Judges 4:22

4:22 Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, “Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.” He went with her into the tent, ¹  and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead ²  with the tent peg in his temple.

Judges 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ³  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ⁴  If you refuse, ⁵  we will burn up ⁶  you and your father’s family. ⁷  Did you invite us here ⁸  to make us poor?” ⁹ 

Judges 16:2

16:2 The Gazites were told, ¹⁰  “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town ¹¹  and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. ¹²  They relaxed ¹³  all night, thinking, ¹⁴  “He will not leave ¹⁵  until morning comes; ¹⁶  then we will kill him!”

Judges 16:9

16:9 They hid ¹⁷  in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here, ¹⁸  Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire. ¹⁹  The secret of his strength was not discovered. ²⁰ 

Judges 16:12

16:12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ²¹  Samson!” (The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.) ²²  But he tore the ropes ²³  from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.

Judges 16:14

16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ²⁴  Samson!” ²⁵  He woke up ²⁶  and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.

Judges 16:18

16:18 When Delilah saw that he had told her his secret, ²⁷  she sent for ²⁸  the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up here again, for he has told me ²⁹  his secret.” ³⁰  So the rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her, bringing the silver in their hands.

Judges 17:2

17:2 He said to his mother, “You know ³¹  the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen ³²  from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole ³³  it, but now I am giving it back to you.” ³⁴  His mother said, “May the Lord reward ³⁵  you, my son!”

Judges 19:9

19:9 When the man got ready to leave ³⁶  with his concubine and his servant, ³⁷  his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look! The day is almost over! ³⁸  Stay another night! Since the day is over, ³⁹  stay another night here and have a good time. You can get up early tomorrow and start your trip home.” ⁴⁰ 

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¹ tn Heb “he went to her.”

² tn Heb “fallen, dead.”

³ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

⁴ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

⁵ tn Heb “lest.”

⁶ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “house.”

⁸ tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

⁹ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

¹⁰ tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”

¹¹ tn Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.

¹² tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”

¹³ tn Heb “were silent.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “saying.”

¹⁵ tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁶ tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”

¹⁷ 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).

¹⁸ tn Heb “are upon you.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “when it smells fire.”

²⁰ tn Heb “His strength was not known.”

²¹ tn Heb “are upon you.”

²² tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”

²³ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴ tn Heb “are upon you.”

²⁵ 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.

²⁶ tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

²⁷ tn Heb “all his heart.”

²⁸ tn Heb “she sent and summoned.”

²⁹ tc The translation follows the Qere, לִי (li, “to me”) rather than the Kethib, לָהּ (lah, “to her”).

³⁰ tn Heb “all his heart.”

³¹ tn The words “You know” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

³² tn Heb “taken.”

³³ tn Heb “took.”

³⁴ tn In the Hebrew text the statement, “but now I am giving it back to you,” appears at the end of v. 3 and is spoken by the mother. But v. 4 indicates that she did not give the money back to her son. Unless the statement is spoken by the woman to the LORD, it appears to be misplaced and fits much better in v. 2. It may have been accidentally omitted from a manuscript, written in the margin, and then later inserted in the wrong place in another manuscript.

³⁵ tn Traditionally, “bless.”

³⁶ tn Heb “the man arose to go.”

³⁷ tn Or “young man.”

³⁸ tn Heb “the day is sinking to become evening.”

³⁹ tn Or “declining.”

⁴⁰ tn Heb “for your way and go to your tent.”