Judges 6:39

6:39 Gideon said to God, “Please do not get angry at me, when I ask for just one more sign. ¹  Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make only the fleece dry, while the ground around it is covered with dew.” ² 

Judges 13:7

13:7 He said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and have a son. ³  So now, do not drink wine or beer and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. ⁴  For the child will be dedicated ⁵  to God from birth till the day he dies.’”

Judges 13:16

13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, ⁶  I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) ⁷ 

Judges 14:15

14:15 On the fourth ⁸  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ⁹  If you refuse, ¹⁰  we will burn up ¹¹  you and your father’s family. ¹²  Did you invite us here ¹³  to make us poor?” ¹⁴ 

Judges 17:3

17:3 When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, “I solemnly dedicate ¹⁵  this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son’s benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image.” ¹⁶ 

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¹ tn Heb “Let your anger not rage at me, so that I might speak only this once.”

² tn Heb “let the fleece alone be dry, while dew is on all the ground.”

³ tn See the note on the word “son” in 13:5, where this same statement occurs.

⁴ tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

⁵ tn Traditionally “a Nazirite.”

⁶ tn Heb “If you detain me.”

⁷ tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the Lord. In the preceding narrative the narrator has informed the reader that the visitor is the Lord’s messenger, but Manoah and his wife did not perceive this. In vv. 5 and 7 the angel refers to “God” (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim), not the Lord (יְהוַה, yÿhvah). Manoah’s wife calls the visitor “a man sent from God” and “God’s messenger” (v. 6), while Manoah prays to the “Lord” (אֲדוֹנָי, ’adonay) and calls the visitor “a man sent from God” (v. 8).

⁸ tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.

⁹ tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “lest.”

¹¹ tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹² tn Heb “house.”

¹³ tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew mss and supported by the Targum), instead of the inexplicable הֲלֹא (halo’), a negative particle with interrogative particle prefixed to it.

¹⁴ tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.

¹⁵ tn Heb “dedicating, I dedicate.” In this case the emphatic infinitive absolute lends a mood of solemnity to the statement.

¹⁶ tn Heb “to the LORD from my hand for my son to make a carved image and cast metal image.” She cannot mean that she is now taking the money from her hand and giving it back to her son so he can make an image. Verses 4-6 indicate she took back the money and used a portion of it to hire a silversmith to make an idol for her son to use. The phrase “a carved image and cast metal image” is best taken as referring to two idols (see 18:17-18), even though the verb at the end of v. 4, וַיְהִי (vayÿhi, “and it was [in the house of Micah]”), is singular.