midian over to you. ¹⁷  The rest of the men should go home.” ¹⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 7:14-15

7:14 The other man said, ¹⁹  “Without a doubt this symbolizes ²⁰  the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.”

Gideon Routs the Enemy

7:15 When Gideon heard the report of the dream and its interpretation, he praised God. ²¹  Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up, for the Lord is handing the Midianite army over to you!”

Hakim-hakim 8:3

8:3 It was to you that God handed over the Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb! What did I accomplish to rival that?” ²²  When he said this, they calmed down. ²³ 

Hakim-hakim 8:5

8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Give ²⁴  some loaves of bread to the men ²⁵  who are following me, ²⁶  because they are exhausted. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

Hakim-hakim 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ²⁷  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?’” ²⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 11:9

11:9 Jephthah said to the leaders of Gilead, “All right! ²⁹  If you take me back to fight with the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, ³⁰  I will be your leader.” ³¹ 

Hakim-hakim 11:21

11:21 The Lord God of Israel handed Sihon and his whole army over to Israel and they defeated them. Israel took ³²  all the land of the Amorites who lived in that land.

Hakim-hakim 12:3

12:3 When I saw that you were not going to help, ³³  I risked my life ³⁴  and advanced against ³⁵  the Ammonites, and the Lord handed them over to me. Why have you come up ³⁶  to fight with me today?”

Hakim-hakim 14:9

14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned ³⁷  to his father and mother, he offered them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of the lion’s carcass. ³⁸ 

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, ³⁹  I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets ⁴⁰  of clothes.

Hakim-hakim 14:19

14:19 The Lord’s spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and murdered thirty men. He took their clothes ⁴¹  and gave them ⁴²  to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home. ⁴³ 

Hakim-hakim 15:1

Samson Versus the Philistines

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ⁴⁴  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ⁴⁵  He said to her father, ⁴⁶  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ⁴⁷  But her father would not let him enter.

Hakim-hakim 15:6

15:6 The Philistines asked, ⁴⁸  “Who did this?” They were told, ⁴⁹  “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite ⁵⁰  took Samson’s ⁵¹  bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. ⁵² 

Hakim-hakim 15:13

15:13 They said to him, “We promise! ⁵³  We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff.

Hakim-hakim 15:18

15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant ⁵⁴  this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” ⁵⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 16:5

16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate ⁵⁶  him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

Hakim-hakim 16:24

16:24 When the people saw him, ⁵⁷  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!” ⁵⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 17:10

17:10 Micah said to him, “Stay with me. Become my adviser ⁵⁹  and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, plus clothes and food.” ⁶⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 18:10

18:10 When you invade, ⁶¹  you will encounter ⁶²  unsuspecting people. The land is wide! ⁶³  God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” ⁶⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 20:13

20:13 Now, hand over the good-for-nothings ⁶⁵  in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.” ⁶⁶  But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.

Hakim-hakim 20:28

20:28 Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving the Lord ⁶⁷  in those days), “Should we ⁶⁸  once more march out to fight the Benjaminites our brothers, ⁶⁹  or should we ⁷⁰  quit?” The Lord said, “Attack, for tomorrow I will hand them ⁷¹  over to you.”

Hakim-hakim 21:22

21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, ⁷²  we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, ⁷³  for we could not get each one a wife through battle. ⁷⁴  Don’t worry about breaking your oath! ⁷⁵  You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’” ⁷⁶ 

[2:14]  ¹ tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”

[2:14]  ² tn Heb “robbers who robbed them.” (The verb שָׁסָה [shasah] appears twice in the verse.)

[2:14]  sn The expression robbers who plundered them is a derogatory reference to the enemy nations, as the next line indicates.

[2:14]  ³ tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”

[2:14]  ⁴ tn The word “attacks” is supplied in the translation both for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[3:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “was on him.”

[3:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “his hand was strong against Cushan-Rishathaim.”

[4:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “Arise!”

[4:14]  ⁸ tn The verb form (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the Lord speaks of it as a “done deal.”

[4:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “Has the Lord not gone out before you?”

[6:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “But my lord.”

[6:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all this.”

[6:13]  ¹² tn Heb “saying.”

[7:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “might glorify itself against me.”

[7:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my hand has delivered me.”

[7:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you.” The Hebrew pronoun is masculine plural, probably referring to the entire army.

[7:7]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew pronoun here is singular.

[7:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “All the people should go, each to his place.”

[7:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[7:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”

[7:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “he bowed down” or “worshiped.”

[8:3]  ²² tn Heb “What was I able to do compared to you?”

[8:3]  ²³ tn Heb “Then their spirits relaxed from against him, when he spoke this word.”

[8:5]  ²⁴ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

[8:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because these were warriors and in ancient Israelite culture would have been exclusively males.

[8:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “who are at my feet.”

[8:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:15]  ²⁸ 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.

[11:9]  ²⁹ tn “All right” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[11:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “places them before me.”

[11:9]  ³¹ tn Some translate the final statement as a question, “will I really be your leader?” An affirmative sentence is preferable. Jephthah is repeating the terms of the agreement in an official manner. In v. 10 the leaders legally agree to these terms.

[11:21]  ³² tn That is, took as its own possession.

[12:3]  ³³ tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”

[12:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”

[12:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “crossed over to.”

[12:3]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “went.” Samson apparently went home to his parents before going to Timnah for the marriage. Seeing and tasting the honey appears to encourage Manoah to go with his son to Timnah. Perhaps both Samson and his father viewed the honey as a good omen of future blessing. Possibly Samson considered it a symbol of sexual pleasure or an aphrodisiac. Note the use of honey imagery in Song 4:11 and 5:1.

[14:9]  ³⁸ sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.

[14:12]  ³⁹ tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”

[14:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “changes.”

[14:19]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “equipment”; or “gear.”

[14:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “changes [of clothes].”

[14:19]  ⁴³ tn Heb “he went up to his father’s house.”

[15:1]  ⁴⁴ sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

[15:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”

[15:1]  ⁴⁶ tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).

[15:1]  ⁴⁷ 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”).

[15:6]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “said.”

[15:6]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

[15:6]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ⁵² tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.

[15:13]  ⁵³ tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.

[15:18]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”

[15:18]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.

[16:5]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”

[16:24]  ⁵⁷ 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]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”

[17:10]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “father.” “Father” is here a title of honor that suggests the priest will give advice and protect the interests of the family, primarily by divining God’s will in matters, perhaps through the use of the ephod. (See R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 257; also Gen 45:8, where Joseph, who was a diviner and interpreter of dreams, is called Pharaoh’s “father,” and 2 Kgs 6:21; 13:14, where a prophet is referred to as a “father.” Note also 2 Kgs 8:9, where a king identifies himself as a prophet’s “son.” One of a prophet’s main functions was to communicate divine oracles. Cf. 2 Kgs 8:9ff.; 13:14-19).

[17:10]  ⁶⁰ tn The Hebrew text expands with the phrase: “and the Levite went.” This only makes sense if taken with “to live” in the next verse. Apparently “the Levite went” and “the Levite agreed” are alternative readings which have been juxtaposed in the text.

[18:10]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “When you enter.”

[18:10]  ⁶² tn Heb “you will come to.”

[18:10]  ⁶³ tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”

[18:10]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

[20:13]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “the men, sons of wickedness.”

[20:13]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “and burn away wickedness from Israel.”

[20:28]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “standing before him.”

[20:28]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

[20:28]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

[20:28]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

[20:28]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “him” (collective singular).

[21:22]  ⁷² tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

[21:22]  ⁷³ tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[21:22]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “for we did not take each his wife in battle.”

[21:22]  sn Through battle. This probably refers to the battle against Jabesh Gilead, which only produced four hundred of the six hundred wives needed.

[21:22]  ⁷⁵ tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

[21:22]  ⁷⁶ tc Heb “You did not give to them, now you are guilty.” The MT as it stands makes little sense. It is preferable to emend לֹא (lo’, “not”) to לוּא (lu’, “if”). This particle introduces a purely hypothetical condition, “If you had given to them [but you didn’t].” See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 453-54.