Discovery BoxJudges 4:21 
Context4:21 Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. 1 She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground 2 while he was asleep from exhaustion, 3 and he died.
Judges 12:6
Context12:6 then they said to him, “Say ‘Shibboleth!’” 4 If he said, “Sibboleth” (and could not pronounce the word 5 correctly), they grabbed him and executed him right there at the fords of the Jordan. On that day forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell dead.
Judges 14:15
Context14:15 On the fourth 6 day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. 7 If you refuse, 8 we will burn up 9 you and your father’s family. 10 Did you invite us here 11 to make us poor?” 12
Judges 18:2
Context18:2 The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives, 13 capable men 14 from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house. 15
Judges 19:22
Context19:22 They were having a good time, 16 when suddenly 17 some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, 18 surrounded the house and kept beating 19 on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.” 20
1 tn Heb “took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand.”
2 tn Heb “and it went into the ground.”
3 tn Heb “and exhausted.” Another option is to understand this as a reference to the result of the fatal blow. In this case, the phrase could be translated, “and he breathed his last.”
4 sn The inability of the Ephraimites to pronounce the word shibboleth the way the Gileadites did served as an identifying test. It illustrates that during this period there were differences in pronunciation between the tribes. The Hebrew word shibboleth itself means “stream” or “flood,” and was apparently chosen simply as a test case without regard to its meaning.
5 tn Heb “and could not prepare to speak.” The precise meaning of יָכִין (yakhin) is unclear. Some understand it to mean “was not careful [to say it correctly]”; others emend to יָכֹל (yakhol, “was not able [to say it correctly]”) or יָבִין (yavin, “did not understand [that he should say it correctly]”), which is read by a few Hebrew
6 tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.
7 tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”
8 tn Heb “lest.”
9 tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.
10 tn Heb “house.”
11 tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew
12 tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.
13 tn Heb “The Danites sent from their tribe five men, from their borders.”
14 tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”
15 tn Heb “They came to the Ephraimite hill country, to Micah’s house, and spent the night there.”
16 tn Heb “they were making their heart good.”
17 tn Heb “and look.”
18 tn Heb “the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.” The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.
19 tn The Hitpael verb form appears to have an iterative force here, indicating repeated action.
20 tn Heb “so we can know him.” On the surface one might think they simply wanted to meet the visitor and get to know him, but their hostile actions betray their double-talk. The old man, who has been living with them long enough to know what they are like, seems to have no doubts about the meaning of their words (see v. 23).
