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Judges 21:10-12
New English Translation
Judges 21:10-12
New English Translation
10 So the assembly sent 12,000 capable warriors[a] against Jabesh Gilead.[b] They commanded them, “Go and kill with your swords[c] the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, including the women and little children. 11 Do this:[d] Exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has experienced a man’s bed.[e] But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed.[f] 12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead 400 young girls who were virgins who had never been intimate with a man in bed.[g] They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
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- Judges 21:10 tn Heb “men, sons of strength.”
- Judges 21:10 tn Heb “there.”
- Judges 21:10 tn Heb “the edge of the sword.”
- Judges 21:11 tn Heb “And this is the thing that you will do.”
- Judges 21:11 tn Heb “a knower of the bed of a male.” The verb יָדָע (yadaʿ) “to know,” “be intimate with,” is used as a euphemism for sexual relations.
- Judges 21:11 tc 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 (veʾet habbetulot tekhayyu vayyaʿasu khen). It is likely that a scribe’s eye jumped from the ו (vav) on וְאֶת (veʾet) to the initial vav of v. 11, accidentally leaving out the intervening letters. The present translation is based on this reconstruction.
- Judges 21:12 tn Heb “who were not knowers of a man by the bed of a male.” The verb יָדַע (yadaʿ) “to know,” or “to be intimate with,” acts as a euphemism for sexual relations, which is further clarified by reference to a man’s bed.
New English Translation (NET)
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