1map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

2tn 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.

3tn Heb “one.”

4tn Or “peace offerings.”

5tn 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.’”

6tn Or “felt sorry for.”

7tn Heb “cut off one.”

8tn Heb “What should we do for them, for the remaining ones, concerning wives?”

9tn Heb “Look, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly.”

10tn Or “when the people were mustered.”

11tn Heb “and look.”

12tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”

13tn Heb “there.”

14tn Heb “the edge of the sword.”

15tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”

16tn Heb “every woman who is familiar with the bed of a male.”

17tc 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 (veet-habb’tulot t’khayyu vayyaasu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the vav (ו) on וְאֶת (v’et) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.

18tn Heb “who had not known a man with respect to the bed of a male.”

19tn 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.”

20tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

21tn Heb “but they did not find for them enough.”

22tn Or “felt sorry for.”

23tn Heb “had made a gaping hole in.” The narrator uses imagery that compares Israel to a wall that has been breached.

24tn Or “elders.”

25tn Heb “What should we do for the remaining ones concerning wives?”

26tn 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.

27tn 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?”

28tn Heb “But we are not able to give to them wives from our daughters.”

29tn Heb “is cursed.”

30map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

31tn Heb “and look.”

32tn Heb “and look, when.”

33tn Heb “in the dances.”

34tc The (original) LXX and Vulgate read “to you.”

35tn The words “and let them be” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

36tn 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.

37tn This sentence is not in the Hebrew text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the logic of the statement.

38tc 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.

39tn Heb “did so.”

40tn Heb “And they took wives according to their number from the dancing girls whom they abducted.”

41tn Heb “went and returned.”

42tn Heb “inheritance.”

43tn Heb “and lived in them.”

44tn Heb “his inheritance.”

45tn 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.