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. ¹  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Judges 9:51

9:51 There was a fortified ²  tower ³  in the center of the city, so all the men and women, as well as the city’s leaders, ran into it and locked the entrance. Then they went up to the roof of the tower.

Judges 10:6

The Lord’s Patience Runs Short

10:6 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ⁴  They worshiped ⁵  the Baals and the Ashtars, ⁶  as well as the gods of Syria, Sidon, ⁷  Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines. ⁸  They abandoned the Lord and did not worship ⁹  him.

Judges 16:3

16:3 Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. ¹⁰  He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. ¹¹  He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. ¹² 

Judges 21:22

21:22 When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, ¹³  we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, ¹⁴  for we could not get each one a wife through battle. ¹⁵  Don’t worry about breaking your oath! ¹⁶  You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’” ¹⁷ 

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¹ 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.

² tn Or “strong.”

³ tn Or “fortress.” The same Hebrew term occurs once more in this verse and twice in v. 52.

⁴ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

⁵ tn Or “served;” or “followed.”

⁶ sn The Ashtars were local manifestations of the goddess Ashtar (i.e., Astarte).

⁷ map For location see Map1-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

⁸ tn Heb “the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.”

⁹ tn Or “serve”; or “follow.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”

¹¹ tn Heb “with the bar.”

¹² tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”

¹³ tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

¹⁴ tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

¹⁷ 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.