Judges 3:12

Deceit, Assassination, and Deliverance

3:12 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight.¹ The Lord gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel² because they had done evil in the Lord’s sight.

Judges 4:5

4:5 She would sit³ under the Date Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel⁴ in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would come up to her to have their disputes settled.⁵

Judges 6:4

6:4 They invaded the land⁶ and devoured⁷ its crops⁸ all the way to Gaza. They left nothing for the Israelites to eat,⁹ and they took away¹⁰ the sheep, oxen, and donkeys.

Judges 6:8

6:8 he¹¹ sent a prophet¹² to the Israelites. He said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you up from Egypt¹³ and took you out of that place of slavery.¹⁴

Judges 8:27

8:27 Gideon used all this to make¹⁵ an ephod,¹⁶ which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites¹⁷ prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it¹⁸ there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Judges 11:33

11:33 He defeated them from Aroer all the way to Minnith – twenty cities in all, even as far as Abel Keramim! He wiped them out!¹⁹ The Israelites humiliated the Ammonites.²⁰

Judges 19:30

19:30 Everyone who saw the sight²¹ said, “Nothing like this has happened or been witnessed during the entire time since²² the Israelites left the land of Egypt!²³ Take careful note of it! Discuss it and speak!”

Judges 20:23

20:23 The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we²⁴ again march out to fight²⁵ the Benjaminites, our brothers?”²⁶ The Lord said, “Attack them!”²⁷

Judges 20:26

20:26 So all the Israelites, the whole army,²⁸ went up to²⁹ Bethel.³⁰ They wept and sat there before the Lord; they did not eat anything³¹ that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace³² to the Lord.

Judges 20:32-33

20:32 Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat³³ and lure them³⁴ away from the city into the main roads.” 20:33 ³⁵ All the men of Israel got up from their places and took their positions at Baal Tamar, while the Israelites hiding in ambush jumped out of their places west of Gibeah.

Judges 20:48

20:48 The Israelites returned to the Benjaminite towns³⁶ and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities,³⁷ the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path.³⁸

Judges 21:5

21:5 The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed.³⁹

¹tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord” (also later in this verse).

²tn Heb “strengthened Eglon…against Israel.”

³tn That is, “consider legal disputes.”

⁴map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

⁵tn Heb “for judgment.”

⁶tn Heb “They encamped against them.”

⁷tn Heb “destroyed.”

⁸tn Heb “the crops of the land.”

⁹tn Heb “They left no sustenance in Israel.”

¹⁰tn The words “they took away” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹¹tn Heb “the Lord”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹²tn Heb “a man, a prophet.” Hebrew idiom sometimes puts a generic term before a more specific designation.

¹³tc Some ancient witnesses read “from the land of Egypt.” מֵאֶרֶץ (me’erets, “from the land [of]”) could have been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton (note the following מִמִּצְרַיִם [mimmitsrayim, “from Egypt”]).

¹⁴tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”

¹⁵tn Heb “made it into.”

¹⁶sn In Exod 28:4-6 and several other texts an ephod is described as a priestly or cultic garment. In some cases an ephod is used to obtain a divine oracle (1 Sam 23:9; 30:7). Here the ephod is made of gold and is described as being quite heavy (70-75 lbs?). Some identify it as an idol, but it was more likely a cultic object fashioned in the form of a garment which was used for oracular purposes. For discussion of the ephod in the OT, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 236-43, and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 349-52.

¹⁷tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).

¹⁸tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹tn Heb “with a very great slaughter.”

²⁰tn Heb “The Ammonites were humbled before the Israelites.”

²¹tn The words “the sight” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

²²tn Heb “from the day.”

²³tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the (original) LXX has the following additional words: “And he instructed the men whom he sent out, ‘Thus you will say to every male Israelite: “There has never been anything like this from the day the Israelites left Egypt till the present day.”’”

²⁴tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

²⁵tn Heb “approach for battle.”

²⁶tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

²⁷tn Heb “Go up against him” (collective singular).

²⁸tn Heb “and all the people.”

²⁹tn Heb “went up and came [to].”

³⁰map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

³¹tn Traditionally, “fasted.”

³²tn Or “peace offerings.”

³³tn Or “run away.”

³⁴tn Heb “him” (collective singular).

³⁵sn Verses 33-36a give a condensed account of the battle from this point on, while vv. 36b-48 offer a more detailed version of how the ambush contributed to Gibeah’s defeat.

³⁶tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”

³⁷tc The translation is based on the reading מֵעִיר מְתִים (me’ir mÿtim, “from a city of men,” i.e., “an inhabited city”), rather than the reading מֵעִיר מְתֹם (me’ir mÿtom, “from a city of soundness”) found in the Leningrad Codex (L).

³⁸tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”

³⁹tn Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”