Discovery BoxJudges 4:19 
Context4:19 He said to her, “Give me a little water to drink, because I’m thirsty.” She opened a goatskin container of milk and gave him some milk to drink. Then she covered him up again.
Judges 6:21
Context6:21 The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. 1 Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared. 2
Judges 7:5
Context7:5 So he brought the men 3 down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.” 4
Judges 7:11
Context7:11 and listen to what they are saying. Then you will be brave 5 and attack the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to where the sentries were guarding the camp. 6
Judges 7:15
Context7:15 When Gideon heard the report of the dream and its interpretation, he praised God. 7 Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up, for the Lord is handing the Midianite army over to you!”
Judges 7:20
Context7:20 All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. 8 Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
Judges 9:15
Context9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose 9 me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! 10 Otherwise 11 may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’
Judges 9:44-45
Context9:44 Abimelech and his units 12 attacked and blocked 13 the entrance to the city’s gate. Two units then attacked all the people in the field and struck them down. 9:45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed all the people in it. Then he leveled 14 the city and spread salt over it. 15
Judges 11:8
Context11:8 The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That may be true, 16 but now we pledge to you our loyalty. 17 Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the leader 18 of all who live in Gilead.” 19
Judges 11:31
Context11:31 then whoever is the first to come through 20 the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites – he 21 will belong to the Lord and 22 I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice.”
Judges 11:37
Context11:37 She then said to her father, “Please grant me this one wish. 23 For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.” 24
Judges 14:17
Context14:17 She cried on his shoulder 25 until the party was almost over. 26 Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. 27 Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle. 28
Judges 16:19
Context16:19 She made him go to sleep on her lap 29 and then called a man in to shave off 30 the seven braids of his hair. 31 She made him vulnerable 32 and his strength left him.
Judges 17:4
Context17:4 When he gave the silver back to his mother, she 33 took two hundred pieces of silver 34 to a silversmith, who made them into a carved image and a metal image. She then put them in Micah’s house. 35
Judges 18:24
Context18:24 He said, “You stole my gods that I made, as well as this priest, and then went away. What do I have left? How can you have the audacity to say to me, ‘What do you want?’” 36
Judges 19:5-6
Context19:5 On the fourth day they woke up early and the Levite got ready to leave. 37 But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have a bite to eat for some energy, 38 then you can go.” 19:6 So the two of them sat down and had a meal together. 39 Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Why not stay another night and have a good time!” 40
Judges 20:32
Context20:32 Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat 41 and lure them 42 away from the city into the main roads.”
Judges 20:34
Context20:34 Ten thousand men, well-trained soldiers from all Israel, then made a frontal assault against Gibeah – the battle was fierce. 43 But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was at their doorstep. 44
1 tn Heb “extended the tip of the staff which was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread.”
2 tn Heb “went from his eyes.”
3 tn Heb “the people.”
4 tn Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”
5 tn Heb “your hands will be strengthened.”
6 tn Heb “to the edge of the ones in battle array who were in the camp.”
7 tn Heb “he bowed down” or “worshiped.”
8 tn The Hebrew text adds, “in order to blow [them].” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”
10 tn Heb “in my shade.”
11 tn Heb “If not.”
12 tn Or possibly, “the unit that was with him.”
13 tn Heb “stood [at].”
14 tn Or “destroyed.”
15 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.
16 tn Heb “therefore”; “even so.” For MT לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) the LXX has an opposite reading, “not so,” which seems to be based on the Hebrew words לֹא כֵן (lo’ khen).
17 tn Heb “we have returned to you.” For another example of שׁוּב אֶל (shuv ’el) in the sense of “give allegiance to,” see 1 Kgs 12:27b.
18 sn Then you will become the leader. The leaders of Gilead now use the word רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head, leader”), the same term that appeared in their original, general offer (see 10:18). In their initial offer to Jephthah they had simply invited him to be their קָצִין (qatsin, “commander”; v. 6). When he resists they must offer him a more attractive reward – rulership over the region. See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 198.
19 tn Heb “leader of us and all who live in Gilead.”
20 tn Heb “the one coming out, who comes out from.” The text uses a masculine singular participle with prefixed article, followed by a relative pronoun and third masculine singular verb. The substantival masculine singular participle הַיּוֹצֵא (hayyotse’, “the one coming out”) is used elsewhere of inanimate objects (such as a desert [Num 21:13] or a word [Num 32:24]) or persons (Jer 5:6; 21:9; 38:2). In each case context must determine the referent. Jephthah may have envisioned an animal meeting him, since the construction of Iron Age houses would allow for an animal coming through the doors of a house (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 208). But the fact that he actually does offer up his daughter indicates the language of the vow is fluid enough to encompass human beings, including women. He probably intended such an offering from the very beginning, but he obviously did not expect his daughter to meet him first.
21 tn The language is fluid enough to include women and perhaps even animals, but the translation uses the masculine pronoun because the Hebrew form is grammatically masculine.
22 tn Some translate “or,” suggesting that Jephthah makes a distinction between humans and animals. According to this view, if a human comes through the door, then Jephthah will commit him/her to the
23 tn Heb “Let this thing be done for me.”
24 tn 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.”
25 tn Heb “on him.”
26 tn Heb “the seven days [during] which they held the party.” This does not mean she cried for the entire seven days; v. 15 indicates otherwise. She cried for the remainder of the seven day period, beginning on the fourth day.
27 tn Heb “because she forced him.”
28 tn Heb “she told the riddle to the sons of her people.”
29 tn Heb “on her knees.” The expression is probably euphemistic for sexual intercourse. See HALOT 160-61 s.v. בֶּרֶךְ.
30 tn Heb “she called for a man and she shaved off.” The point seems to be that Delilah acted through the instrumentality of the man. See J. A. Soggin, Judges (OTL), 254.
31 tn Heb “head.” By metonymy the hair of his head is meant.
32 tn Heb “She began to humiliate him.” Rather than referring to some specific insulting action on Delilah’s part after Samson’s hair was shaved off, this statement probably means that she, through the devious actions just described, began the process of Samson’s humiliation which culminates in the following verses.
33 tn Heb “his mother.” The pronoun (“she”) has been substituted for the noun (“mother”) in the translation because of English style.
34 tn The Hebrew text has “and gave it.” The referent (the pieces of silver) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
35 tn Heb “and it was in Micah’s house.”
36 tn Heb “What is this you say to me, ‘What to you?’”
37 tn Heb “and he arose to go.”
38 tn Heb “Sustain your heart [with] a bit of food.”
39 tn Heb “And they sat and ate, the two of them together, and they drank.”
40 tn Heb “Be willing and spend the night so that your heart might be good.”
41 tn Or “run away.”
42 tn Heb “him” (collective singular).
43 tn Heb “heavy”; or “severe.”
44 tn Heb “And they did not know that touching against them was disaster.”
