Judges 2:1

Confrontation and Repentance at Bokim

2:1 The Lord’s angelic messenger ¹  went up from Gilgal to Bokim. He said, “I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land I had solemnly promised to give to your ancestors. ²  I said, ‘I will never break my agreement ³  with you,

Judges 9:18

9:18 But you have attacked ⁴  my father’s family ⁵  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate ⁶  sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative. ⁷ 

Judges 11:13

11:13 The Ammonite king said to Jephthah’s messengers, “Because Israel stole ⁸  my land when they ⁹  came up from Egypt – from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north, and as far west as the Jordan. ¹⁰  Now return it ¹¹  peaceably!”

Judges 14:16

14:16 So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder ¹²  and said, “You must ¹³  hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men ¹⁴  a riddle, but you have not told me the solution.” He said to her, “Look, I have not even told my father or mother. Do you really expect me to tell you?” ¹⁵ 

Judges 15:1

Samson Versus the Philistines

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ¹⁶  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ¹⁷  He said to her father, ¹⁸  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ¹⁹  But her father would not let him enter.

Judges 16:13

16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair ²⁰  into the fabric on the loom ²¹  and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 17:2-3

17:2 He said to his mother, “You know ²²  the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen ²³  from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole ²⁴  it, but now I am giving it back to you.” ²⁵  His mother said, “May the Lord reward ²⁶  you, my son!” 17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate ²⁷  this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.” ²⁸ 

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¹ sn See Exod 14:19; 23:20.

² tn Heb “the land that I had sworn to your fathers.”

³ tn Or “covenant” (also in the following verse).

⁴ tn Heb “have risen up against.”

⁵ tn Heb “house.”

⁶ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁷ tn Heb “your brother.”

⁸ tn Or “took”; or “seized.”

⁹ tn Heb “he” (a collective singular).

¹⁰ tn Heb “from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan.” The word “River” has been supplied in the translation with “Arnon” and “Jabbok,” because these are less familiar to modern readers than the Jordan.

¹¹ tc The translation assumes a singular suffix (“[return] it”); the Hebrew text has a plural suffix (“[return] them”), which, if retained, might refer to the cities of the land.

¹² tn Heb “on him.”

¹³ tn Heb “only”; or “simply.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “the sons of my people.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “Should I tell you?”

¹⁶ sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

¹⁷ tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”

¹⁸ tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).

¹⁹ tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).

²⁰ tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.

²¹ tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.

²² tn The words “You know” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

²³ tn Heb “taken.”

²⁴ tn Heb “took.”

²⁵ tn In the Hebrew text the statement, “but now I am giving it back to you,” appears at the end of v. 3 and is spoken by the mother. But v. 4 indicates that she did not give the money back to her son. Unless the statement is spoken by the woman to the LORD, it appears to be misplaced and fits much better in v. 2. It may have been accidentally omitted from a manuscript, written in the margin, and then later inserted in the wrong place in another manuscript.

²⁶ tn Traditionally, “bless.”

²⁷ tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

²⁸ tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.