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 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he 4  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. 5  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. 6 

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 tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

5 tn The phrase, which refers to Ehud, literally reads “bound/restricted in the right hand,” apparently a Hebrew idiom for a left-handed person. See Judg 20:16, where 700 Benjaminites are described in this way. Perhaps the Benjaminites purposely trained several of their young men to be left-handed warriors by restricting the use of the right hand from an early age so the left hand would become dominant. Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking city gates. See B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon: The First Locked-Room Murder Mystery,” BRev 4 (1988): 35.

6 tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”