Discovery BoxJudges 3:28 
Context3:28 He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” 1 They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River 2 opposite Moab, 3 and did not let anyone cross.
Judges 8:14
Context8:14 He captured a young man from Succoth 4 and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. 5
Judges 9:45
Context9:45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed all the people in it. Then he leveled 6 the city and spread salt over it. 7
Judges 12:5
Context12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River 8 opposite Ephraim. 9 Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive 10 said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked 11 him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”
1 tn Heb “for the Lord has given your enemies, Moab, into your hand.” The verb form (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the
2 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for clarity.
3 tn Or “against Moab,” that is, so as to prevent the Moabites from crossing.
4 tn Heb “from the men of Succoth.”
5 tn Heb “wrote down for him the officials of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.”
6 tn Or “destroyed.”
7 tn Heb “sowed it with salt.”
sn The spreading of salt over the city was probably a symbolic act designed to place the site under a curse, deprive it of fertility, and prevent any future habitation. The practice is referred to outside the Bible as well. For example, one of the curses in the Aramaic Sefire treaty states concerning Arpad: “May Hadad sow in them salt and weeds, and may it not be mentioned again!” See J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire (BibOr), 15, 53. Deut 29:23, Jer 17:6, and Zeph 2:9 associate salt flats or salty regions with infertility and divine judgment.
8 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.
10 tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.
11 tn Heb “say to.”
