Judges 2:7

2:7 The people worshiped ¹  the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and as long as the elderly men ²  who outlived him remained alive. These men had witnessed ³  all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. ⁴ 

Judges 2:18

2:18 When the Lord raised up leaders for them, the Lord was with each leader and delivered the people ⁵  from their enemies while the leader remained alive. The Lord felt sorry for them ⁶  when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them. ⁷ 

Judges 3:15

3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he ⁸  raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. ⁹  The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. ¹⁰ 

Judges 5:11

5:11 Hear ¹¹  the sound of those who divide the sheep ¹²  among the watering places;

there they tell of ¹³  the Lord’s victorious deeds,

the victorious deeds of his warriors ¹⁴  in Israel.

Then the Lord’s people went down to the city gates –

Judges 6:21

6:21 The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. ¹⁵  Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared. ¹⁶ 

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-brother ¹⁷  who murdered them, might have to pay for their spilled blood, along with the leaders of Shechem who helped him murder them. ¹⁸ 

Judges 11:36

11:36 She said to him, “My father, since ¹⁹  you made an oath to the Lord, do to me as you promised. ²⁰  After all, the Lord vindicated you before ²¹  your enemies, the Ammonites.”

Judges 17:3

17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate ²²  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.” ²³ 

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¹ tn Or “served”; or “followed.”

² tn Or perhaps “elders,” which could be interpreted to mean “leaders.”

³ tn Heb “all the days of Joshua and all the days of the old men who outlived him, who had seen.”

⁴ tn Heb “the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.”

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

⁶ tn The phrase “for them” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” This has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”

¹¹ tn The word “Hear” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

¹² tn The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain. Some translate “those who distribute the water” (HALOT 344 s.v. חצץ pi). For other options see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 246-47.

¹³ tn Or perhaps “repeat.”

¹⁴ tn See the note on the term “warriors” in v. 7.

¹⁵ tn Heb “extended the tip of the staff which was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “went from his eyes.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “their brother.”

¹⁸ tn 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.”

¹⁹ tn The conjunction “since” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

²⁰ tn Heb “you opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to [what] went out from your mouth.”

²¹ tn Or “has given you vengeance against.”

²² tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

²³ 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.