Judges 1:3

1:3 The men of Judah said to their relatives, the men of Simeon, ¹  “Invade our allotted land with us and help us attack the Canaanites. ²  Then we ³  will go with you into your allotted land.” So the men of Simeon went with them.

Judges 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ⁴  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ⁵  If you refuse, ⁶  we will burn up ⁷  you and your father’s family. ⁸  Did you invite us here ⁹  to make us poor?” ¹⁰ 

Judges 15:11

15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.”

Judges 21:22

21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, ¹¹  we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, ¹²  for we could not get each one a wife through battle. ¹³  Don’t worry about breaking your oath! ¹⁴  You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’” ¹⁵ 

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¹ tn Heb “Judah said to Simeon, his brother.”

² tn Heb “Come up with me into our allotted land and let us attack the Canaanites.”

³ tn Heb “I.” The Hebrew pronoun is singular, agreeing with the collective singular “Judah” earlier in the verse. English style requires a plural pronoun here, however.

⁴ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

⁵ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

⁶ tn Heb “lest.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁸ tn Heb “house.”

⁹ tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

¹⁰ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

¹¹ tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

¹² tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹³ tn Heb “for we did not take each his wife in battle.”

sn Through battle. This probably refers to the battle against Jabesh Gilead, which only produced four hundred of the six hundred wives needed.

¹⁴ tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

¹⁵ tc Heb “You did not give to them, now you are guilty.” The MT as it stands makes little sense. It is preferable to emend לֹא (lo’, “not”) to לוּא (lu’, “if”). This particle introduces a purely hypothetical condition, “If you had given to them [but you didn’t].” See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 453-54.