Discovery BoxJudges 5:26 
Context5:26 Her left 1 hand reached for the tent peg,
her right hand for the workmen’s hammer.
She “hammered” 2 Sisera,
she shattered his skull, 3
she smashed his head, 4
she drove the tent peg through his temple. 5
Judges 11:31
Context11:31 then whoever is the first to come through 6 the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites – he 7 will belong to the Lord and 8 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. 9 For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.” 10
1 tn The adjective “left” is interpretive, based on the context. Note that the next line pictures Jael holding the hammer with her right hand.
2 tn The verb used here is from the same root as the noun “hammer” in the preceding line.
3 tn Or “head.”
4 tn The phrase “his head” (an implied direct object) is supplied in the translation for clarification.
5 tn Heb “she pierced his temple.”
6 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.
7 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.
8 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
9 tn Heb “Let this thing be done for me.”
10 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.”
