Judges 1:32

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

Judges 2:4

2:4 When the Lord’s messenger finished speaking these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly. ¹ 

Judges 5:2

5:2 “When the leaders took the lead ²  in Israel,

When the people answered the call to war –

Praise the Lord!

Judges 5:13

5:13 Then the survivors ³  came down ⁴  to the mighty ones; ⁵ 

the Lord’s people came down to me ⁶  as ⁷  warriors.

Judges 6:3

6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, ⁸  the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east would attack them. ⁹ 

Judges 21:2

21:2 So the people came to Bethel ¹⁰  and sat there before God until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably. ¹¹ 

---

¹ tn Heb “lifted their voices and wept.”

² tn The meaning of the Hebrew expression בִּפְרֹעַ פְּרָעוֹת (bifroa’ pÿra’ot) is uncertain. Numerous proposals are offered by commentators. (For a survey of opinions, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 223-27.) The next line refers to the people who responded to Barak’s summons to war, so a reference to the leaders who issued the summons would provide a natural poetic parallel. In v. 9 the leaders (חוֹקְקֵי, khoqÿqey) of the people and these same volunteers stand in poetic parallelism, so it is reasonable to assume that the difficult Hebrew term פְּרַעוֹת (pÿra’ot, v. 2a) is synonymous with חוֹקְקֵי (khoqÿqey) of v. 9 (see Lindars, 227).

³ tn This probably refers to those who responded to the call for war. They were “survivors” of the Canaanite oppression (see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 250).

⁴ tn The translation assumes a repointing of the verb as a perfect or imperfect/preterite form of יָרַד (yarad, “to go down”). The form as pointed in the MT appears to be from רָדָה (radah, “to rule”). See GKC 188 §69.g. The same form, translated “came down,” occurs in the next line as well.

⁵ sn The expression mighty ones probably refers to the leaders of the army.

⁶ sn The speaker may be Deborah here.

⁷ tn The translation assumes the preposition ב (bet) prefixed to “warriors” has the force of “in the capacity of.” For this use of the preposition, see GKC 379 §119.i.

⁸ tn Heb “Whenever Israel sowed seed.”

⁹ 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).

¹⁰ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

¹¹ tn Heb “and they lifted up their voice[s] and wept with great weeping.” Both the cognate accusative בְּכִי (bekhi, “weeping”) and the attributive adjective גָדוֹל (gadol, “great”) emphasize their degree of sorrow.