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 2:23

2:23 This is why ⁴  the Lord permitted these nations to remain and did not conquer them immediately; ⁵  he did not hand them over to Joshua.

Judges 4:2

4:2 The Lord turned them over to ⁶  King Jabin of Canaan, who ruled in Hazor. ⁷  The general of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. ⁸ 

Judges 6:1

Oppression and Confrontation

6:1 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, ⁹  so the Lord turned them over to ¹⁰  Midian for seven years.

Judges 7:2

7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. ¹¹  Israel might brag, ¹²  ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’ ¹³ 

Judges 8:3-4

8:3 It was to you that God handed over the Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb! What did I accomplish to rival that?” ¹⁴  When he said this, they calmed down. ¹⁵ 

Gideon Tracks Down the Midianite Kings

8:4 Now Gideon and his three hundred men had crossed over the Jordan River, and even though they were exhausted, they were still chasing the Midianites. ¹⁶ 

Judges 8:7

8:7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help, ¹⁷  after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh ¹⁸  your skin ¹⁹  with ²⁰  desert thorns and briers.”

Judges 8:22

Gideon Rejects a Crown but Makes an Ephod

8:22 The men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us – you, your son, and your grandson. For you have delivered us from Midian’s power.” ²¹ 

Judges 13:1

Samson’s Birth

13:1 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight, ²²  so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

Judges 18:10

18:10 When you invade, ²³  you will encounter ²⁴  unsuspecting people. The land is wide! ²⁵  God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” ²⁶ 

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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 The words “this is why” are interpretive.

⁵ tn Or “quickly.”

⁶ tn Heb “the Lord sold them into the hands of.”

⁷ tn Or “King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite ruler.”

map For location see Map1-D2; Map2-D3; Map3-A2; Map4-C1.

⁸ tn Or “Harosheth of the Pagan Nations”; cf. KJV “Harosheth of the Gentiles.”

⁹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “gave them into the hand of.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”

¹² tn Heb “might glorify itself against me.”

¹³ tn Heb “my hand has delivered me.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “What was I able to do compared to you?”

¹⁵ tn Heb “Then their spirits relaxed from against him, when he spoke this word.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “And Gideon arrived at the Jordan, crossing over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, exhausted and chasing.” The English past perfect (“had crossed”) is used because this verse flashes back chronologically to an event that preceded the hostile encounter described in vv. 1-3. (Note that 7:25 assumes Gideon had already crossed the Jordan.)

¹⁷ tn Heb “Therefore.”

¹⁸ sn I will thresh. The metaphor is agricultural. Threshing was usually done on a hard threshing floor. As farm animals walked over the stalks, pulling behind them a board embedded with sharp stones, the stalks and grain would be separated. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63-65. Gideon threatens to use thorns and briers on his sledge.

¹⁹ tn Or “flesh.”

²⁰ tn This is apparently a rare instrumental use of the Hebrew preposition אֵת (’et, note the use of ב [bet] in v. 16). Some, however, argue that אֵת more naturally indicates accompaniment (“together with”). In this case Gideon envisions threshing their skin along with thorns and briers, just as the stalks and grain are intermingled on the threshing floor. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 229-30.

²¹ tn Heb “hand.”

²² tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

²³ tn Heb “When you enter.”

²⁴ tn Heb “you will come to.”

²⁵ tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”

²⁶ tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”