Judges 12:3-5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Judges 12:3 tn Heb “you were no deliverer.” Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX has “no one was helping.”
2. Judges 12:3 tn Heb “I put my life in my hand.”
3. Judges 12:3 tn Heb “crossed over to.”
4. Judges 12:3 tn The Hebrew adds “against me” here. This is redundant in English and has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5. Judges 12:4 tn Heb “because they said.”
6. Judges 12:4 tc Heb “Refugees of Ephraim are you, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.” The LXX omits the entire second half of the verse (beginning with “because”). The words כִּי אָמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם (ki ʾam^eru p^elite ʾefrayim, “because they said, ‘Refugees of Ephraim’”) may have been accidentally copied from the next verse (cf. כִּי יֹאמְרוּ פְּלִיטֵי אֶפְרַיִם, ki yoʾm^eru pelite ʾefrayim) and the following words (“you, O Gilead…Manasseh”) then added in an attempt to make sense of the verse. See G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 307-8, and C. F. Burney, Judges, 327. If the Hebrew text is retained, then the Ephraimites appear to be insulting the Gileadites by describing them as refugees who are squatting on Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s land. The present translation assumes that “Ephraim” is a genitive of location after “refugees.”
7. Judges 12:5 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.
8. Judges 12:5 tn Or “against Ephraim,” that is, so as to prevent Ephraim from crossing.
9. Judges 12:5 tn The Hebrew text has a plural form here.
10. Judges 12:5 tn Heb “say to.”