Judges 5:12

5:12 Wake up, wake up, Deborah!

Wake up, wake up, sing a song!

Get up, Barak!

Capture your prisoners of war, ¹  son of Abinoam!

Judges 7:18

7:18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow your trumpets all around the camp. Then say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

Judges 8:6-7

8:6 The officials of Succoth said, “You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give ²  bread to your army?” ³  8:7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help, ⁴  after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh ⁵  your skin ⁶  with ⁷  desert thorns and briers.”

Judges 11:19

11:19 Israel sent messengers to King Sihon, the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, “Please allow us to pass through your land to our land.” ⁸ 

Judges 14:13

14:13 But if you cannot solve it, ⁹  you will give me thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes.” They said to him, “Let us hear your riddle.” ¹⁰ 

Judges 18:25

18:25 The Danites said to him, “Don’t say another word to us, or some very angry men ¹¹  will attack you, and you and your family will die.” ¹² 

Judges 19:20

19:20 The old man said, “Everything is just fine! ¹³  I will take care of all your needs. But don’t spend the night in the town square.”

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¹ tn Heb “take captive your captives.” (The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative here.)

² tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

³ tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your army bread?” Perhaps the reference to the kings’ “palms” should be taken literally. The officials of Succoth may be alluding to the practice of mutilating prisoners or enemy corpses (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 155).

sn The officials of Succoth are hesitant to give (or sell) food to Gideon’s forces because they are not sure of the outcome of the battle. Perhaps they had made an alliance with the Midianites which demanded their loyalty.

⁴ tn Heb “Therefore.”

⁵ 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.

⁶ tn Or “flesh.”

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “to my place.”

⁹ tn Heb “you are unable to tell me.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Give your riddle so we can hear it.”

¹¹ tn Heb “bitter in spirit.” This phrase is used in 2 Sam 17:8 of David and his warriors, who are compared to a bear robbed of her cubs.

¹² tn Heb “and you will gather up your life and the life of your house.”

¹³ tn Heb “Peace to you.”