Judges 2:18

2:18 When the Lord raised up leaders for them, the Lord was with each leader and delivered the people ¹  from their enemies while the leader remained alive. The Lord felt sorry for them ²  when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them. ³ 

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ⁴  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 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. ⁷  Right before their eyes was their master, sprawled out dead on the floor! ⁸ 

Judges 14:9

14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned ⁹  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. ¹⁰ 

Judges 15:19

15:19 So God split open the basin ¹¹  at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength ¹²  was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring ¹³  En Hakkore. ¹⁴  It remains in Lehi to this very day.

Judges 16:5

16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate ¹⁵  him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

Judges 18:14

18:14 The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish ¹⁶  said to their kinsmen, ¹⁷  “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 18:17

18:17 The five men who had gone to spy out the land broke in and stole ¹⁸  the carved image, the ephod, the personal idols, and the metal image, while the priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men. ¹⁹ 

Judges 19:22

19:22 They were having a good time, ²⁰  when suddenly ²¹  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ²²  surrounded the house and kept beating ²³  on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.” ²⁴ 

Judges 19:27

19:27 When her master ²⁵  got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went outside to start on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, sprawled out on the doorstep of the house with her hands on the threshold.

Judges 20:28

20:28 Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving the Lord ²⁶  in those days), “Should we ²⁷  once more march out to fight the Benjaminites our brothers, ²⁸  or should we ²⁹  quit?” The Lord said, “Attack, for tomorrow I will hand them ³⁰  over to you.”

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¹ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn The phrase “for them” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn 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.

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

⁵ tn 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.

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

⁷ tn The words “the doors” are supplied.

⁸ tn Heb “See, their master, fallen to the ground, dead.”

⁹ tn 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.

¹⁰ sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.

¹¹ tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.

¹² tn Heb “spirit.”

¹³ tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”

¹⁶ tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX lacks the phrase “of Laish.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “brothers.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “went up, went in there, took.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “six hundred men, equipped with the weapons of war.”

²⁰ tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”

²¹ tn Heb “and look.”

²² tn Heb “the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.” The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.

²³ tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.

²⁴ tn Heb “so we can know him.” On the surface one might think they simply wanted to meet the visitor and get to know him, but their hostile actions betray their double-talk. The old man, who has been living with them long enough to know what they are like, seems to have no doubts about the meaning of their words (see v. 23).

²⁵ tn The Hebrew term here translated “master,” is plural. The plural indicates degree here and emphasizes the Levite’s absolute sovereignty over the woman.

²⁶ tn Heb “standing before him.”

²⁷ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

²⁸ tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

²⁹ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

³⁰ tn Heb “him” (collective singular).