3:15 When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord, he 1 raised up a deliverer for them. His name was Ehud son of Gera the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. 2 The Israelites sent him to King Eglon of Moab with their tribute payment. 3
5:11 Hear 9 the sound of those who divide the sheep 10 among the watering places;
there they tell of 11 the Lord’s victorious deeds,
the victorious deeds of his warriors 12 in Israel.
Then the Lord’s people went down to the city gates –
13:6 The woman went and said to her husband, “A man sent from God 22 came to me! He looked like God’s angelic messenger – he was very awesome. 23 I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, 29 Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. 30 He said to her father, 31 “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” 32 But her father would not let him enter.
19:16 But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. 64 The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.) 65
1 tn Heb “the
2 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.
3 tn Heb “The Israelites sent by his hand an offering to Eglon, king of Moab.”
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 Heb “he went to her.”
8 tn Heb “fallen, dead.”
9 tn The word “Hear” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
10 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.
11 tn Or perhaps “repeat.”
12 tn See the note on the term “warriors” in v. 7.
13 tn Heb “But my lord.”
14 tn Heb “all this.”
15 tn Heb “saying.”
16 tn The words “to Gideon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
17 tn Or “Arise.”
18 tn Heb “for as the man is his strength.”
19 tn Heb “arose and killed.”
20 tn Heb “bore.”
21 tn Heb “in the house of our father.”
22 tn Heb “The man of God.”
23 tn Heb “His appearance was like the appearance of the messenger of God, very awesome.”
24 tn Heb “our hand.”
25 tn Heb “on him.”
26 tn Heb “only”; or “simply.”
27 tn Heb “the sons of my people.”
28 tn Heb “Should I tell you?”
29 sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.
30 tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”
31 tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).
32 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”).
33 tn Or “said.”
34 tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.
35 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
36 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
37 tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.
38 tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.
39 tn Heb “spirit.”
40 tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
41 sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”
42 tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”
43 tn Heb “with the bar.”
44 tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”
45 tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).
46 tn Heb “are upon you.”
47 tn Heb “when it smells fire.”
48 tn Heb “His strength was not known.”
49 tn Heb “are upon you.”
50 tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”
51 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
52 tn Heb “are upon you.”
53 tc The MT of vv. 13b-14a reads simply, “He said to her, ‘If you weave the seven braids of my head with the web.’ And she fastened with the pin and said to him.” The additional words in the translation, “and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.’ 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom,” which without doubt represent the original text, are supplied from the ancient Greek version. (In both vv. 13b and 14a the Greek version has “to the wall” after “with the pin,” but this is an interpretive addition that reflects a misunderstanding of ancient weaving equipment. See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 353-54.) The Hebrew textual tradition was accidentally shortened during the copying process. A scribe’s eye jumped from the first instance of “with the web” to the second, causing him to leave out inadvertently the intervening words.
54 tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
55 tn Heb “all his heart.”
56 tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”
57 tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).
58 tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”
59 tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).
60 tn Heb “arose and came.”
61 tn Heb “to speak to her heart to bring her back.”
62 tn Or “young man.”
63 tn Heb “he was happy to meet him.”
64 tn Heb “And look, an old man was coming from his work, from the field in the evening.”
65 tn Heb “And the men of the place were Benjaminites.”