Judges 4:21

4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. ¹  She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground ²  while he was asleep from exhaustion, ³  and he died.

Judges 6:25

Gideon Destroys the Altar

6:25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ⁴  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Judges 7:22

7:22 When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused the Midianites to attack one another with their swords ⁵  throughout ⁶  the camp. The army fled to Beth Shittah on the way to Zererah. They went ⁷  to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

Judges 9:18

9:18 But you have attacked ⁸  my father’s family ⁹  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate ¹⁰  sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative. ¹¹ 

Judges 14:3

14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ¹²  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ¹³  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ¹⁴  because she is the right one for me.” ¹⁵ 

Judges 16:5

16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate ¹⁶  him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

Judges 18:19

18:19 They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser ¹⁷  and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?” ¹⁸ 

Judges 19:18

19:18 The Levite ¹⁹  said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem ²⁰  in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home. ²¹  But no one has invited me into their home.

Judges 20:31

20:31 The Benjaminites attacked ²²  the army, leaving the city unguarded. ²³  They began to strike down their enemy ²⁴  just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, ²⁵  the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down ²⁶  about thirty Israelites.

Judges 21:21-22

21:21 and keep your eyes open. ²⁷  When you see ²⁸  the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, ²⁹  jump out from the vineyards. Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin. 21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, ³⁰  we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, ³¹  for we could not get each one a wife through battle. ³²  Don’t worry about breaking your oath! ³³  You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’” ³⁴ 

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¹ tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”

² tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”

³ 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.”

⁴ tn Or “Take a bull from your father’s herd, the second one, the one seven years old.” Apparently Gideon would need the bulls to pull down the altar.

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord set the sword of each one against his friend.”

⁶ tc MT has “and throughout the camp,” but the conjunction (“and”) is due to dittography and should be dropped. Compare the ancient versions, which lack the conjunction here.

⁷ tn The words “they went” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁸ tn Heb “have risen up against.”

⁹ tn Heb “house.”

¹⁰ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹¹ tn Heb “your brother.”

¹² tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.

¹³ tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”

¹⁴ tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.

¹⁵ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”

¹⁷ tn See the note on the word “adviser” in 17:10.

¹⁸ tn Heb “Is it better for you to be priest for the house of one man or for you to be priest for a tribe, for a clan in Israel?”

¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

²¹ tn Heb “I went to Bethlehem in Judah, but [to] the house of the LORD I am going.” The Hebrew text has “house of the LORD,” which might refer to the shrine at Shiloh. The LXX reads “to my house.”

²² tn Heb “went out to meet.”

²³ tn Heb “and they were drawn away from the city.”

²⁴ tn Heb “from the army wounded ones.”

²⁵ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

²⁶ tn The words “they struck down” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

²⁷ tn Heb “and look.”

²⁸ tn Heb “and look, when.”

²⁹ tn Heb “in the dances.”

³⁰ tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

³¹ tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

³² tn Heb “for we did not take each his wife in battle.”

sn Through battle. This probably refers to the battle against Jabesh Gilead, which only produced four hundred of the six hundred wives needed.

³³ tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

³⁴ tc Heb “You did not give to them, now you are guilty.” The MT as it stands makes little sense. It is preferable to emend לֹא (lo’, “not”) to לוּא (lu’, “if”). This particle introduces a purely hypothetical condition, “If you had given to them [but you didn’t].” See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 453-54.