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 2:6

The End of an Era

2:6 When Joshua dismissed ³  the people, the Israelites went to their allotted portions of territory, ⁴  intending to take possession of the land.

Judges 2:9

2:9 The people ⁵  buried him in his allotted land ⁶  in Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Judges 6:5

6:5 When they invaded ⁷  with their cattle and tents, they were as thick ⁸  as locusts. Neither they nor their camels could be counted. ⁹  They came to devour ¹⁰  the land.

Judges 8:28

Gideon’s Story Ends

8:28 The Israelites humiliated Midian; the Midianites’ fighting spirit was broken. ¹¹  The land had rest for forty years during Gideon’s time. ¹² 

Judges 9:37

9:37 Gaal again said, “Look, men are coming down from the very center ¹³  of the land. A unit ¹⁴  is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners.” ¹⁵ 

Judges 11:3

11:3 So Jephthah left ¹⁶  his half-brothers ¹⁷  and lived in the land of Tob. Lawless men joined Jephthah’s gang and traveled with him. ¹⁸ 

Judges 12:15

12:15 Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Judges 18:10

18:10 When you invade, ¹⁹  you will encounter ²⁰  unsuspecting people. The land is wide! ²¹  God is handing it over to you – a place that lacks nothing on earth!” ²² 

Judges 20:1

Civil War Breaks Out

20:1 All the Israelites from Dan to Beer Sheba ²³  and from the land of Gilead ²⁴  left their homes ²⁵  and assembled together ²⁶  before the Lord at Mizpah.

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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 “sent away.”

⁴ tn Heb “the Israelites went each to his inheritance.”

⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “in the territory of his inheritance.”

⁷ tn Heb “came up.”

⁸ tn Heb “numerous.”

⁹ tn Heb “To them and to their camels there was no number.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “destroy.” The translation “devour” carries through the imagery of a locust plague earlier in this verse.

¹¹ tn Heb “Midian was humbled before the Israelites, and they no longer lifted their heads.”

¹² tn Heb “in the days of Gideon.”

¹³ tn Heb “navel.” On the background of the Hebrew expression “the navel of the land,” see R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 178-79.

¹⁴ tn Heb “head.”

¹⁵ tn Some English translations simply transliterated this as a place name (Heb “Elon-meonenim”); cf. NAB, NRSV.

¹⁶ tn Or “fled from.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “brothers.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “Empty men joined themselves to Jephthah and went out with him.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “When you enter.”

²⁰ tn Heb “you will come to.”

²¹ tn Heb “broad of hands,” an idiom meaning “wide on both sides.”

²² tn Heb “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

²³ sn Dan was located in the far north of the country, while Beer Sheba was located in the far south. This encompassed all the territory of the land of Canaan occupied by the Israelites.

²⁴ sn The land of Gilead was on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

²⁵ tn Heb “went out.”

²⁶ tn Heb “and the assembly was convened as one man.”