Judges 2:8-3

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Judges 2:9 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2. Judges 2:9 tn Heb “in the territory of his inheritance.”
3. Judges 2:10 tn Heb “All that generation were gathered to their fathers.”
4. Judges 2:10 tn Heb “arose after them.”
5. Judges 2:10 tn Heb “that did not know the Lord or the work which he had done for Israel.” The expressions “personally experienced” and “seen” are interpretive.
6. Judges 2:11 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
7. Judges 2:11 tn Or “serving”; or “following.”
8. Judges 2:12 tn Or “fathers.”
9. Judges 2:12 tn Or “bowed before” (the same expression occurs in the following verse).
10. Judges 2:13 sn The Ashtoreths were local manifestations of the goddess Astarte.
11. Judges 2:14 tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”
12. Judges 2:14 tn Heb “robbers who robbed them.” (The verb שָׁסָה [shasah] appears twice in the verse.)sn The expression robbers who plundered them is a derogatory reference to the enemy nations, as the next line indicates.
13. Judges 2:14 tn Heb “sold them into the hand of.”
14. Judges 2:14 tn The word “attacks” is supplied in the translation both for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
15. Judges 2:15 tn The expression “to fight” is interpretive.
16. Judges 2:15 tn Heb “the Lord’s hand was against them for harm.”
17. Judges 2:15 tn Heb “just as he had said and just as he had sworn to them.”
18. Judges 2:15 tn Or “they experienced great distress.”
19. Judges 2:16 tn Or more traditionally, “judges” (also in vv. 17, 18 [3x], 19). Since these figures carried out more than a judicial function, also serving as rulers and (in several instances) as military commanders, the translation uses the term “leaders.”
20. Judges 2:16 tn Heb “and they delivered them from the hand of the ones robbing them.”
21. Judges 2:17 tn Or “did not listen to.”
22. Judges 2:17 tn Or “bowed before.”
23. Judges 2:17 tn Or “way [of life].”
24. Judges 2:17 tn Or “fathers.”
25. Judges 2:17 tn Heb “…walked, obeying the Lord’s commands. They did not do this.”
26. Judges 2:18 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
27. Judges 2:18 tn The phrase “for them” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
28. Judges 2:18 tn Heb “the ones oppressing them and afflicting them.” The synonyms “oppressing” and “afflicting” are joined together in the translation as “harsh oppressors” to emphasize the cruel character of their enemies.
29. Judges 2:19 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the next generation) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
30. Judges 2:19 tn The verb שׁוּב (shuv, “to return; to turn”) is sometimes translated “turn back” here, but it is probably used in an adverbial sense, indicating that the main action (“act wickedly”) is being repeated.
31. Judges 2:19 tn Heb “their fathers.”sn The statement the next generation would again act more wickedly than the previous one must refer to the successive sinful generations after Joshua, not Joshua’s godly generation (cf. vv. 7, 17).
32. Judges 2:19 tn Or “serving [them]”; or “following [them].”
33. Judges 2:19 tn Or “drop.”
34. Judges 2:20 tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”
35. Judges 2:20 tn Heb “Because this nation.”
36. Judges 2:20 tn Heb “my covenant which I commanded their fathers.”
37. Judges 2:20 tn Heb “and has not listened to my voice.” The expression “to not listen to [God’s] voice” is idiomatic here for disobeying him.
38. Judges 2:22 tn The Hebrew text of v. 22 simply begins with “to test.” Some subordinate this phrase to “I will no longer remove” (v. 21). In this case the Lord announces that he has now decided to leave these nations as a test for Israel. Another possibility is to subordinate “to test” to “He said” (v. 20; see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 111). In this case the statement recorded in vv. 20b-21 is the test in that it forces Israel to respond either positively (through repentance) or negatively to the Lord’s declaration. A third possibility is to subordinate “to test” to “left unconquered” (v. 21). In this case the Lord recalls that Joshua left these nations as a test. Israel has failed the test (v. 20), so the Lord announces that the punishment threatened earlier (Josh 23:12-13; see also Judg 2:3) will now be implemented. As B. G. Webb (Judges [JSOTSup], 115) observes, “The nations which were originally left as a test are now left as a punishment.” This view harmonizes v. 23, which explains that the Lord did not give all the nations to Joshua, with v. 22. (For a grammatical parallel, where the infinitive construct of נָסָה [nasah] is subordinated to the perfect of עָזַב [ʿazav], see 2 Chr 32:31.)
39. Judges 2:22 tn The Hebrew text includes the phrase “by them,” but this is somewhat redundant in English and has been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.
40. Judges 2:22 tn The words “I [i.e., the Lord] want to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
41. Judges 2:22 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
42. Judges 2:22 tn Or “way [of life].”
43. Judges 2:22 tn “The words “marked out by” are interpretive.
44. Judges 2:22 tn Or “fathers.”
45. Judges 2:23 tn The words “this is why” are interpretive and not in the original text.
46. Judges 2:23 tn Or “quickly.”
47. Judges 3:1 tn Heb “did not know the wars of Canaan.”
48. Judges 3:2 tn The Hebrew syntax of v. 2 is difficult. The Hebrew text reads literally, “only in order that the generations of the Israelites might know, to teach them war—only those who formerly did not know them.”sn The stated purpose for leaving the nations (to teach the subsequent generations…how to conduct holy war) seems to contradict 2:22 and 3:4, which indicate the nations were left to test Israel’s loyalty to the Lord. However, the two stated purposes can be harmonized. The willingness of later generations to learn and engage in holy war would measure their allegiance to the Lord (see B. G. Webb, Judges [JSOTSup], 114-15).
49. Judges 3:3 tn The words “These were the nations,” though not present in the Hebrew text, are supplied in the translation for clarity.
50. Judges 3:3 tn Or “the entrance to Hamath.”
51. Judges 3:4 tn Heb “to know if they would hear the commands of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”
52. Judges 3:6 tn Heb “to their sons.”
53. Judges 3:6 tn Or “served”; or “followed” (this term occurs in the following verse as well).
54. Judges 3:7 tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”
55. Judges 3:7 sn The Asherahs were local manifestations of the Canaanite goddess Asherah.
56. Judges 3:8 tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned (or raged) against Israel.”
57. Judges 3:8 tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”
58. Judges 3:8 tn Or “Cushan the Doubly Wicked.”
59. Judges 3:8 tc Armon Haraim. Traditionally Aram-Naharaim, and sometimes understood as a place in Mesopotamia. This reading accepts the consonantal text but divides the words after the nun (נ) instead of before. The consonants ארמן הרים could be read with a dual ending as ʾArmon Haraim, meaning “Citadel of the Two Mountains,” or with a plural ending as ʾArmon Harim, meaning “Citadel of the Mountains.” In either case, Cushan Rishathaim is probably a remaining Canaanite king with a fortress in the hill country of Israel. See Beitzel, The Moody Atlas of Bible Lands, 106.
60. Judges 3:8 tn Or “they served Cushan Rishathaim.”