8:18 He said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Describe for me 6 the men you killed at Tabor.” They said, “They were like you. Each one looked like a king’s son.” 7 8:19 He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. I swear, 8 as surely as the Lord is alive, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”
1 tn Heb “horde”; “multitude.”
2 tn Heb “the
3 tn Heb “a man, a prophet.” Hebrew idiom sometimes puts a generic term before a more specific designation.
4 tc Some ancient witnesses read “from the land of Egypt.” מֵאֶרֶץ (me’erets, “from the land [of]”) could have been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton (note the following מִמִּצְרַיִם [mimmitsrayim, “from Egypt”]).
5 tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”
6 tn Heb “Where are?”
7 tn Heb “each one like the appearance of sons of the king.”
8 tn The words “I swear” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 tn Heb “said to them.”
10 tn Heb “Give to me, each one, an earring from his plunder.”
11 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Midianites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “therefore”; “even so.” For MT לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) the LXX has an opposite reading, “not so,” which seems to be based on the Hebrew words לֹא כֵן (lo’ khen).
13 tn Heb “we have returned to you.” For another example of שׁוּב אֶל (shuv ’el) in the sense of “give allegiance to,” see 1 Kgs 12:27b.
14 sn Then you will become the leader. The leaders of Gilead now use the word רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head, leader”), the same term that appeared in their original, general offer (see 10:18). In their initial offer to Jephthah they had simply invited him to be their קָצִין (qatsin, “commander”; v. 6). When he resists they must offer him a more attractive reward – rulership over the region. See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 198.
15 tn Heb “leader of us and all who live in Gilead.”
16 tn Heb “Is it not so that what Chemosh your god causes you to possess, you possess, and all whom the
17 tn Heb “you have brought me very low,” or “you have knocked me to my knees.” The infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis.
18 tn Heb “You are among [or “like”] those who trouble me.”
19 tn Heb “I opened my mouth to the
20 tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”
21 tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”
22 tn Heb “crossed over to.”
23 tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
24 tn Another option is to translate, “you are already pregnant and will have a son.” The earlier reference to her being infertile (v. 3) suggests that her conception is still future, but it is possible that the earlier statement only reflects her perspective (as far as she is concerned, she is infertile). According to this interpretation, in v. 5 the angel reveals the truth to her – actually she has recently conceived and is now pregnant (see the translation in R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 217). Usage favors this interpretation. The predicate adjective הָרָה (harah, “[be/become] pregnant”) elsewhere has a past (1 Sam 4:19) or present (Gen 16:11; 38:25; 2 Sam 11:5) translation value. (The usage in Isa 7:14 is debated, but a present translation is definitely possible there.) A final, but less likely possibility, is that she miraculously conceived during the angel’s speech, sometime between his statements recorded in vv. 3 and 5.
25 tn Heb “a razor should not go up on his head.”
26 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”).
27 tn Heb “hand.”
28 tn Or “When they were near.”
29 tn Heb “voice.” This probably means that “his speech was Judahite [i.e., southern] like their own, not Israelite [i.e., northern]” (R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 263).
30 tn Heb “turned aside.”
31 tn Heb “What [is there] to you here?”
32 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the visiting Levite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”