Judges 1:2

1:2 The Lord said, “The men of Judah should take the lead. ¹  Be sure of this! I am handing the land over to them.” ² 

Judges 1:4

1:4 The men of Judah attacked, ³  and the Lord handed the Canaanites and Perizzites over to them. They killed ten thousand men at Bezek.

Judges 1:8-10

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

1:9 Later the men of Judah went down to attack the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev, and the lowlands. ⁴  1:10 The men of Judah attacked the Canaanites living in Hebron. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba.) They killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

Judges 17:9

17:9 Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” He replied, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a new place to live.” ⁵ 

Judges 18:12

18:12 They went up and camped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. (To this day that place is called Camp of Dan. ⁶  It is west ⁷  of Kiriath Jearim.)

Judges 19:2

19:2 However, she ⁸  got angry at him ⁹  and went home ¹⁰  to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. When she had been there four months,

Judges 20:18

20:18 The Israelites went up to Bethel ¹¹  and asked God, ¹²  “Who should lead the charge against the Benjaminites?” ¹³  The Lord said, “Judah should lead.”

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¹ tn Heb “Judah should go up.”

² tn The Hebrew exclamation הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally, “Behold”), translated “Be sure of this,” draws attention to the following statement. The verb form in the following statement (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.”

³ tn Heb “Judah went up.”

⁴ tn Or “foothills”; Heb “the Shephelah.”

⁵ tn Heb “And I am going to reside in a place I can find.”

⁶ 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.”

⁷ tn Heb “behind.”

⁸ tn Heb “and his concubine.” The pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Or “was unfaithful to him.” Many have understood the Hebrew verb וַתִּזְנֶה (vattizneh) as being from זָנָה (zanah, “to be a prostitute”), but it may be derived from a root meaning “to be angry; to hate” attested in Akkadian (see HALOT 275 s.v. II זנה).

¹⁰ tn Heb “went from him.”

¹¹ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

¹² tn Heb “They arose and went up to Bethel and asked God, and the Israelites said.”

¹³ tn Heb “Who should go up for us first for battle against the sons of Benjamin?”