Judges 4:13

4:13 he ¹  ordered ²  all his chariotry – nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels – and all the troops he had with him to go from Harosheth-Haggoyim to the River Kishon.

Judges 8:27

8:27 Gideon used all this to make ³  an ephod, ⁴  which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites ⁵  prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it ⁶  there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Judges 9:2

9:2 “Tell ⁷  all the leaders of Shechem this: ‘Why would you want ⁸  to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal’s sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.’” ⁹ 

Judges 9:45

9:45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed all the people in it. Then he leveled ¹⁰  the city and spread salt over it. ¹¹ 

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! ¹²  The Israelites humiliated the Ammonites. ¹³ 

Judges 20:2

20:2 The leaders ¹⁴  of all the people from all the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God’s people, which numbered ¹⁵  four hundred thousand sword-wielding foot soldiers.

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¹ tn Heb “Sisera.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn Or “summoned.”

³ tn Heb “made it into.”

⁴ sn 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.

⁵ tn Heb “Israel” (a collective singular).

⁶ tn The words “by worshiping it” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “Speak into the ears of.”

⁸ tn Heb “What good is it to you?”

⁹ tn Heb “your bone and your flesh.”

¹⁰ tn Or “destroyed.”

¹¹ tn Heb “sowed it with salt.”

sn The spreading of salt over the city was probably a symbolic act designed to place the site under a curse, deprive it of fertility, and prevent any future habitation. The practice is referred to outside the Bible as well. For example, one of the curses in the Aramaic Sefire treaty states concerning Arpad: “May Hadad sow in them salt and weeds, and may it not be mentioned again!” See J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire (BibOr), 15, 53. Deut 29:23, Jer 17:6, and Zeph 2:9 associate salt flats or salty regions with infertility and divine judgment.

¹² tn Heb “with a very great slaughter.”

¹³ tn Heb “The Ammonites were humbled before the Israelites.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “the cornerstones”; or “the supports.” The word is used of leaders in only three other texts – 1 Sam 14:38; Isa 19:13; Zech 10:4.

¹⁵ tn The words “which numbered” are supplied in the translation for clarification.