Judges 6:13

6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me,¹ but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster² overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said,³ ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Judges 6:27

6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants⁴ and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family⁵ and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime.⁶

Judges 15:6

15:6 The Philistines asked,⁷ “Who did this?” They were told,⁸ “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite⁹ took Samson’s¹⁰ bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father.¹¹

Judges 16:2

16:2 The Gazites were told,¹² “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town¹³ and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave.¹⁴ They relaxed¹⁵ all night, thinking,¹⁶ “He will not leave¹⁷ until morning comes;¹⁸ then we will kill him!”

Judges 16:13

16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair¹⁹ into the fabric on the loom²⁰ and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:17

16:17 Finally he told her his secret.²¹ He said to her, “My hair has never been cut,²² for I have been dedicated to God²³ from the time I was conceived.²⁴ If my head²⁵ were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”

¹tn Heb “But my lord.”

²tn Heb “all this.”

³tn Heb “saying.”

⁴tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

⁵tn Heb “house.”

⁶tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

⁷tn Or “said.”

⁸tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.

⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.

¹²tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”

¹³tn 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.

¹⁴tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”

¹⁵tn Heb “were silent.”

¹⁶tn Heb “saying.”

¹⁷tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁸tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”

¹⁹tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.

²⁰tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.

²¹tn Heb “all his heart.”

²²tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”

²³tn 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”).

²⁴tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”

²⁵tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).