Judges 6:31

6:31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, ¹  “Must you fight Baal’s battles? ²  Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause ³  will die by morning! ⁴  If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! ⁵  After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” ⁶ 

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. ⁷  He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. ⁸  He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. ⁹ 

---

¹ tn Heb “to all who stood against him.”

² tn Heb “Do you fight for Baal?”

³ tn Heb “fights for him.”

⁴ sn Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning. This may be a warning to the crowd that Joash intends to defend his son and to kill anyone who tries to execute Gideon. Then again, it may be a sarcastic statement about Baal’s apparent inability to defend his own honor. Anyone who takes up Baal’s cause may end up dead, perhaps by the same hand that pulled down the pagan god’s altar.

⁵ tn Heb “fight for himself.”

⁶ tn Heb “for he pulled down his altar.” The subject of the verb, if not Gideon, is indefinite (in which case a passive translation is permissible).

⁷ tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”

⁸ tn Heb “with the bar.”

⁹ tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”