Judges 1:28-29

1:28 Whenever Israel was strong militarily, they forced the Canaanites to do hard labor, but they never totally conquered them.

1:29 The men of Ephraim did not conquer the Canaanites living in Gezer. The Canaanites lived among them in Gezer.

Judges 1:32

1:32 The people of Asher live among the Canaanites residing in the land because they did not conquer them.

Judges 2:21

2:21 So I will no longer remove before them any of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.

Judges 3:23

3:23 As Ehud went out into the vestibule, ¹  he closed the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

Judges 6:3

6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, ²  the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east would attack them. ³ 

Judges 10:14

10:14 Go and cry for help to the gods you have chosen! Let them deliver you from trouble!” ⁴ 

Judges 15:7

15:7 Samson said to them, “Because you did this, ⁵  I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” ⁶ 

Judges 18:4

18:4 He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, ⁷  “He hired me and I became his priest.”

Judges 18:6

18:6 The priest said to them, “Go with confidence. ⁸  The Lord will be with you on your mission.” ⁹ 

Judges 18:8

18:8 When the Danites returned to their tribe ¹⁰  in Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen ¹¹  asked them, “How did it go?” ¹² 

Judges 20:25

20:25 The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers. ¹³ 

Judges 20:46

20:46 That day twenty-five thousand ¹⁴  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ¹⁵ 

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¹ tn Again the precise meaning of the Hebrew word, used only here in the OT, is uncertain. Since it is preceded by the verb “went out” and the next clause refers to Ehud closing doors, the noun is probably an architectural term referring to the room (perhaps a vestibule; see HALOT 604 s.v. מִסְדְּרוֹן) immediately outside the king’s upper chamber. As v. 24 indicates, this vestibule separated the upper room from an outer room where the king's servants were waiting.

² tn Heb “Whenever Israel sowed seed.”

³ tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east would go up, they would go up against him.” The translation assumes that וְעָלוּ (vÿ’alu) is dittographic (note the following עָלָיו, ’alayv).

⁴ tn Heb “in your time of trouble.”

⁵ tn The Niphal of נָקָם (naqam, “to avenge, to take vengeance”) followed by the preposition ב (bet) has the force “to get revenge against.” See 1 Sam 18:25; Jer 50:15; Ezek 25:12.

⁶ tn Heb “and afterward I will stop.”

⁷ tn Heb “He said to them, ‘Such and such Micah has done for me.’” Though the statement is introduced and presented, at least in part, as a direct quotation (note especially “for me”), the phrase “such and such” appears to be the narrator’s condensed version of what the Levite really said.

⁸ tn Heb “in peace.”

⁹ tn Heb “In front of the LORD is your way in which you are going.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “They came to their brothers.”

¹¹ tn Heb “brothers.”

¹² tn Heb “What you?”

¹³ tn Heb “And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah the second day, and they struck down among the sons of Israel eighteen thousand men to the ground, all of these were wielding the sword.”

¹⁴ sn The number given here (twenty-five thousand sword-wielding Benjaminites) is an approximate figure; v. 35 gives the more exact number (25,100). According to v. 15, the Benjaminite army numbered 26,700 (26,000 + 700). The figures in vv. 35 (rounded in vv. 44-46) and 47 add up to 25,700. What happened to the other 1,000 men? The most reasonable explanation is that they were killed during the first two days of fighting. G. F. Moore (Judges [ICC], 429) and C. F. Burney (Judges, 475) reject this proposal, arguing that the narrator is too precise and concerned about details to omit such a fact. However, the account of the first two days’ fighting emphasizes Israel’s humiliating defeat. To speak of Benjaminite casualties would diminish the literary effect. In vv. 35, 44-47 the narrator’s emphasis is the devastating defeat that Benjamin experienced on this final day of battle. To mention the earlier days’ casualties at this point is irrelevant to his literary purpose. He allows readers who happen to be concerned with such details to draw conclusions for themselves.

¹⁵ tn Heb “So all the ones who fell from Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men, wielding the sword, in that day, all of these men of strength.