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 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ⁴  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ⁵  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ⁶  and he died.

Judges 6:11

Gideon Meets Some Visitors

6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger ⁷  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ⁸  was threshing ⁹  wheat in a winepress ¹⁰  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ¹¹ 

Judges 6:39

6:39 Gideon said to God, “Please do not get angry at me, when I ask for just one more sign. ¹²  Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make only the fleece dry, while the ground around it is covered with dew.” ¹³ 

Judges 18:17

18:17 The five men who had gone to spy out the land broke in and stole ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵ 

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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 “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

⁵ tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

⁶ tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”

⁷ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

sn The Lord’s angelic messenger is also mentioned in Judg 2:1.

⁸ tn Heb “Now Gideon his son…” The Hebrew circumstantial clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + predicate) breaks the narrative sequence and indicates that the angel’s arrival coincided with Gideon’s threshing.

⁹ tn Heb “beating out.”

¹⁰ sn Threshing wheat in a winepress. One would normally thresh wheat at the threshing floor outside the city. Animals and a threshing sledge would be employed. Because of the Midianite threat, Gideon was forced to thresh with a stick in a winepress inside the city. For further discussion see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.

¹¹ tn Heb “Midian.”

¹² tn Heb “Let your anger not rage at me, so that I might speak only this once.”

¹³ tn Heb “let the fleece alone be dry, while dew is on all the ground.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “went up, went in there, took.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “six hundred men, equipped with the weapons of war.”