Judges 3:22

3:22 The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for Ehud ¹  did not pull the sword out of his belly. ² 

Judges 8:7

8:7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help, ³  after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh ⁴  your skin ⁵  with ⁶  desert thorns and briers.”

Judges 18:22

18:22 After they had gone a good distance from Micah’s house, Micah’s neighbors ⁷  gathered together and caught up with the Danites.

Judges 18:29

18:29 They named it Dan after their ancestor, who was one of Israel’s sons. ⁸  But the city’s name used to be Laish.

Judges 21:16

21:16 The leaders ⁹  of the assembly said, “How can we find wives for those who are left? ¹⁰  After all, the Benjaminite women have been wiped out.

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

² tn The Hebrew text has “and he went out to the [?].” The meaning of the Hebrew word פַּרְשְׁדֹנָה (parshÿdonah) which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. The noun has the article prefixed and directive suffix. The word may be a technical architectural term, indicating the area into which Ehud moved as he left the king and began his escape. In this case Ehud is the subject of the verb “went out.” The present translation omits the clause, understanding it as an ancient variant of the first clause in v. 23. Some take the noun as “back,” understand “sword” (from the preceding clause) as the subject, and translate “the sword came out his [i.e., Eglon’s] back.” But this rendering is unlikely since the Hebrew word for “sword” (חֶרֶב, kherev) is feminine and the verb form translated “came out” (וַיֵּצֵא, vayyetse’) is masculine. (One expects agreement in gender when the subject is supplied from the preceding clause. See Ezek 33:4, 6.) See B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 146-48, for discussion of the options.

³ tn Heb “Therefore.”

⁴ sn I will thresh. The metaphor is agricultural. Threshing was usually done on a hard threshing floor. As farm animals walked over the stalks, pulling behind them a board embedded with sharp stones, the stalks and grain would be separated. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63-65. Gideon threatens to use thorns and briers on his sledge.

⁵ tn Or “flesh.”

⁶ tn This is apparently a rare instrumental use of the Hebrew preposition אֵת (’et, note the use of ב [bet] in v. 16). Some, however, argue that אֵת more naturally indicates accompaniment (“together with”). In this case Gideon envisions threshing their skin along with thorns and briers, just as the stalks and grain are intermingled on the threshing floor. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 229-30.

⁷ tn Heb “the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house.”

⁸ tn Heb “They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who had been born to Israel.”

⁹ tn Or “elders.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “What should we do for the remaining ones concerning wives?”