Judges 15:5-6

15:5 He lit the torches ¹  and set the jackals loose in the Philistines’ standing grain. He burned up the grain heaps and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. 15:6 The Philistines asked, ²  “Who did this?” They were told, ³  “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite ⁴  took Samson’s ⁵  bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. ⁶ 

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¹ tn Heb “He set fire to the torches.”

² tn Or “said.”

³ tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn 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.