Discovery BoxJudges 1:6 
Context1:6 When Adoni-Bezek ran away, they chased him and captured him. Then they cut off his thumbs and big toes.
Judges 5:8
Contextthen fighters appeared in the city gates; 2
but, I swear, not a shield or spear could be found, 3
among forty military units 4 in Israel.
Judges 6:14
Context6:14 Then the Lord himself 5 turned to him and said, “You have the strength. 6 Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! 7 Have I not sent you?”
Judges 6:17
Context6:17 Gideon 8 said to him, “If you really are pleased with me, 9 then give me 10 a sign as proof that it is really you speaking with me.
Judges 6:36
Context6:36 Gideon said to God, “If you really intend to use me to deliver Israel, 11 as you promised, then give me a sign as proof. 12
Judges 7:18
Context7:18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow your trumpets all around the camp. Then say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”
Judges 8:16
Context8:16 He seized the leaders 13 of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men of Succoth with them. 14
Judges 9:4
Context9:4 They paid him seventy silver shekels out of the temple of Baal-Berith. Abimelech then used the silver to hire some lawless, dangerous 15 men as his followers. 16
Judges 9:6
Context9:6 All the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo assembled and then went and made Abimelech king by the oak near the pillar 17 in Shechem.
Judges 9:19
Context9:19 So if you have shown loyalty and integrity to Jerub-Baal and his family 18 today, then may Abimelech bring you happiness and may you bring him happiness! 19
Judges 12:15
Context12:15 Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Judges 14:10
Context14:10 Then Samson’s father accompanied him to Timnah for the marriage. 20 Samson hosted a party 21 there, for this was customary for bridegrooms 22 to do.
Judges 15:4
Context15:4 Samson went and captured three hundred jackals 23 and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair. 24
Judges 15:8
Context15:8 He struck them down and defeated them. 25 Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.
Judges 15:16
Context15:16 Samson then said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps; 26
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”
Judges 16:26
Context16:26 Samson said to the young man who held his hand, “Position me so I can touch the pillars that support the temple. 27 Then I can lean on them.”
Judges 19:29
Context19:29 When he got home, he took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces. 28 Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel. 29
Judges 20:3
Context20:3 The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. Then the Israelites said, “Explain how this wicked thing happened!”
Judges 20:36
Context20:36 Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated.
The Israelites retreated before 30 Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.
Judges 21:24
Context21:24 Then the Israelites dispersed from there to their respective tribal and clan territories. Each went from there to his own property. 31
1 tn Or “warriors.” The Hebrew text reads literally, “He chose God/gods new.” Some take “Israel” as the subject of the verb, “gods” as object, and “new” as an adjective modifying “gods.” This yields the translation, “(Israel) chose new gods.” In this case idolatry is the cause of the trouble alluded to in the context. The present translation takes “God” as subject of the verb and “new” as substantival, referring to the new leaders raised up by God (see v. 9a). For a survey of opinions and a defense of the present translation, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40.
2 tn The translation of this difficult line is speculative because the second word, לָחֶם (lakhem), appears only here. The line in the Hebrew text literally reads, “Then [?] gates.” Interpretations and emendations of the Hebrew text abound (see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40). The translation assumes a repointing of the form as a Qal participle לֹחֵם (lokhem) from the verbal root לָחַם (lakham, “fight”) and understands a substantival use (“fighter”). “Fighter” is a collective reference to the military leaders or warriors mentioned in the preceding line and in v. 9. (For other occurrences of the Qal of לָחַם, see Pss 35:1; 56:2-3.)
3 tn Heb “A shield, it could not be seen, nor a spear.” The translation assumes that the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) introduces an oath of denial (see GKC 472 §149.e).
4 tn Traditionally “forty thousand,” but this may be an instance where Hebrew term אֶלֶף (’elef) refers to a military unit. This is the view assumed by the translation (“forty military units”).
5 sn Some interpreters equate the
6 tn Heb “Go in this strength of yours.”
7 tn Heb “the hand of Midian.”
8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “If I have found favor in your eyes.”
10 tn Heb “perform for me.”
11 tn More literally, “you are about to deliver Israel by my hand.”
12 tn The words “then give me a sign as proof” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
13 tn Heb “elders.”
14 tc The translation follows the reading of several ancient versions (LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate) in assuming the form וַיָּדָשׁ (vayyadash) from the verb דּוֹשׁ (dosh, “thresh”) as in v. 7. The MT reads instead the form וַיֹּדַע (vayyoda’, “make known”), a Hiphil form of יָדַע (yadah). In this case one could translate, “he used them [i.e., the thorns and briers] to teach the men of Succoth a lesson.”
15 tn Heb “empty and reckless.”
16 tn Heb “and they followed him.”
17 tc The translation assumes that the form in the Hebrew text (מֻצָּב, mutsav) is a corruption of an original מַצֵּבָה (matsevah, “pillar”). The reference is probably to a pagan object of worship (cf. LXX).
18 tn Heb “house.”
19 tn Heb “then rejoice in Abimelech, and may he also rejoice in you.”
20 tn Heb “And his father went down to the woman.”
21 tn Or “[wedding] feast.”
22 tn Heb “the young men.”
23 tn Traditionally, “foxes.”
24 tn Heb “He turned tail to tail and placed one torch between the two tails in the middle.”
25 tn Heb “He struck them, calf on thigh, [with] a great slaughter.” The precise meaning of the phrase “calf on thigh” is uncertain.
26 tn The precise meaning of the second half of the line (חֲמוֹר חֲמֹרָתָיִם, khamor khamoratayim) is uncertain. The present translation assumes that the phrase means, “a heap, two heaps” and refers to the heaps of corpses littering the battlefield. Other options include: (a) “I have made donkeys of them” (cf. NIV; see C. F. Burney, Judges, 373, for a discussion of this view, which understands a denominative verb from the noun “donkey”); (b) “I have thoroughly skinned them” (see HALOT 330 s.v. IV cj. חמר, which appeals to an Arabic cognate for support); (c) “I have stormed mightily against them,” which assumes the verb חָמַר (khamar, “to ferment; to foam; to boil up”).
27 tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house is founded.”
28 tn Heb “he carved her up by her bones into twelve pieces.”
29 tn Heb “and he sent her through all the territory of Israel.”
30 tn Heb “gave place to.”
31 tn Heb “his inheritance.”
