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 2:16

2:16 The Lord raised up leaders ³  who delivered them from these robbers. ⁴ 

Judges 5:2

5:2 “When the leaders took the lead ⁵  in Israel,

When the people answered the call to war –

Praise the Lord!

Judges 6:6

6:6 Israel was so severely weakened by Midian that the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.

Judges 6:16

6:16 The Lord said to him, “Ah, but ⁶  I will be with you! You will strike down the whole Midianite army.” ⁷ 

Judges 6:23

6:23 The Lord said to him, “You are safe! ⁸  Do not be afraid! You are not going to die!”

Judges 8:34

8:34 The Israelites did not remain true ⁹  to the Lord their God, who had delivered them from all the enemies who lived around them.

Judges 10:11

10:11 The Lord said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you from Egypt, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines,

Judges 11:30

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

Judges 11:32

11:32 Jephthah approached ¹⁰  the Ammonites to fight with them, and the Lord handed them over to him.

Judges 13:24

13:24 Manoah’s wife ¹¹  gave birth to a son and named him Samson. ¹²  The child grew and the Lord empowered ¹³  him.

Judges 21:15

21:15 The people regretted what had happened to ¹⁴  Benjamin because the Lord had weakened ¹⁵  the Israelite tribes.

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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 Or more traditionally, “judges” (also in vv. 17, 18 [3x], 19). Since these figures carried out more than a judicial function, also serving as rulers and (in several instances) as military commanders, the translation uses the term “leaders.”

⁴ tn Heb “and they delivered them from the hand of the ones robbing them.”

⁵ tn The meaning of the Hebrew expression בִּפְרֹעַ פְּרָעוֹת (bifroa’ pÿra’ot) is uncertain. Numerous proposals are offered by commentators. (For a survey of opinions, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 223-27.) The next line refers to the people who responded to Barak’s summons to war, so a reference to the leaders who issued the summons would provide a natural poetic parallel. In v. 9 the leaders (חוֹקְקֵי, khoqÿqey) of the people and these same volunteers stand in poetic parallelism, so it is reasonable to assume that the difficult Hebrew term פְּרַעוֹת (pÿra’ot, v. 2a) is synonymous with חוֹקְקֵי (khoqÿqey) of v. 9 (see Lindars, 227).

⁶ tn Or “certainly.”

⁷ tn Heb “You will strike down Midian as one man.” The idiom “as one man” emphasizes the collective unity of a group (see Judg 20:8, 11). Here it may carry the force, “as if they were just one man.”

⁸ tn Heb “Peace to you.” For a similar use of this idiom to introduce a reassuring word, see Gen 43:23.

⁹ tn Heb “remember.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “passed over to.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the woman.” For clarity this has been specified in the translation as “Manoah’s wife.”

¹² tn The name appears to mean “sun-like” or “solar.”

¹³ tn Traditionally, “blessed.”

¹⁴ tn Or “felt sorry for.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “had made a gaping hole in.” The narrator uses imagery that compares Israel to a wall that has been breached.