Discovery BoxJudges 9:44 
Context9:44 Abimelech and his units 1 attacked and blocked 2 the entrance to the city’s gate. Two units then attacked all the people in the field and struck them down.
Judges 5:8
Contextthen fighters appeared in the city gates; 4
but, I swear, not a shield or spear could be found, 5
among forty military units 6 in Israel.
Judges 7:16
Context7:16 He divided the three hundred men into three units. 7 He gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them. 8
Judges 9:34
Context9:34 So Abimelech and all his men came up 9 at night and set an ambush outside Shechem – they divided into 10 four units.
1 tn Or possibly, “the unit that was with him.”
2 tn Heb “stood [at].”
3 tn Or “warriors.” The Hebrew text reads literally, “He chose God/gods new.” Some take “Israel” as the subject of the verb, “gods” as object, and “new” as an adjective modifying “gods.” This yields the translation, “(Israel) chose new gods.” In this case idolatry is the cause of the trouble alluded to in the context. The present translation takes “God” as subject of the verb and “new” as substantival, referring to the new leaders raised up by God (see v. 9a). For a survey of opinions and a defense of the present translation, see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40.
4 tn The translation of this difficult line is speculative because the second word, לָחֶם (lakhem), appears only here. The line in the Hebrew text literally reads, “Then [?] gates.” Interpretations and emendations of the Hebrew text abound (see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 239-40). The translation assumes a repointing of the form as a Qal participle לֹחֵם (lokhem) from the verbal root לָחַם (lakham, “fight”) and understands a substantival use (“fighter”). “Fighter” is a collective reference to the military leaders or warriors mentioned in the preceding line and in v. 9. (For other occurrences of the Qal of לָחַם, see Pss 35:1; 56:2-3.)
5 tn Heb “A shield, it could not be seen, nor a spear.” The translation assumes that the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) introduces an oath of denial (see GKC 472 §149.e).
6 tn Traditionally “forty thousand,” but this may be an instance where Hebrew term אֶלֶף (’elef) refers to a military unit. This is the view assumed by the translation (“forty military units”).
7 tn Heb “heads.”
8 tn Heb “the jars.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“them”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
sn They hid the torches inside the earthenware jars to disguise their approach and to keep the torches from being extinguished by the breeze.
9 tn Heb “and all the people who were with him arose.”
10 tn Heb “four heads.” The words “they divided into” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
