translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JDG

label: NET translator note

text: For location see Map4-G4 ; Map5-C1 ; Map6-E3 ; Map7-D1 ; Map8-G3 .


text: Heb “and they lifted up their voice[s] and wept with great weeping.” Both the cognate accusative בְּכִי ( bekhi , “weeping”) and the attributive adjective גָדוֹל ( gadol , “great”) emphasize their degree of sorrow.


text: Heb “one.”


text: Or “peace offerings.”


text: Heb “A great oath there was concerning the one who did not go up before the Lord at Mizpah, saying, ‘He must surely be put to death.’”


text: Or “felt sorry for.”


text: Heb “cut off one.”


text: Heb “What should we do for them, for the remaining ones, concerning wives?”


text: Heb “Look, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly.”


text: Or “when the people were mustered.”


text: Heb “and look.”


text: Heb “men, sons of strength.”


text: Heb “there.”


text: Heb “the edge of the sword.”


text: Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”


text: Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”


label: NET textual note

text: Some Greek witnesses (notably Codex Vaticanus [B]) add the words, “‘But the virgins you should keep alive.’ And they did so.” These additional words, which probably represent the original Hebrew text, can be retroverted: וְאֶת־הַבְּתוּלוֹת תְּחַיּוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵן ( ve ’ et-habbÿtulot tÿkhayyu vayya ’ asu khen ). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav ( ו ) on וְאֶת ( vÿ ’ et ) to the initial vav of v. 11 , accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.


text: Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”


text: Heb “And all the assembly sent and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the cliff of Rimmon and they proclaimed to them peace.”


text: Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “but they did not find for them enough.”


text: Heb “had made a gaping hole in.” The narrator uses imagery that compares Israel to a wall that has been breached.


text: Or “elders.”


text: Heb “What should we do for the remaining ones concerning wives?”


text: The Hebrew text has “and they said” at the beginning of the verse. For stylistic reasons the translation treats v. 17 as a continuation of the remarks of the leaders in v. 16 .


text: Heb “An inheritance for the remnant belonging to Benjamin, and a tribe from Israel will not be wiped away.” The first statement lacks a verb. Some prefer to emend the text to read, “How can an inheritance remain for the remnant of Benjamin?”


text: Heb “But we are not able to give to them wives from our daughters.”


text: Heb “is cursed.”


text: For location see Map4-G4 ; Map5-C1 ; Map6-E3 ; Map7-D1 ; Map8-G3 .


text: Heb “and look.”


text: Heb “and look, when.”


text: Heb “in the dances.”


text: The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”


text: The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: Heb “for we did not take each his wife in battle.” sn Through battle . This probably refers to the battle against Jabesh Gilead, which only produced four hundred of the six hundred wives needed.


text: This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.


text: Heb “You did not give to them, now you are guilty.” The MT as it stands makes little sense. It is preferable to emend לֹא ( lo ’, “not”) to לוּא ( lu ’, “if”). This particle introduces a purely hypothetical condition, “If you had given to them [but you didn’t].” See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 453-54.


text: Heb “did so.”


text: Heb “And they took wives according to their number from the dancing girls whom they abducted.”


text: Heb “went and returned.”


text: Heb “inheritance.”


text: Heb “and lived in them.”


text: Heb “his inheritance.”


text: Heb “Each was doing what was right in his [own] eyes.” sn Each man did what he considered to be right . The Book of Judges closes with this note, which summarizes the situation of the Israelite tribes during this period.