Hakim-hakim 9:52

9:52 Abimelech came and attacked the tower. When he approached the entrance of the tower to set it on fire,

Hakim-hakim 21:4

21:4 The next morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered up burnt sacrifices and token of peace. ¹ 

Hakim-hakim 11:31

11:31 then whoever is the first to come through ²  the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites – he ³  will belong to the Lord and ⁴  I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice.”

Hakim-hakim 6:26

6:26 Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. ⁵  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”

Hakim-hakim 12:1

Civil Strife Mars the Victory

12:1 The Ephraimites assembled ⁶  and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight ⁷  with the Ammonites without asking ⁸  us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” ⁹ 

Hakim-hakim 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ¹⁰  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ¹¹  If you refuse, ¹²  we will burn up ¹³  you and your father’s family. ¹⁴  Did you invite us here ¹⁵  to make us poor?” ¹⁶ 

Hakim-hakim 15:6

15:6 The Philistines asked, ¹⁷  “Who did this?” They were told, ¹⁸  “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite ¹⁹  took Samson’s ²⁰  bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. ²¹ 

Hakim-hakim 20:26

20:26 So all the Israelites, the whole army, ²²  went up to ²³  Bethel. ²⁴  They wept and sat there before the Lord; they did not eat anything ²⁵  that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace ²⁶  to the Lord.

Hakim-hakim 13:16

13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, ²⁷  I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) ²⁸ 

Hakim-hakim 13:23

13:23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. ²⁹  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”

Hakim-hakim 18:27

18:27 Now the Danites ³⁰  took what Micah had made, as well as his priest, and came to Laish, where the people were undisturbed and unsuspecting. They struck them down with the sword and burned the city. ³¹ 

Hakim-hakim 6:28

6:28 When the men of the city got up the next morning, they saw ³²  the Baal altar pulled down, the nearby Asherah pole cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar.

Hakim-hakim 15:14

15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered ³³  him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in ³⁴  fire, and they ³⁵  melted away from his hands.

Hakim-hakim 1:8

1:8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem and captured it. They put the sword to it and set the city on fire.

Hakim-hakim 15:5

15:5 He lit the torches ³⁶  and set the jackals loose in the Philistines’ standing grain. He burned up the grain heaps and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

Hakim-hakim 9:49

9:49 So each of his men also cut off a branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches ³⁷  against the stronghold and set fire to it. ³⁸  All the people ³⁹  of the Tower of Shechem died – about a thousand men and women.

Hakim-hakim 20:48

20:48 The Israelites returned to the Benjaminite towns ⁴⁰  and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities, ⁴¹  the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path. ⁴² 

Hakim-hakim 20:40

20:40 But when the signal, a pillar of smoke, began to rise up from the city, the Benjaminites turned around and saw the whole city going up in a cloud of smoke that rose high into the sky. ⁴³ 

Hakim-hakim 11:30

11:30 Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, saying, “If you really do hand the Ammonites over to me,

Hakim-hakim 6:21

6:21 The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. ⁴⁴  Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared. ⁴⁵ 

Hakim-hakim 9:15

9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ⁴⁶  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ⁴⁷  Otherwise ⁴⁸  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

Hakim-hakim 9:20

9:20 But if not, may fire blaze from Abimelech and consume the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo! May fire also blaze from the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo and consume Abimelech!”

Hakim-hakim 16:9

16:9 They hid ⁴⁹  in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here, ⁵⁰  Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire. ⁵¹  The secret of his strength was not discovered. ⁵² 

Hakim-hakim 20:35

20:35 The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. ⁵³ 

[21:4]  ¹ tn Or “peace offerings.”

[11:31]  ² tn Heb “the one coming out, who comes out from.” The text uses a masculine singular participle with prefixed article, followed by a relative pronoun and third masculine singular verb. The substantival masculine singular participle הַיּוֹצֵא (hayyotse’, “the one coming out”) is used elsewhere of inanimate objects (such as a desert [Num 21:13] or a word [Num 32:24]) or persons (Jer 5:6; 21:9; 38:2). In each case context must determine the referent. Jephthah may have envisioned an animal meeting him, since the construction of Iron Age houses would allow for an animal coming through the doors of a house (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 208). But the fact that he actually does offer up his daughter indicates the language of the vow is fluid enough to encompass human beings, including women. He probably intended such an offering from the very beginning, but he obviously did not expect his daughter to meet him first.

[11:31]  ³ tn The language is fluid enough to include women and perhaps even animals, but the translation uses the masculine pronoun because the Hebrew form is grammatically masculine.

[11:31]  ⁴ tn Some translate “or,” suggesting that Jephthah makes a distinction between humans and animals. According to this view, if a human comes through the door, then Jephthah will commit him/her to the Lord’s service, but if an animal comes through the doors, he will offer it up as a sacrifice. However, it is far more likely that the Hebrew construction (vav [ו] + perfect) specifies how the subject will become the Lord’s, that is, by being offered up as a sacrifice. For similar constructions, where the apodosis of a conditional sentence has at least two perfects (each with vav) in sequence, see Gen 34:15-16; Exod 18:16.

[6:26]  ⁵ tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.

[12:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”

[12:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “cross over to fight.”

[12:1]  ⁸ tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”

[12:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”

[14:15]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

[14:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

[14:15]  ¹² tn Heb “lest.”

[14:15]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[14:15]  ¹⁵ tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

[14:15]  ¹⁶ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

[15:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “said.”

[15:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

[15:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ²¹ 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.

[20:26]  ²² tn Heb “and all the people.”

[20:26]  ²³ tn Heb “went up and came [to].”

[20:26]  ²⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[20:26]  ²⁵ tn Traditionally, “fasted.”

[20:26]  ²⁶ tn Or “peace offerings.”

[13:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “If you detain me.”

[13:16]  ²⁸ tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the Lord. In the preceding narrative the narrator has informed the reader that the visitor is the Lord’s messenger, but Manoah and his wife did not perceive this. In vv. 5 and 7 the angel refers to “God” (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim), not the Lord (יְהוַה, yÿhvah). Manoah’s wife calls the visitor “a man sent from God” and “God’s messenger” (v. 6), while Manoah prays to the “Lord” (אֲדוֹנָי, ’adonay) and calls the visitor “a man sent from God” (v. 8).

[13:23]  ²⁹ tn Heb “our hand.”

[18:27]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Danites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:27]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew adds “with fire.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

[6:28]  ³² tn Heb “look!” The narrator uses this word to invite his audience/readers to view the scene through the eyes of the men.

[15:14]  ³³ tn Heb “rushed on.”

[15:14]  ³⁴ tn Heb “burned with.”

[15:14]  ³⁵ tn Heb “his bonds.”

[15:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “He set fire to the torches.”

[9:49]  ³⁷ tn The words “the branches” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:49]  ³⁸ tn Heb “they kindled over them the stronghold with fire.”

[9:49]  ³⁹ tn Or “men,” but the word seems to have a more general sense here, as the conclusion to the sentence suggests.

[20:48]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”

[20:48]  ⁴¹ tc The translation is based on the reading מֵעִיר מְתִים (me’ir mÿtim, “from a city of men,” i.e., “an inhabited city”), rather than the reading מֵעִיר מְתֹם (me’ir mÿtom, “from a city of soundness”) found in the Leningrad Codex (L).

[20:48]  ⁴² tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”

[20:40]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Benjamin turned after him and, look, the whole city went up toward the sky.”

[6:21]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “extended the tip of the staff which was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread.”

[6:21]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “went from his eyes.”

[9:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

[9:15]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “in my shade.”

[9:15]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “If not.”

[16:9]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).

[16:9]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “are upon you.”

[16:9]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “when it smells fire.”

[16:9]  ⁵² tn Heb “His strength was not known.”

[20:35]  ⁵³ tn Heb “And the sons of Israel struck down in Benjamin that day 25,100 men, all of these wielding the sword.”