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 we³ 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, he⁴ 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

Judges 8:21

8:21 Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon,⁷ “Come on,⁸ you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength.”⁹ So Gideon killed¹⁰ Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.

Judges 16:18

16:18 When Delilah saw that he had told her his secret,¹¹ she sent for¹² the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up here again, for he has told me¹³ his secret.”¹⁴ So the rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her, bringing the silver in their hands.

Judges 18:1-2

The Tribe of Dan Finds an Inheritance

18:1 In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place¹⁵ to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel.¹⁶ 18:2 The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives,¹⁷ capable men¹⁸ from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house.¹⁹

Judges 18:14

18:14 The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish²⁰ said to their kinsmen,²¹ “Do you realize that inside these houses are an ephod, some personal idols, a carved image, and a metal image? Decide now what you want to do.”

Judges 19:18

19:18 The Levite²² said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem²³ in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home.²⁴ But no one has invited me into their home.

Judges 20:31

20:31 The Benjaminites attacked²⁵ the army, leaving the city unguarded.²⁶ They began to strike down their enemy²⁷ just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel,²⁸ the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down²⁹ about thirty Israelites.

Judges 20:45

20:45 The rest³⁰ turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites³¹ caught³² five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels³³ all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

Judges 21:22

21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us,³⁴ we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be,³⁵ for we could not get each one a wife through battle.³⁶ Don’t worry about breaking your oath!³⁷ You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’”³⁸

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

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

³tn 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.

⁴tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁵tn 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.

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

⁷tn The words “to Gideon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁸tn Or “Arise.”

⁹tn Heb “for as the man is his strength.”

¹⁰tn Heb “arose and killed.”

¹¹tn Heb “all his heart.”

¹²tn Heb “she sent and summoned.”

¹³tc The translation follows the Qere, לִי (li, “to me”) rather than the Kethib, לָהּ (lah, “to her”).

¹⁴tn Heb “all his heart.”

¹⁵tn Heb “an inheritance.”

¹⁶tn Heb “because there had not fallen to them by that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel an inheritance.”

¹⁷tn Heb “The Danites sent from their tribe five men, from their borders.”

¹⁸tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”

¹⁹tn Heb “They came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, and spent the night there.”

²⁰tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX lacks the phrase “of Laish.”

²¹tn Heb “brothers.”

²²tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²³map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

²⁴tn Heb “I went to Bethlehem in Judah, but [to] the house of the LORD I am going.” The Hebrew text has “house of the LORD,” which might refer to the shrine at Shiloh. The LXX reads “to my house.”

²⁵tn Heb “went out to meet.”

²⁶tn Heb “and they were drawn away from the city.”

²⁷tn Heb “from the army wounded ones.”

²⁸map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

²⁹tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

³⁰tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³¹tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³²tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.

³³tn Heb “stuck close after them.”

³⁴tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

³⁵tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

³⁶tn 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.

³⁷tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

³⁸tc 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.