20:8 All Israel rose up in unison 16 and said, “Not one of us will go home! 17 Not one of us will return 18 to his house!
1 tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”
2 tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”
3 tc Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).
4 tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)
5 tn Or “turned around, back.”
6 tn Heb “and he went up.”
7 tn Heb “I have seen a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”
8 tn Heb “saw.”
9 tn Heb “they were stronger than he.”
10 tn Heb “and his concubine.” The pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
11 tn Or “was unfaithful to him.” Many have understood the Hebrew verb וַתִּזְנֶה (vattizneh) as being from זָנָה (zanah, “to be a prostitute”), but it may be derived from a root meaning “to be angry; to hate” attested in Akkadian (see HALOT 275 s.v. II זנה).
12 tn Heb “went from him.”
13 tn Heb “And the man took her on the donkey and arose and went to his place.”
14 tn Heb “he carved her up by her bones into twelve pieces.”
15 tn Heb “and he sent her through all the territory of Israel.”
16 tn Heb “as one man.”
17 tn Heb “to his tent.”
18 tn Or “turn aside.”