1:14 One time Acsah 1 came and charmed her father 2 so she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What would you like?” 1:15 She answered, “Please give me a special present. 3 Since you have given me land in the Negev, now give me springs of water.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs. 4
1:17 The men of Judah went with their brothers the men of Simeon 5 and defeated the Canaanites living in Zephath. They wiped out Zephath. 6 So people now call the city Hormah. 7
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. 8
5:28 Through the window she looked;
Sisera’s mother cried out through the lattice:
‘Why is his chariot so slow to return?
Why are the hoofbeats of his chariot-horses 11 delayed?’
9:7 When Jotham heard the news, 17 he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim. He spoke loudly to the people below, 18 “Listen to me, leaders of Shechem, so that God may listen to you!
13:8 Manoah prayed to the Lord, 23 “Please, Lord, allow the man sent from God 24 to visit 25 us again, so he can teach 26 us how we should raise 27 the child who will be born.”
15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant 42 this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” 43
16:15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me? 44 Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.”
20:26 So all the Israelites, the whole army, 61 went up to 62 Bethel. 63 They wept and sat there before the Lord; they did not eat anything 64 that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace 65 to the Lord.
1 tn Heb “she”; the referent (Acsah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “him.” The pronoun could refer to Othniel, in which case one would translate, “she incited him [Othniel] to ask her father for a field.” This is problematic, however, for Acsah, not Othniel, makes the request in v. 15. The LXX has “he [Othniel] urged her to ask her father for a field.” This appears to be an attempt to reconcile the apparent inconsistency and probably does not reflect the original text. If Caleb is understood as the referent of the pronoun, the problem disappears. For a fuller discussion of the issue, see P. G. Mosca, “Who Seduced Whom? A Note on Joshua 15:18 // Judges 1:14,” CBQ 46 (1984): 18-22. The translation takes Caleb to be the referent, specified as “her father.”
3 tn Elsewhere the Hebrew word בְרָכָה (vÿrakhah) is often translated “blessing,” but here it refers to a gift (as in Gen 33:11; 1 Sam 25:27; 30:26; and 2 Kgs 5:15).
4 tn Some translations regard the expressions “springs of water” (גֻּלֹּת מָיִם, gullot mayim) and “springs” (גֻּלֹּת) as place names here (cf. NRSV).
5 tn Heb “Judah went with Simeon, his brother.”
6 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the city of Zephath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 sn The name Hormah (חָרְמָה, khormah) sounds like the Hebrew verb translated “wipe out” (חָרַם, kharam).
8 tn Heb “did not know the wars of Canaan.”
9 tn Heb “Turn aside” (also a second time later in this verse).
10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Sisera) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “chariots.”
12 tn Heb “and let him die.” The jussive form with vav after the imperative is best translated as a purpose clause.
13 tn Heb “the people.”
14 tn Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”
15 tn Heb “your hands will be strengthened.”
16 tn Heb “to the edge of the ones in battle array who were in the camp.”
17 tn Heb “And they reported to Jotham.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.
18 tn Heb “He lifted his voice and called and said to them.”
19 tn Heb “Should I stop my wine, which makes happy gods and men, and go to sway over the trees?” The negative sentence in the translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question.
20 tn The words “the branches” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
21 tn Heb “they kindled over them the stronghold with fire.”
22 tn Or “men,” but the word seems to have a more general sense here, as the conclusion to the sentence suggests.
23 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
24 tn Heb “the man of God.”
25 tn Heb “come to.”
26 tc The LXX has “enlighten,” understanding the Hebrew to read וִיאִירֵנוּ (vi’irenu, “to give light”) rather than the reading of the MT, וְיוֹרֵנוּ (vÿyorenu, “to teach”).
27 tn Heb “what we should do for.”
28 tn Heb “came to.”
29 tn Heb “the woman.”
30 tn Heb “I [am].”
31 tn Heb “on him.”
32 tn Heb “the seven days [during] which they held the party.” This does not mean she cried for the entire seven days; v. 15 indicates otherwise. She cried for the remainder of the seven day period, beginning on the fourth day.
33 tn Heb “because she forced him.”
34 tn Heb “she told the riddle to the sons of her people.”
35 tn Heb “saying, I said.” The first person form of אָמַר (’amar, “to say”) sometimes indicates self-reflection. The girl’s father uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
36 tn Heb “hating, you hated.” Once again the girl’s father uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
37 tn Heb “Is her younger sister not better than her? Let her [i.e., the younger sister] be yours instead of her [i.e., Samson’s ‘bride’]).”
38 tn Or “come up against.”
39 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
40 tn Or “swear to me.”
41 tn Heb “meet [with hostility]”; “harm.” In light of v. 13, “kill” is an appropriate translation.
42 tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”
43 tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.
44 tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”
45 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.
46 tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”
47 tn The Hebrew has אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה (’adonay yehovih, “Lord Yahweh”).
48 tn Heb “so I can get revenge with one act of vengeance.”
49 tn Or “When they were near.”
50 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).
51 tn Heb “turned aside.”
52 tn Heb “What [is there] to you here?”
53 tn Heb “And they sat and ate, the two of them together, and they drank.”
54 tn Heb “Be willing and spend the night so that your heart might be good.”
55 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
56 tn Heb “and he caused [her] to go outside to them.”
57 tn Heb “knew,” in the sexual sense.
58 tn Heb “arose against me and surrounded against me the house at night.”
59 tn Heb “the men, sons of wickedness.”
60 tn Heb “and burn away wickedness from Israel.”
61 tn Heb “and all the people.”
62 tn Heb “went up and came [to].”
63 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
64 tn Traditionally, “fasted.”
65 tn Or “peace offerings.”
66 tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”
67 tn Heb “there.”
68 tn Heb “the edge of the sword.”
69 tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”
70 tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”
71 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.