Judges 1:17

1:17 The men of Judah went with their brothers the men of Simeon¹ and defeated the Canaanites living in Zephath. They wiped out Zephath.² So people now call the city Hormah.³

Judges 1:19

1:19 The Lord was with the men of Judah. They conquered⁴ the hill country, but they could not⁵ conquer the people living in the coastal plain, because they had chariots with iron-rimmed wheels.⁶

Judges 1:27

1:27 The men of Manasseh did not conquer Beth Shan, Taanach, or their surrounding towns. Nor did they conquer the people living in Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo⁷ or their surrounding towns.⁸ The Canaanites managed⁹ to remain in those areas.¹⁰

Judges 2:2

2:2 but you must not make an agreement with the people who live in this land. You should tear down the altars where they worship.’¹¹ But you have disobeyed me.¹² Why would you do such a thing?¹³

Judges 2:7

2:7 The people worshiped¹⁴ the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and as long as the elderly men¹⁵ who outlived him remained alive. These men had witnessed¹⁶ all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.¹⁷

Judges 2:22

2:22 Joshua left those nations¹⁸ to test¹⁹ Israel. I wanted to see²⁰ whether or not the people²¹ would carefully walk in the path²² marked out by²³ the Lord, as their ancestors²⁴ were careful to do.”

Judges 7:12

7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east covered the valley like a swarm of locusts.²⁵ Their camels could not be counted; they were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore.

Judges 9:7

Jotham’s Parable

9:7 When Jotham heard the news,²⁶ he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim. He spoke loudly to the people below,²⁷ “Listen to me, leaders of Shechem, so that God may listen to you!

Judges 9:43-45

9:43 he took his men²⁸ and divided them into three units and set an ambush in the field. When he saw the people coming out of the city,²⁹ he attacked and struck them down.³⁰ 9:44 Abimelech and his units³¹ attacked and blocked³² the entrance to the city’s gate. Two units then attacked all the people in the field and struck them down. 9:45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed all the people in it. Then he leveled³³ the city and spread salt over it.³⁴

Judges 9:49

9:49 So each of his men also cut off a branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches³⁵ against the stronghold and set fire to it.³⁶ All the people³⁷ of the Tower of Shechem died – about a thousand men and women.

Judges 12:2

12:2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites.³⁸ I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power.³⁹

Judges 16:24

16:24 When the people saw him,⁴⁰ 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!”⁴¹

Judges 18:27

18:27 Now the Danites⁴² 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.⁴³

¹tn Heb “Judah went with Simeon, his brother.”

²tn Heb “it”; the referent (the city of Zephath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³sn The name Hormah (חָרְמָה, khormah) sounds like the Hebrew verb translated “wipe out” (חָרַם, kharam).

⁴tn Or “seized possession of”; or “occupied.”

⁵tc Several textual witnesses support the inclusion of this verb.

⁶tn Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255, and the article by R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.

⁷map For location see Map1-D4; Map2-C1; Map4-C2; Map5-F2; Map7-B1.

⁸tn Heb “The men of Manasseh did not conquer Beth Shan and its surrounding towns, Taanach and its surrounding towns, the people living in Dor and its surrounding towns, the people living in Ibleam and its surrounding towns, or the people living in Megiddo and its surrounding towns.”

⁹tn Or “were determined.”

¹⁰tn Heb “in this land.”

¹¹tn Heb “their altars.”

¹²tn Heb “you have not listened to my voice.”

¹³tn Heb “What is this you have done?”

¹⁴tn Or “served”; or “followed.”

¹⁵tn Or perhaps “elders,” which could be interpreted to mean “leaders.”

¹⁶tn Heb “all the days of Joshua and all the days of the old men who outlived him, who had seen.”

¹⁷tn Heb “the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.”

¹⁸tn The words “Joshua left those nations” are interpretive. The Hebrew text of v. 22 simply begins with “to test.” Some subordinate this phrase to “I will no longer remove” (v. 21). In this case the Lord announces that he has now decided to leave these nations as a test for Israel. Another possibility is to subordinate “to test” to “He said” (v. 20; see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 111). In this case the statement recorded in vv. 20b-21 is the test in that it forces Israel to respond either positively (through repentance) or negatively to the Lord’s declaration. A third possibility (the one reflected in the present translation) is to subordinate “to test” to “left unconquered” (v. 21). In this case the Lord recalls that Joshua left these nations as a test. Israel has failed the test (v. 20), so the Lord announces that the punishment threatened earlier (Josh 23:12-13; see also Judg 2:3) will now be implemented. As B. G. Webb (Judges [JSOTSup], 115) observes, “The nations which were originally left as a test are now left as a punishment.” This view best harmonizes v. 23, which explains that the Lord did not give all the nations to Joshua, with v. 22. (For a grammatical parallel, where the infinitive construct of נָסָה [nasah] is subordinated to the perfect of עָזַב [’azav], see 2 Chr 32:31.)

¹⁹tn The Hebrew text includes the phrase “by them,” but this is somewhat redundant in English and has been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

²⁰tn The words “I [i.e., the Lord] wanted to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

²¹tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²²tn Or “way [of life].”

²³tn “The words “marked out by” are interpretive.

²⁴tn Or “fathers.”

²⁵tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east were falling in the valley like locusts in great number.”

²⁶tn Heb “And they reported to Jotham.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

²⁷tn Heb “He lifted his voice and called and said to them.”

²⁸tn Heb “his people.”

²⁹tn Heb “And he saw and, look, the people were coming out of the city.”

³⁰tn Heb “he arose against them and struck them.”

³¹tn Or possibly, “the unit that was with him.”

³²tn Heb “stood [at].”

³³tn Or “destroyed.”

³⁴tn Heb “sowed it with salt.”

sn The spreading of salt over the city was probably a symbolic act designed to place the site under a curse, deprive it of fertility, and prevent any future habitation. The practice is referred to outside the Bible as well. For example, one of the curses in the Aramaic Sefire treaty states concerning Arpad: “May Hadad sow in them salt and weeds, and may it not be mentioned again!” See J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire (BibOr), 15, 53. Deut 29:23, Jer 17:6, and Zeph 2:9 associate salt flats or salty regions with infertility and divine judgment.

³⁵tn The words “the branches” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

³⁶tn Heb “they kindled over them the stronghold with fire.”

³⁷tn Or “men,” but the word seems to have a more general sense here, as the conclusion to the sentence suggests.

³⁸tn Heb A man of great strife I was and my people and the Ammonites.”

³⁹tn Heb “hand.”

⁴⁰tn 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.

⁴¹tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”

⁴²tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Danites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴³tn The Hebrew adds “with fire.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.