¹ tn Heb “There is great distress to me; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great, but into the hand of men let me not fall.”

¹ tc Heb “all these [were] men of war, helpers of the battle line.” The present translation assumes an emendation of עֹדְרֵי (ʿod^ere, “helpers of”) to עֹרְכֵי, (ʿor^ekhe, “prepared for”).

¹ tn Heb “warriors, men of battle for war, prepared with shield and spear, and [like] the face of a lion were their faces, and like gazelles on the hills to hurry.”

¹ tn Heb “all these were the sons of Asher, heads of the house of the fathers, selected, warriors, heads of the leaders, and there was listed in the genealogical records in war, in battle, their number, men, 26,000.”

¹ tn Heb “and he struck him down in Samaria in the fortress of the house of the king, Argob and Arieh, and with him 50 men from the sons of the Gileadites, and they killed him.”

¹ tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, 50 shekels of silver for each man.”

² tn Heb “and they did not conduct a reckoning of the men who gave the silver into their hand to give to the doers of the work, for in honesty they were working.”

¹ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

¹ tc The present translation, “Saul’s son had two men,” is based on the reading “to the son of Saul,” rather than the MT’s “the son of Saul.” The context requires the preposition to indicate the family relationship.

¹ tn Heb “And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah the second day, and they again struck down among the sons of Israel 18,000 men to the ground, all of these were wielding the sword.”

² tn Heb “700 choice men, bound/restricted in the right hand.” On the significance of the idiom, “bound/restricted in the right hand,” see the translator’s note on 3:15.

¹ tn Heb “the people” (also in vv. 38, 43, 48). These were warriors, so “men” has been used in the translation, since in ancient Israelite culture soldiers would have been exclusively males.

¹ tn Heb “Should I stop my wine, which makes happy gods and men, and go to sway over the trees?” The negative sentence in the translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question.

¹ tn Heb “Should I stop my abundance, with which they honor gods and men, and go to sway over the trees?” The negative sentence in the translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question.

¹ tn Heb “About 15,000 [in number] were all the ones remaining from the army of the sons of the east. The fallen ones were 120,000 [in number], men drawing the sword.”

⁴ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)

¹ tn Heb “and they saw, and look.” The Hebrew term הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) draws attention to the scene and invites the audience to view the events from the perspective of the men of Ai.

¹ tn Heb “and go around the city, all [you] men of war, encircling the city one time.” The Hebrew verb וְסַבֹּתֶם (v^esabbotem, “and go around”) is plural, being addressed to the whole army.

¹ tn Heb “All the people who went out from Egypt, the males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness in the way when they went out from Egypt.”

¹ tn Here “also” has been supplied in the translation to make it clear (as indicated by v. 20) that these are not the same stones the men took from the river bed.