Judges

No published English Bible, commentary, or study note was open while Judges was drafted. The wording source was the ancient-language witnesses named in the notes. A lexicon or grammar may be used for a source word. Greek, Syriac, and Latin, when they appear, witness the source wording. They are not models for the English.

The continuous copy is the Leningrad Codex, read in the Open Scriptures diplomatic text of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Dead Sea copies of Judges are fragmentary. This draft does not replace Leningrad with a reading that was not read off a fragment. No earlier wording is guessed into the English. The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default. Written consonants are printed. Where the Masoretic reading differs, the note says so.

Yahweh prints the divine name. The consonants in the Hebrew are YHWH. The vowels in “Yahweh” are a later convention, not a record of how the oldest copies said the name. See the glossary.

Adoni-bezek is a name. Adoni here is not the divine name.

Behonot are the thumbs of the hands and the big toes of the feet.

Ha-qaton mimmennu is the one younger than he.

Gullot illit and gullot tahtit are each one spring. The adjectives are singular. Joshua 15:19 uses the same words, and that line was printed as plural springs. This line is not changed to match it.

They devoted the city. Hormah is named from that verb.

Ki lo lehorish is an infinitive, “it was not for driving out.” The line does not say “was not able.”

The written consonants at Dor are yoshev, “inhabitant,” singular. The Masoretic reading is yoshve, “inhabitants of.” The written singular is printed.

The verb is doubled: horash lo horisho, “drive out, he did not drive him out.”

Ha-sela is the rock. It is printed as the place named in the line.