¹sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.
²tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”
³tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).
⁴tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom la# aoB (Boa a#l, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).
⁵tn Heb “saying, I said.” The first person form of rm^a* (a*m^r, “to say”) sometimes indicates self-reflection. The girl’s father uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
⁶tn Heb “hating, you hated.” Once again the girl’s father uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
⁷tn Heb “Is her younger sister not better than her? Let her [i.e., the younger sister] be yours instead of her [i.e., Samson’s ‘bride’]).”
⁸tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the (original) LXX has the singular “to him.”
⁹tn Heb “I am innocent this time from the Philistines when I do with them harm.”
¹⁰tn Traditionally, “foxes.”
¹¹tn Heb “He turned tail to tail and placed one torch between the two tails in the middle.”
¹²tn Heb “He set fire to the torches.”
¹³tn Or “said.”
¹⁴tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.
¹⁵tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
¹⁶tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
¹⁷tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.
¹⁸tn The Niphal of <q*n` (n`q*<, “to avenge”; to take vengeance”) followed by the preposition b (beth) has the force “to get revenge against.” See 1 Sam 18:25; Jer 50:15; Ezek 25:12.
¹⁹tn Heb “and afterward I will stop.”
²⁰tn Heb “He struck them, calf on thigh, [with] a great slaughter.” The precise meaning of the phrase “calf on thigh” is uncertain.
²¹tn Or “camped in.”
²²tn Or “spread out.” The Niphal of vf*n` (n`f*v) has this same sense in 2 Sam 5:18, 22.
²³tn Or “come up against.”
²⁴tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
²⁵tn Or “swear to me.”
²⁶tn Heb “meet [with hostility]”; “harm.” In light of v. 13, “kill” is an appropriate translation.
²⁷tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.
²⁸tn Heb “rushed on.”
²⁹tn Heb “burned with.”
³⁰tn Heb “his bonds.”
³¹tn Heb “he found.”
³²tn Heb “fresh,” i.e., not decayed and brittle.
³³tn Heb “he reached out his hand and took it.”
³⁴tn The Hebrew text adds “with it.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
³⁵tn The precise meaning of the second half of the line (<y]t*r*m{j& romj&, j&mor j&m{r*t*y]<) is uncertain. The present translation assumes that the phrase means, “a heap, two heaps” and refers to the heaps of corpses littering the battlefield. Other options include: (a) “I have made donkeys of them” (cf. NIV; see C. F. Burney, Judges, 373, for a discussion of this view, which understands a denominative verb from the noun “donkey”); (b) “I have thoroughly skinned them” (see HALOT 1:330, which appeals to an Arabic cognate for support); (c) “I have stormed mightily against them,” which assumes the verb rm^j* (j*m^r, “to ferment; to foam; to boil up”).
³⁶tn Heb “from his hand.”
³⁷sn The name Ramath Lehi means “Height of the Jawbone.”
³⁸tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”
³⁹tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.
⁴⁰tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.
⁴¹tn Heb “spirit.”
⁴²tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
⁴³sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”
⁴⁴tn Traditionally, “judged.”
⁴⁵tn Heb “in the days of the Philistines.”