Judges 1:33

1:33 The men of Naphtali did not conquer the people living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath.¹ They live among the Canaanites residing in the land. The Canaanites² living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were forced to do hard labor for them.

Judges 2:18

2:18 When the Lord raised up leaders for them, the Lord was with each leader and delivered the people³ from their enemies while the leader remained alive. The Lord felt sorry for them⁴ when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them.⁵

Judges 3:25

3:25 They waited so long they were embarrassed, but he still did not open the doors of the upper room. Finally they took the key and opened the doors.⁶ Right before their eyes was their master, sprawled out dead on the floor!⁷

Judges 5:23

5:23 ‘Call judgment down on⁸ Meroz,’ says the Lord’s angelic⁹ messenger;

‘Be sure¹⁰ to call judgment down on¹¹ those who live there,

because they did not come to help in the Lord’s battle,¹²

to help in the Lord’s battle against the warriors.’¹³

Judges 6:13

6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me,¹⁴ but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster¹⁵ overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said,¹⁶ ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Judges 6:27

6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants¹⁷ and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family¹⁸ and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime.¹⁹

Judges 9:24

9:24 He did this so the violent deaths of Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons might be avenged and Abimelech, their half-brother²⁰ who murdered them, might have to pay for their spilled blood, along with the leaders of Shechem who helped him murder them.²¹

Judges 11:18

11:18 Then Israel²² went through the desert and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They traveled east of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon River;²³ they did not go through Moabite territory (the Arnon was Moab’s border).

Judges 13:16

13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay,²⁴ I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.)²⁵

Judges 14:9

14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned²⁶ to his father and mother, he offered them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of the lion’s carcass.²⁷

Judges 14:15

14:15 On the fourth²⁸ day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle.²⁹ If you refuse,³⁰ we will burn up³¹ you and your father’s family.³² Did you invite us here³³ to make us poor?”³⁴

Judges 15:6

15:6 The Philistines asked,³⁵ “Who did this?” They were told,³⁶ “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite³⁷ took Samson’s³⁸ bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father.³⁹

Judges 18:1

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 place⁴⁰ to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel.⁴¹

¹tn Heb “the people living in Beth Shemesh or the people living in Beth Anath.”

²tn The term “Canaanites” is supplied here both for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

³tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴tn The phrase “for them” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁵tn Heb “the ones oppressing them and afflicting them.” The synonyms “oppressing” and “afflicting” are joined together in the translation as “harsh oppressors” to emphasize the cruel character of their enemies.

⁶tn The words “the doors” are supplied.

⁷tn Heb “See, their master, fallen to the ground, dead.”

⁸tn Heb “Curse Meroz.”

⁹tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

¹⁰tn Heb “Curse, cursing.” The Hebrew construction is emphatic.

¹¹tn Heb “[to] curse.”

¹²tn Heb “to the help of the Lord” (the same Hebrew phrase occurs in the following line). Another option is to read “to aid the Lord’s cause.”

¹³tn Or “along with the other warriors.”

¹⁴tn Heb “But my lord.”

¹⁵tn Heb “all this.”

¹⁶tn Heb “saying.”

¹⁷tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

¹⁸tn Heb “house.”

¹⁹tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

²⁰tn Heb “their brother.”

²¹tn Heb “so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerub-Baal might come, and their blood might be placed on Abimelech, their brother, who murdered them, and upon the leaders of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to murder his brothers.”

²²tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel; the pronoun in the Hebrew text represents a collective singular) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²³tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

²⁴tn Heb “If you detain me.”

²⁵tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the Lord. In the preceding narrative the narrator has informed the reader that the visitor is the Lord’s messenger, but Manoah and his wife did not perceive this. In vv. 5 and 7 the angel refers to “God” (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim), not the Lord (יְהוַה, yÿhvah). Manoah’s wife calls the visitor “a man sent from God” and “God’s messenger” (v. 6), while Manoah prays to the “Lord” (אֲדוֹנָי, ’adonay) and calls the visitor “a man sent from God” (v. 8).

²⁶tn Heb “went.” Samson apparently went home to his parents before going to Timnah for the marriage. Seeing and tasting the honey appears to encourage Manoah to go with his son to Timnah. Perhaps both Samson and his father viewed the honey as a good omen of future blessing. Possibly Samson considered it a symbol of sexual pleasure or an aphrodisiac. Note the use of honey imagery in Song 4:11 and 5:1.

²⁷sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.

²⁸tc 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.

²⁹tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

³⁰tn Heb “lest.”

³¹tn 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.

³²tn Heb “house.”

³³tc 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.

³⁴tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

³⁵tn Or “said.”

³⁶tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

³⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁸tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁹tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.

⁴⁰tn Heb “an inheritance.”

⁴¹tn Heb “because there had not fallen to them by that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel an inheritance.”