Judges 9:44

9:44 Abimelech and his units¹ attacked and blocked² the entrance to the city’s gate. Two units then attacked all the people in the field and struck them down.

Judges 11:37

11:37 She then said to her father, “Please grant me this one wish.³ For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.”⁴

Judges 11:39

11:39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin.⁵ Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel.⁶

Judges 14:6

14:6 The Lord’s spirit empowered⁷ him and he tore the lion⁸ in two with his bare hands⁹ as easily as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

Judges 15:13

15:13 They said to him, “We promise!¹⁰ We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff.

Judges 16:25

16:25 When they really started celebrating,¹¹ they said, “Call for Samson so he can entertain us!” So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them.¹² They made him stand between two pillars.

Judges 16:28-29

16:28 Samson called to the Lord, “O Master, Lord,¹³ remember me! Strengthen me just one more time, O God, so I can get swift revenge¹⁴ against the Philistines for my two eyes!” 16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that supported the temple¹⁵ and he leaned against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other.

Judges 17:4

17:4 When he gave the silver back to his mother, she¹⁶ took two hundred pieces of silver¹⁷ to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal image. She then put them in Micah’s house.¹⁸

Judges 19:6

19:6 So the two of them sat down and had a meal together.¹⁹ Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Why not stay another night and have a good time!”²⁰

Judges 21:23

21:23 The Benjaminites did as instructed.²¹ They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives.²² They went home²³ to their own territory,²⁴ rebuilt their cities, and settled down.²⁵

¹tn Or possibly, “the unit that was with him.”

²tn Heb “stood [at].”

³tn Heb “Let this thing be done for me.”

⁴tn Heb “Leave me alone for two months so I can go and go down on the hills and weep over my virginity – I and my friends.”

⁵tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.

⁶tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”

⁷tn Heb “rushed on.”

⁸tn Heb “him” or “it”; the referent (the lion) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹tn Heb “and there was nothing in his hand.”

¹⁰tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.

¹¹tn Heb “When their heart was good.”

¹²tn Heb “before them.”

¹³tn The Hebrew has אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה (’adonay yehovih, “Lord Yahweh”).

¹⁴tn Heb “so I can get revenge with one act of vengeance.”

¹⁵tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house was founded.”

¹⁶tn Heb “his mother.” The pronoun (“she”) has been substituted for the noun (“mother”) in the translation because of English style.

¹⁷tn The Hebrew text has “and gave it.” The referent (the pieces of silver) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸tn Heb “and it was in Micah’s house.”

¹⁹tn Heb “And they sat and ate, the two of them together, and they drank.”

²⁰tn Heb “Be willing and spend the night so that your heart might be good.”

²¹tn Heb “did so.”

²²tn Heb “And they took wives according to their number from the dancing girls whom they abducted.”

²³tn Heb “went and returned.”

²⁴tn Heb “inheritance.”

²⁵tn Heb “and lived in them.”