Hakim-hakim 3:17

3:17 He brought the tribute payment to King Eglon of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)

Hakim-hakim 4:13

4:13 he ¹  ordered ²  all his chariotry – nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels – and all the troops he had with him to go from Harosheth-Haggoyim to the River Kishon.

Hakim-hakim 5:8

5:8 God chose new leaders, ³ 

then fighters appeared in the city gates; ⁴ 

but, I swear, not a shield or spear could be found, ⁵ 

among forty military units ⁶  in Israel.

Hakim-hakim 7:1

Gideon Reduces the Ranks

7:1 Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and his men ⁷  got up the next morning and camped near the spring of Harod. ⁸  The Midianites ⁹  were camped north of them near the hill of Moreh in the valley.

Hakim-hakim 8:5-6

8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Give ¹⁰  some loaves of bread to the men ¹¹  who are following me, ¹²  because they are exhausted. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 8:6 The officials of Succoth said, “You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give ¹³  bread to your army?” ¹⁴ 

Hakim-hakim 8:8

8:8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request. ¹⁵  The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth had. ¹⁶ 

Hakim-hakim 8:25

8:25 They said, “We are happy to give you earrings.” ¹⁷  So they ¹⁸  spread out a garment, and each one threw an earring from his plunder onto it.

Hakim-hakim 13:13

13:13 The Lord’s messenger told ¹⁹  Manoah, “Your wife should pay attention to everything I told her. ²⁰ 

Hakim-hakim 15:13

15:13 They said to him, “We promise! ²¹  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 18:12

18:12 They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan. ²²  It is west ²³  of Kiriath Jearim.)

Hakim-hakim 20:4

20:4 The Levite, ²⁴  the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up, “I and my concubine stopped in ²⁵  Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin ²⁶  to spend the night.

Hakim-hakim 20:36

20:36 Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated.

The Israelites retreated before ²⁷  Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.

[4:13]  ¹ tn Heb “Sisera.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[4:13]  ² tn Or “summoned.”

[5:8]  ³ tn Or “warriors.” The Hebrew text reads literally, “He chose God/gods new.” Some take “Israel” as the subject of the verb, “gods” as object, and “new” as an adjective modifying “gods.” This yields the translation, “(Israel) chose new gods.” In this case idolatry is the cause of the trouble alluded to in the context. The present translation takes “God” as subject of the verb and “new” as substantival, referring to the new leaders raised up by God (see v. 9a). For a survey of opinions and a defense of the present translation, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40.

[5:8]  ⁴ tn The translation of this difficult line is speculative because the second word, לָחֶם (lakhem), appears only here. The line in the Hebrew text literally reads, “Then [?] gates.” Interpretations and emendations of the Hebrew text abound (see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40). The translation assumes a repointing of the form as a Qal participle לֹחֵם (lokhem) from the verbal root לָחַם (lakham, “fight”) and understands a substantival use (“fighter”). “Fighter” is a collective reference to the military leaders or warriors mentioned in the preceding line and in v. 9. (For other occurrences of the Qal of לָחַם, see Pss 35:1; 56:2-3.)

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “A shield, it could not be seen, nor a spear.” The translation assumes that the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) introduces an oath of denial (see GKC 472 §149.e).

[5:8]  ⁶ tn Traditionally “forty thousand,” but this may be an instance where Hebrew term אֶלֶף (’elef) refers to a military unit. This is the view assumed by the translation (“forty military units”).

[7:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “and all the people who were with him.”

[7:1]  ⁸ sn The name Harod means, ironically, “trembling.”

[7:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Midian.” The LXX reads “and Amalek” (cf. v. 12; 6:33).

[8:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

[8:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because these were warriors and in ancient Israelite culture would have been exclusively males.

[8:5]  ¹² tn Heb “who are at my feet.”

[8:6]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

[8:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your army bread?” Perhaps the reference to the kings’ “palms” should be taken literally. The officials of Succoth may be alluding to the practice of mutilating prisoners or enemy corpses (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 155).

[8:6]  sn The officials of Succoth are hesitant to give (or sell) food to Gideon’s forces because they are not sure of the outcome of the battle. Perhaps they had made an alliance with the Midianites which demanded their loyalty.

[8:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and spoke to them in the same way.”

[8:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth answered.”

[8:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “We will indeed give.”

[8:25]  ¹⁸ tc In the LXX the subject of this verb is singular, referring to Gideon rather than to the Israelites.

[13:13]  ¹⁹ tn Or “said to.”

[13:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “To everything I said to the woman she should pay attention.” The Hebrew word order emphasizes “to everything,” probably because Manoah’s wife did not tell her husband everything the angel had said to her (cf. vv. 3-5 with v. 7). If she had, Manoah probably would not have been so confused about the child’s mission.

[15:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.

[18:12]  ²² tn Or “Mahaneh Dan”; the Hebrew term “Mahaneh” means “camp [of].” Many English versions retain the transliterated Hebrew expression, but cf. CEV “Dan’s Camp.”

[18:12]  ²³ tn Heb “behind.”

[20:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “The man, the Levite.”

[20:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “came to.”

[20:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “which belongs to Benjamin.”

[20:36]  ²⁷ tn Heb “gave place to.”