Discovery BoxJudges 11:39 
Context11:39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin. 1 Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel. 2
Judges 20:48
Context20:48 The Israelites returned to the Benjaminite towns 3 and put the sword to them. They wiped out the cities, 4 the animals, and everything they could find. They set fire to every city in their path. 5
1 tn 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.
2 tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”
3 tn Heb “to the sons of Benjamin.”
4 tc The translation is based on the reading מֵעִיר מְתִים (me’ir mÿtim, “from a city of men,” i.e., “an inhabited city”), rather than the reading מֵעִיר מְתֹם (me’ir mÿtom, “from a city of soundness”) found in the Leningrad Codex (L).
5 tn Heb “Also all the cities that were found they set on fire.”
