On the Hebrew text. The Hebrew follows the Masoretic Text in the Leningrad tradition, as represented by standard diplomatic editions in their main wording; distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced. Versification follows the MT.

The Book of Judges (MT) — Interlinear Summary

A consolidated companion to the Masoretic-Text Judges data set: each chapter rendered as a six-tier Hebrew reverse-interlinear (Hebrew · gloss · parsing · syntax · semantic force · lexical note), with per-verse discourse analysis and a chapter argument-outline.

This document gathers, for each annotated chapter, the theme, the argument outline (the outline movements authored into each data file), and the textual / exegetical note (the text_note of each file, with the shared critical-text preface removed since it is stated once above). Judges traces the darkening spiral between Joshua and the monarchy — apostasy, oppression, outcry, and deliverance repeating through Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, down to the days when 'there was no king in Israel; each man did what was right in his own eyes.' The Hebrew follows the Masoretic Text in the Leningrad tradition (Westminster Leningrad Codex / OSHB); distinctively copyrighted apparatus is not reproduced, and Hebrew (MT) versification is used throughout.

Scope. 21 chapters · 618 verses · 9,905 annotated words.

After Joshua: The Pattern Set (1–3)

Judges 1 — שפטים 1

Theme. After Joshua, Israel inquires of YHWH and wins real victories — Bezek, Jerusalem, Hebron — but unified conquest gives way to fragmented tribal initiative. Judah cannot clear the valley's iron chariots; Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan settle for coexistence, labor, or retreat. Judges opens where obedience already falls short.

Outline.

I. 1–2 — The Oracle and the Appointment of Judah. After Joshua's death, Israel faces a leadership vacuum and inquires of YHWH; Judah is named to go up first, with the land pledged as already given — setting the standard of divine backing against which the chapter's later failures will be measured.
II. 3 — The Judah-Simeon Pact. Judah immediately subcontracts the campaign to Simeon in a reciprocal local alliance, establishing the pattern of tribal initiative and piecemeal cooperation rather than unified national action.
III. 4–8 — Bezek, Adoni-Bezek, and Jerusalem. Decisive victories at Bezek culminate in the captured king's own measure-for-measure confession, then in Jerusalem's capture and burning — a triumphant opening movement.
IV. 9–15 — The Southern Campaign: Hebron, Debir, and the Caleb Family. The Anakite strongholds fall, and the Caleb-Othniel-Achsah doublet (retold from Joshua 15) closes the southern campaign on a note of generous, secure inheritance.
V. 16–18 — The Kenites, Hormah, and the Coastal Cities. Allied Kenites settle in the Negev, Hormah is placed under the ban, and Judah reportedly takes the Philistine coastal cities — the last unambiguous victories before the tone shifts.
VI. 19–21 — The Thesis Verse and Benjamin's Failure. Verse 19 states the chapter's controlling formula — divine presence plus real but partial success — and v.21 immediately supplies Benjamin's failure to dispossess the Jebusite from Jerusalem, in tension with v.8.
VII. 22–26 — The House of Joseph at Bethel. YHWH is said to be with Joseph, yet Bethel falls through espionage and a negotiated deal of hesed with an informant who is exiled rather than destroyed — success by morally mixed means.
VIII. 27–36 — The Failure Catalogue: Manasseh to Dan. A descending register of non-dispossession moves through Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan, inverting the settlement-formula onto Israel itself and closing on the Amorite's own border rather than Israel's secured land.

Textual note. The Hebrew follows the Masoretic Leningrad Codex/OSHB stream; BHS/BHQ apparatus is not reproduced. Judges 1 preserves several notable cruxes. At v.8 Jerusalem is struck and burned by Judah, yet v.21 reports the Jebusite still dwelling there with Benjamin 'to this day' — a tension the MT holds without harmonizing, likely reflecting divergent source traditions about the city. Verses 12-15 retell the Caleb-Othniel-Achsah episode almost verbatim from Joshua 15:16-19, a deliberate doublet at the seam between the books. At v.18 the MT credits Judah with capturing Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, but the LXX reads negatively here ('did not take possession'), aligning better with v.19's own qualification and the historical persistence of Philistine power in these cities — a genuine crux with no clean resolution. Verse 27 preserves a minor scribal duplication: the consonantal text carries both a defective Kethiv (ישב) and the fuller Qere (יֹשְׁבֵי) for 'inhabitants of Dor,' left standing side by side. The tribal failure-catalogue (vv.27-36) closely parallels and likely draws on Joshua 17:11-13's list of Manasseh's unconquered cities. Versification follows the MT throughout.

Judges 2 — שפטים 2

Theme. Judges 2 supplies the book's theological engine: the angel's indictment at Bochim, Joshua's death closing the conquest generation, and the generation that knew neither YHWH nor his work (v. 10) together generate the recurring cycle — apostasy, anger, oppression, a raised-up judge, relapse — each round sinking lower than the last.

Outline.

A. 2:1–5 — The angel at Bochim. A theophanic messenger ascends from Gilgal, the covenant camp, to Bochim and delivers a first-person divine indictment: the recited exodus and sworn land-gift, Israel's forbidden covenants with the nations and unbroken altars, and the reversal of the promise into thorns and a snare. The rhetorical question 'what is this you have done?' deliberately echoes YHWH's question to Eve (Gen 3:13). The people's weeping supplies the etiology for the place-name Bochim, and the scene closes with sacrifice to YHWH.
B. 2:6–10 — The Joshua retrospect and the generational rupture. A flashback closely paralleling Joshua 24:28-31 narrates Joshua's dismissal of the people, the era of faithful service bounded by his lifetime and the elders who outlived him and had seen YHWH's great work, his death and burial at Timnath-heres (the famous inversion of Joshua's Timnath-serah), and then pivots on the hinge verse: a new generation arises 'who did not know YHWH, nor the work he had done for Israel' — the diagnosis on which the rest of the book depends.
C. 2:11–19 — The paradigm of the judges, stated once for all. The cycle that will structure the rest of the book is given its programmatic statement: apostasy to the Baals and Ashtaroth, YHWH's kindled anger and sale of Israel into the hand of plunderers and enemies, the raising up of judges who deliver Israel because YHWH is moved to pity by their groaning, and, at each judge's death, a relapse into corruption worse than the fathers' — a downward ratchet rather than static repetition.
D. 2:20–23 — The verdict and the test. YHWH pronounces a covenant lawsuit against 'this nation' for transgressing the covenant and refusing to obey, formally and permanently withholding further dispossession of the remaining nations. That withholding is then reframed as a deliberate test of covenant loyalty (cf. 3:1-2, 3:4), and the chapter closes with narrative confirmation that the nations were left in place, never given even into Joshua's own hand.

Textual note. The chapter is a composite unit built from at least three originally distinct materials, sutured by the narrator into the book's programmatic frame. Verses 6-9 repeat Joshua 24:28-31 almost verbatim, a recognized doublet whose seams the MT preserves rather than smooths — most famously the burial site תִּמְנַת חֶרֶס ('Timnath-heres', v. 9) against Joshua's תִּמְנַת סֶרַח ('Timnath-serah', Josh 19:50; 24:30), the same three consonants (ח-ר-ס/ס-ר-ח) transposed, a long-debated scribal-inversion crux with no consensus resolution (metathesis, dialectal variant, or deliberate avoidance of a sun-toponym have all been proposed). The angel-at-Bochim scene (vv. 1-5) and the cyclical paradigm (vv. 11-19) are each self-contained units bracketing the retrospect, joined by the hinge verse 10 ('another generation... who did not know YHWH'). The MT gives at least three distinct rationales for Israel's incomplete possession of the land across the book's opening chapters: judgment for covenant-breaking (2:20-21), pedagogical testing (2:22; cf. 3:4), and preventing the land from lying desolate before Israel's population could fill it (3:1-2) — this chapter voices the first two without harmonizing them into a single explanation. Versification follows the MT throughout.

Judges 3 — שפטים 3

Theme. Judges 3 puts the book's cycle to work: the remaining nations serve as both war-school and covenant test (vv.1-6), Othniel embodies the paradigm judge in miniature (vv.7-11), and Ehud's richly ironic assassination of Eglon and rout of Moab supplies the book's first sustained narrative (vv.12-30) — closing with the one-verse enigma of Shamgar (v.31).

Outline.

A. 3:1–6 — The remaining nations: war-school and covenant test. The nations left in the land are named concretely — the five Philistine lords, the Canaanite, Sidonian, and Hivite, stretching from Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath — and their double purpose is restated: pedagogical war-experience for generations who never fought (echoing the covenant test of 2:22) and a genuine test of obedience to what YHWH 'commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.' The unit closes with Deuteronomy 7:3-4 realized in miniature: intermarriage with the six nations leads directly to serving their gods.
B. 3:7–11 — Othniel: the paradigm judge. Othniel receives the full cycle-formula in its purest, most schematic form — apostasy to the Baals and Asheroth, YHWH's kindled anger and sale to Cushan-rishathaim ('double wickedness') of Aram-naharaim, the cry, the book's first Spirit-endowment, decisive victory, and forty years' rest — establishing the pattern every later judge will vary. His identity as Caleb's kinsman ties the cycle directly back to the conquest generation of ch.1.
C. 3:12–30 — Ehud and the deliverance from Moab. The book's first extended narrative: Eglon of Moab, joined by Ammon and Amalek, seizes the City of Palms and oppresses Israel eighteen years. Left-handed Ehud, sent with tribute, conceals a custom double-edged sword, wins a private audience on the pretext of 'a word of God,' and kills the enormously fat king with grim, almost comic precision — the narrator lingering over hilt, fat, and the notorious crux פַּרְשְׁדֹנָה. The servants' innocent misreading of the locked door buys Ehud his escape; his trumpet call turns a private killing into public war, and Moab is crushed at the Jordan fords, yielding the longest peace yet recorded, eighty years.
D. 3:31 — Shamgar: the one-verse judge. The book's briefest judge notice: Shamgar son of Anath kills six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad and 'also saved Israel' — with no apostasy, named oppressor, cry, or Spirit-endowment recorded, only the bare deliverance formula. The verse introduces the Philistines as antagonists ahead of their much larger role later in Judges.

Textual note. This chapter's Hebrew preserves several of the book's most debated textual cruxes. וַיֵּצֵא הַפַּרְשְׁדֹנָה (v.22) contains a hapax legomenon whose sense is genuinely disputed — proposals include 'the excrement came out,' 'it (the blade) came out at the rear/anus,' and 'he (Ehud) went out to the vestibule/porch'; no reading commands consensus, and this annotation treats the crux honestly rather than forcing a decision. הַפְּסִילִים 'near Gilgal' (vv.19, 26) is similarly ambiguous between 'the carved images/idols' and 'the quarried/hewn stones,' a place-name whose exact referent is unrecoverable with certainty. The chapter also contains several rare or unique terms: גֹּמֶד (v.16, a short cubit/span measure), מְקֵרָה (vv.20, 24, the 'cool chamber'), מִסְדְּרוֹן (v.23, 'vestibule'), and מַלְמַד הַבָּקָר (v.31, 'ox-goad') — none elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, each requiring judgment calls informed by cognate evidence and context rather than parallel usage. Cushan-rishathaim's title (v.8), 'Cushan of double wickedness, king of Aram of the two rivers,' is widely regarded as a satirical construction rather than a preserved historical name. Versification follows the MT throughout; the chapter divides cleanly into the remaining-nations unit (1-6), Othniel (7-11), Ehud (12-30), and Shamgar (31), with no major variation from LXX versification.

Deborah, Gideon, and the Early Judges (4–8)

Judges 4 — שפטים 4

Theme. Judges 4 tells the sixth oppression-and-deliverance cycle: Israel's evil delivers them to Jabin of Hazor and his commander Sisera's nine hundred iron chariots. Deborah the prophetess-judge commissions Barak against Sisera at the Kishon; her prophecy that a woman will win the day's glory is fulfilled not by her but by Jael, who kills Sisera with a tent peg.

Outline.

A. 4:1–3 — The Cycle Resumes. Israel's relapse ('again the evil') after Ehud's death opens a new oppression under Jabin/Sisera, quantified by nine hundred iron chariots and twenty years of hazaqah oppression — setting the stakes for what follows.
B. 4:4–5 — Deborah Introduced. A triple-titled woman — wife/woman, prophetess, and sitting judge — is established as Israel's functioning authority, the only judge in the book shown actually adjudicating cases, preparing her authority to commission Barak.
C. 4:6–10 — The Commission and the Conditional. Deborah relays YHWH's battle plan to Barak; his conditional refusal to go without her provokes her acceptance paired with a prophecy that the day's glory will go to a woman, planting the chapter's central irony.
D. 4:11 — The Aside on Heber the Kenite. An apparently incidental notice of Heber's separation and tent-site relocates the narrative's future weapon before the battle, so the audience — but not the characters — knows where Sisera will run.
E. 4:12–16 — The Rout at the Kishon. Battle is joined only after Deborah's command; YHWH, not tactics, routs Sisera's army, and Sisera abandons his own chariot to flee on foot — undercutting the chariot-based threat established in vv.1-3.
F. 4:17–22 — Jael and the Tent Peg. Sisera seeks refuge with a nominal ally; hospitality language ('turn aside,' 'do not fear,' milk instead of water) masks the assassination that fulfills v.9's prophecy when Barak arrives to find the woman was Jael, not Deborah.
G. 4:23–24 — The Subduing of Jabin. The chapter's close pulls back to the theological summary — God, not Israel's generals, subdues Jabin — and tracks the follow-through campaign in a durative idiom (halok weqashah) until Jabin's dynasty is cut off.

Textual note. Judges 4 is textually stable in the Leningrad Codex, but holds real cruxes worth flagging, not smoothing over. Most consequential: Jabin king of Canaan/Hazor reappears after Joshua 11 already records Hazor's burning and a King Jabin's death there (Josh 11:1, 10-11); the MT gives no explanation — new dynasty, stock throne-name, or conquest-tradition doublet are all possible, and this note leaves the question open. Verse 11's toponym is doubled in the Leningrad Codex itself: an unpointed בצענים stands beside pointed בְּצַעֲנַנִּים, apparently preserving a defective and a fuller spelling of the Zaanannim of Josh 19:33 side by side, not a simple copyist slip. אֵשֶׁת לַפִּידוֹת (v.4) is deliberately ambiguous: לַפִּידוֹת may be a husband's name, otherwise unattested, or the plural 'torches/flames,' yielding 'woman of torches' — notably the one judge introduced without a father's name. שְׂמִיכָה (v.18, 'rug, covering') is a hapax legomenon of disputed sense. The chapter's feminine wayyiqtols for Deborah and Jael, and the rare infinitive-absolute durative idiom of v.24 (הָלוֹךְ וְקָשָׁה), are preserved and explained in the syntax layer rather than normalized into ordinary prose.

Judges 5 — שפטים 5

Theme. Judges 5 is the Song of Deborah: archaic victory poetry answering the prose of chapter 4. Deborah and Barak sing the theophany from Seir, the dark days when caravans ceased, the tribal roll of those who came and those who stayed, the stars and the Kishon fighting Sisera, the curse on Meroz and the blessing on Jael, and the savage irony of Sisera's mother at the window — closing with an imprecation on YHWH's enemies and forty years' rest.

Outline.

A. 5:1 — Narrative superscription. A brief prose frame: Deborah and Barak sang on that day — the song is dated to the victory of chapter 4 and given two named voices.
B. 5:2–3 — Bless YHWH; summons to kings. The poem opens with the occasion of praise (leaders leading, people volunteering) and a first-person singer addressing foreign kings: the song is testimony before the nations.
C. 5:4–5 — Theophany from Seir. YHWH's march from Seir/Edom/Sinai shakes earth, heavens, and mountains — the Sinai theophany replayed as the true cause of the Kishon victory.
D. 5:6–8 — The dark days. In the days of Shamgar and Jael, roads died, village life ceased, new gods were chosen, and no shield or spear was seen among forty thousand — the oppression that makes the volunteering of vv.2, 9 miraculous.
E. 5:9–11 — The volunteers rehearsed. Deborah's heart is with Israel's commanders and volunteers; riders, judges, and wayfarers are told to recount YHWH's righteous acts at the watering-places, and the people go down to the gates.
F. 5:12–13 — Awake, Deborah; arise, Barak. A double summons: Deborah to song, Barak to take captives. Then the remnant goes down to the nobles — the battle-roll begins.
G. 5:14–18 — Tribal roll: who came, who stayed. Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir, Zebulun, Issachar, Naphtali come; Reuben searches its heart among the sheepfolds; Gilead, Dan, and Asher stay by Jordan and sea. The poem names loyalty and its refusal.
H. 5:19–22 — Kings, stars, and the Kishon. Canaanite kings fight at Taanach by Megiddo and take no silver; the stars fight from their courses; the ancient torrent Kishon sweeps the host, and horses' hoofs hammer in flight.
I. 5:23 — Curse Meroz. The angel of YHWH curses Meroz for not coming to YHWH's help among the warriors — the negative counterpart to the tribal volunteers.
J. 5:24–27 — Bless Jael; the tent-peg killing. Jael is most blessed of tent-women. Hospitality (water asked, milk and curds given in a lordly bowl) turns to the slow-motion killing: peg, hammer, smashed temple, and the falling refrain between her feet.
K. 5:28–30 — Sisera's mother at the window. The camera cuts to Sisera's mother behind lattice, asking why the chariot delays; her princesses answer with the expected spoil — dyed cloth and captive women — the poem's bitter irony, since the audience already knows he is dead.
L. 5:31 — Imprecation and rest. So perish all YHWH's enemies; those who love him are like the sun going forth in its might. The cycle formula closes: the land was quiet forty years.

Textual note. The Song of Deborah is among the oldest extended poems in the Hebrew Bible, and the MT preserves a densely archaic, often elliptical diction whose cruxes are genuine rather than scribal accidents. Several readings are flagged rather than smoothed. בִּפְרֹעַ פְּרָעוֹת (v.2) is read here as 'when leaders led,' in parallel with the people's volunteering; the rival etymology from פָּרַע 'let hair hang loose' (cf. Num 5:18) remains live. שַׁקַּמְתִּי (v.7) is the MT's שֶׁ + קַמְתִּי 'until I arose'; the widely proposed שַׂרְתִּי 'I arose as prince/I led' is an emendation, not the received text. לָחֶם שְׁעָרִים (v.8, H3901 not H3899) is 'war at the gates,' not 'bread.' יָרַד (vv.13) is tagged by OSHB as רָדָה (H7287) 'to rule,' but the consonants are identical with יָרַד (H3381) 'to go down,' which the parallel יָרְדוּ of v.14 and the descent to the gates in v.11 favor — this annotation translates 'went down' while keeping the OSHB Strong's number. מְחַצְּצִים / מַשְׁאֲבִים (v.11) are taken as those who divide water at the watering-places (the contextual pair); 'archers' is the older alternative for מחצצים. רֶחֶם רַחֲמָתַיִם (v.30) is the poem's harshest line: 'a womb, two wombs' as captive women counted among spoil. Meroz (v.23) is otherwise unknown. Versification follows the MT throughout; the narrative superscription (v.1) and the forty-year rest (v.31b) frame the song in the book's cycle formula.

Judges 6 — שפטים 6

Theme. Judges 6 opens Gideon's cycle: Midianite raids reduce Israel to mountain dens, a prophet indicts the people for not listening, and the messenger of YHWH finds Gideon beating wheat in a winepress. The call, the fire-sign under the oak, the night destruction of Baal's altar (and the name Jerubbaal), the Spirit's clothing, and the two fleece tests together move a hidden youngest son toward the battle that chapter 7 will fight.

Outline.

A. 6:1–6 — Midianite oppression. The cycle resumes: seven years in Midian's hand, mountain dens, locust-like raids to Gaza, Israel brought very low, and the cry to YHWH.
B. 6:7–10 — The unnamed prophet's indictment. YHWH's first answer is not a deliverer but a prophet: exodus, land-gift, and the charge 'you have not listened to my voice' — then the prophet disappears.
C. 6:11–24 — The oak at Ophrah: call, sign, and YHWH-Shalom. The messenger sits under the oak while Gideon hides wheat in a winepress; the greeting, protest, commission ('I have sent you'), meal-become-sacrifice, fire from the rock, and the altar named YHWH-Shalom.
D. 6:25–32 — Night demolition and the name Jerubbaal. That night Gideon pulls down his father's Baal-altar and Asherah, builds YHWH's altar, and is defended by Joash: if Baal is a god, let him contend — hence Jerubbaal.
E. 6:33–35 — The Spirit and the muster. The eastern host camps in Jezreel; the Spirit clothes Gideon; the shofar gathers Abiezer, then Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali.
F. 6:36–40 — The two fleece tests. Gideon asks two signs of the coming salvation — dew on the fleece only, then the reverse — and God grants both. The chapter ends before the battle.

Textual note. Judges 6 is textually stable in the Leningrad tradition, with a few well-known cruxes left standing. The speaker of the Ophrah scene shifts without ceremony from מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה (vv.11–12, 20–22) to יְהוָה himself (vv.14, 16, 23, 25) — the MT does not harmonize messenger and deity, and this annotation does not either. אַלְפִּי (v.15) is 'my thousand/clan,' the Manassite military division, not merely 'my family.' Verse 25's two-bull command (פַּר הַשּׁוֹר … וְפַר הַשֵּׁנִי שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים) is awkward: some read a single seven-year-old bull; the MT names two, and v.26, 28 use 'the second bull' as the offering. אֵלָה (v.11) is the oak/terebinth at Ophrah, a known sacred tree-site. יְרֻבַּעַל (v.32) is a folk etymology from רב 'contend'; the name may historically mean 'May Baal contend/be great,' inverted here against Baal. רוּחַ יְהוָה לָבְשָׁה (v.34) is the Spirit 'wearing' Gideon as a garment, a rare idiom (cf. 1 Chr 12:19; 2 Chr 24:20). Versification follows the MT throughout.

Judges 7 — שפטים 7

Theme. Judges 7 is the night YHWH saves by three hundred. The host is twice too many; the fearful leave, the kneelers leave, and a barley-loaf dream in the enemy's mouth gives Gideon the courage the fleece could not. Horns, jars, and torches do the first work; YHWH sets sword against neighbor, and Ephraim takes Oreb and Zeeb at the fords.

Outline.

A. 7:1–8 — The army reduced to three hundred. From En-harod YHWH twice sifts the host — the fearful go home, then the water-lappers are kept — lest Israel boast. Three hundred remain with provisions and horns; the rest are sent to their tents.
B. 7:9–15 — The Midianite dream. If Gideon is afraid, he is to go down with Purah and hear. A barley loaf topples a tent; the neighbor names it Gideon's sword. Gideon worships and returns to raise Israel.
C. 7:16–22 — Horns, jars, torches, and panic. Three companies at the middle watch smash jars, blow horns, and cry 'a sword for YHWH and for Gideon.' They stand in place; YHWH sets sword against neighbor, and the camp flees.
D. 7:23–25 — Pursuit; Oreb and Zeeb. Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh pursue; Ephraim seizes the Jordan waters and captures the princes Oreb and Zeeb, bringing their heads to Gideon across the river.

Textual note. Several local cruxes in Judges 7 are left visible. הַר הַגִּלְעָד (v.3) as the place from which the fearful 'fly' sits awkwardly in a Jezreel setting; proposals include a textual slip for Gilboa or a traditional formula. The lapping test (vv.5–6) is not perfectly aligned: v.5 contrasts tongue-lapping like a dog with kneeling, while v.6 counts those who lap 'with their hand to their mouth' as the 300. צְלִיל לֶחֶם שְׂעֹרִים (v.13) is a 'loaf/round of barley bread' tumbling — peasant fare as the omen against Midianite tents. Place-names of the flight (Beth-shittah, Zererah/Zeredah, Abel-meholah, Tabbath) and of the kills (Rock of Oreb, Winepress of Zeeb, Beth-barah) are preserved as the MT gives them. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 8 — שפטים 8

Theme. Judges 8 is Gideon's aftermath: Ephraim is soothed with a proverb, Succoth and Penuel are punished for refusing bread, Zebah and Zalmunna die by Gideon's own hand, kingship is refused in words and compromised in an ephod, and after forty years' rest Israel forgets both YHWH and the house of Jerubbaal — leaving Abimelech named and waiting.

Outline.

A. 8:1–3 — Ephraim's quarrel, softened. Ephraim contends fiercely for not being called; Gideon yields them the honor of Oreb and Zeeb, and their anger subsides.
B. 8:4–21 — Succoth, Penuel, and the killing of the kings. The weary 300 are refused bread at Succoth and Penuel; Gideon captures Zebah and Zalmunna, threshes Succoth, wrecks Penuel, and himself kills the kings after Jether will not.
C. 8:22–27 — Rule refused; the ephod at Ophrah. Israel asks Gideon and his line to rule; he says YHWH will rule, then makes a gold ephod from the spoil that becomes a snare in Ophrah.
D. 8:28–35 — Rest, death, and the forgotten house. Midian is subdued forty years; Gideon dies in good old age after seventy sons and Abimelech of Shechem; Israel whores after Baal-berith and shows no hesed to Jerubbaal's house.

Textual note. Judges 8 carries several historical-geographical and lexical cruxes. Succoth and Penuel are Transjordan towns of Jacob's story (Gen 32–33); their officials' question uses כַּף, 'palm,' the same idiom as 6:13–14. Karkor, Nobah, Jogbehah, and the 'ascent of Heres' are mapped as the MT gives them. שַׂהֲרֹנִים (vv.21, 26) are moon-crescents, camel-ornaments of Midianite royalty. The 1,700-weight of gold earrings (v.26) is a round inventory, 'besides' the rest of the royal kit. The ephod (v.27) is not described as a vestment only; set up in Ophrah it functions as a cult-object Israel 'whored after.' Abimelech's name (v.31) means 'my father is king,' set against v.23's refusal. Baal-berith (v.33) is Shechem's 'Baal of the covenant,' the local god of chapter 9. Versification follows the MT.

Abimelech to Jephthah (9–12)

Judges 9 — שפטים 9

Theme. Judges 9 is kingship as fratricide. Abimelech buys Shechem with Baal-berith silver, slaughters Gideon's seventy sons, and is crowned at the oak; Jotham's buckthorn fable from Gerizim names the fire that will eat both sides. God sends an evil spirit, Shechem is salted, a woman at Thebez ends the king, and the curse arrives.

Outline.

A. 9:1–6 — The massacre and the crowning. Abimelech buys reckless men with Baal-berith silver, kills seventy brothers on one stone, and is made king at Shechem's oak; only Jotham hides.
B. 9:7–21 — Jotham's fable from Gerizim. Olive, fig, and vine refuse to sway over the trees; the buckthorn accepts and threatens fire. Jotham applies it: if you have not done right with Jerubbaal, fire will eat both sides. He flees to Beer.
C. 9:22–41 — The evil spirit; Gaal and Zebul. God sends an evil spirit. Gaal son of Ebed mocks Abimelech at a vintage feast; Zebul lures him out; Abimelech ambushes, Gaal flees, Zebul expels him.
D. 9:42–49 — Shechem destroyed; the tower burned. Abimelech massacres the field-crowd, captures the city, salts it, and burns the lords of the Tower of Shechem in the crypt of El-berith — about a thousand dead.
E. 9:50–57 — Thebez, the millstone, the curse fulfilled. At Thebez a woman crushes Abimelech's skull with a millstone; he has his armor-bearer kill him. God returns the evil of both Abimelech and Shechem; Jotham's curse comes upon them.

Textual note. Judges 9 is a long, relatively stable narrative with a few local cruxes. Beth-millo (v.6, 20) is likely Shechem's acropolis/citadel. The oak of the מַצֵּב (v.6) is a standing-stone sanctuary. אָטָד (vv.14–15) is the buckthorn/bramble, not a fruit tree — the point of the fable. בְּתָרְמָה (v.31) is often read 'in Tormah' or 'secretly' (תָּרְמָה). צְרִיחַ (vv.46, 49) is a crypt/hold of El-berith / Baal-berith. The millstone at Thebez (v.53) is an upper millstone (פֶּלַח רֶכֶב); Abimelech's request that a man kill him (v.54) does not undo the narrator's credit to the woman. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 10 — שפטים 10

Theme. Judges 10 is the hinge from Abimelech to Jephthah: Tola and Jair hold a quiet generation, then Israel serves every neighboring god and is crushed eighteen years by Ammon and the Philistines. YHWH refuses to save, they put away the foreign gods, his soul is shortened over their misery, and Gilead looks for a man to begin the fight.

Outline.

A. 10:1–5 — Tola and Jair. Two minor judges restore a quiet interval: Tola of Issachar twenty-three years at Shamir; Jair of Gilead twenty-two years, thirty sons on thirty donkeys, Havvoth-jair.
B. 10:6–16 — The double oppression and YHWH's refusal. Israel serves seven sets of gods; YHWH sells them to Philistines and Ammon for eighteen years. They cry; he recites past saves and refuses; they put away foreign gods, and his soul is shortened over their misery.
C. 10:17–18 — Camps at Gilead and Mizpah. Ammon camps in Gilead; Israel at Mizpah. The officials ask who will begin the fight — he shall be head of Gilead.

Textual note. The minor-judge notices (vv.1–5) use the same spare formula as 12:8–15. Havvoth-jair (v.4) is a toponym already in Num 32:41; Deut 3:14. The idolatry list (v.6) is the book's longest. מָעוֹן (v.12) is 'Maon'; some versions read Midian. וַתִּקְצַר נַפְשׁוֹ (v.16) is 'his soul was shortened' — divine impatience of compassion, not caprice. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 11 — שפטים 11

Theme. Judges 11 is Jephthah the outcast made head: a prostitute's son fetched from Tob, a legal embassy that Ammon will not hear, a Spirit-given victory bought with a vow, and a daughter who comes out with tambourines. The narrator does not unsay the vow.

Outline.

A. 11:1–11 — The outcast made head. Driven out as a prostitute's son, Jephthah is fetched from Tob, bargains to be head if YHWH gives victory, and is installed at Mizpah before YHWH.
B. 11:12–28 — The embassy to Ammon. Jephthah's messengers deny Israel took Moab or Ammon; the land is Sihon's, given by YHWH. Chemosh may keep his gifts; Israel will keep YHWH's. The king will not listen.
C. 11:29–33 — The Spirit, the vow, the victory. The Spirit comes; Jephthah vows whatever comes from his doors as a burnt offering; YHWH gives Ammon into his hand from Aroer to Abel-keramim.
D. 11:34–40 — The daughter. His only child meets him with dances. He tears his clothes; she consents; after two months on the mountains he does the vow; Israel's daughters recount her four days a year.

Textual note. Several cruxes are left standing. Chemosh (v.24) is Moab's god, named here to an Ammonite king; whether this is diplomatic loosening, a tradition that mixed the two, or a jab, the MT does not explain. The vow (vv.30–31, 39) is a burnt-offering vow (הַעֲלִיתִהוּ עוֹלָה); readings that make the daughter a perpetual virgin rather than a sacrifice must work against that wording, and this annotation does not replace the narrator's 'he did to her his vow.' תַּנּוֹת (v.40) is 'to recount/lament.' Three hundred years (v.26) is Jephthah's figure for Israel's occupation. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 12 — שפטים 12

Theme. Judges 12 is Ephraim's second quarrel, now lethal: Gilead holds the fords, Shibboleth unmasks the fugitive, and forty-two thousand fall. Jephthah's six years end, and Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon restore the minor-judge quiet.

Outline.

A. 12:1–6 — Ephraim, Shibboleth, the fords. Ephraim threatens to burn Jephthah's house; Gilead fights, takes the Jordan fords, and slaughters those who cannot say Shibboleth — 42,000 dead.
B. 12:7 — Jephthah's death. Six years he judged; he is buried in the cities of Gilead.
C. 12:8–15 — Ibzan, Elon, Abdon. Three minor judges close the Jephthah era: Ibzan of Bethlehem with thirty sons and thirty daughters; Elon the Zebulunite; Abdon of Pirathon with forty sons and thirty grandsons on seventy donkeys.

Textual note. שִׁבֹּלֶת / סִבֹּלֶת (v.6) is the classic dialect test; the MT preserves both pronunciations. עָרֵי גִלְעָד (v.7) is plural 'cities of Gilead' as the burial site — odd for one man; some Greek witnesses name a single town. Ibzan's Bethlehem (v.8) is not specified as Judah's or Zebulun's. Elon/Aijalon (vv.11–12) play on the same consonants. Versification follows the MT.

Samson (13–16)

Judges 13 — שפטים 13

Theme. Judges 13 is Samson's nativity: a barren Danite woman, a messenger whose name is Wonderful, a Nazirite from the womb who will only begin to save, and the Spirit already stirring between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Outline.

A. 13:1 — Philistine oppression. Israel again does evil; YHWH gives them to the Philistines forty years.
B. 13:2–7 — The messenger and the barren woman. Manoah's barren wife is told she will bear a Nazirite from the womb who will begin to save Israel.
C. 13:8–23 — Manoah's inquiry; the offering; the ascent in flame. Manoah asks the rule for the boy; the messenger refuses food, takes a burnt offering, goes up in the altar's flame; Manoah fears death, his wife reasons otherwise.
D. 13:24–25 — Samson born; the Spirit stirs him. The boy is named Samson, grows, is blessed; the Spirit begins to stir him at Mahaneh-dan.

Textual note. The messenger/YHWH overlay of ch. 6 returns. נְזִיר אֱלֹהִים מִן־הַבֶּטֶן (v.5) is Nazirite status from birth, unlike Num 6's voluntary term. פֶּלִאי (v.18) is 'wonderful.' יָחֵל לְהוֹשִׁיעַ (v.5) 'he shall begin to save' already limits Samson's work. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 14 — שפטים 14

Theme. Judges 14 is Samson's Timnite marriage as YHWH's occasion: a lion torn, honey from the eater, a riddle plowed out of him by his wife, and thirty Ashkelonites dead for a change of clothes.

Outline.

A. 14:1–4 — The Timnite woman. Samson sees a Philistine woman; his parents object; the narrator says it is from YHWH, an occasion, for Philistines rule Israel.
B. 14:5–9 — The lion and the honey. The Spirit rushes; he tears a lion; later bees and honey are in the carcass, eaten and given, untold.
C. 14:10–20 — The riddle, the betrayal, Ashkelon. A seven-day feast, a riddle, a wife pressed to betrayal, thirty men of Ashkelon stripped for the wager; the wife is given to his companion.

Textual note. Timnah (v.1) is on the Philistine border. The riddle (v.14) depends on knowledge only Samson has; 'plow with my heifer' (v.18) is the proverb of the leak. Seventh-day timing in vv.15, 17–18 is slightly crowded in the MT. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 15 — שפטים 15

Theme. Judges 15 is reprisal in harvest: foxes in the grain, Judah handing Samson over, a thousand at Lehi with a jawbone, and water from the rock he named.

Outline.

A. 15:1–8 — The foxes and the great blow. Denied his wife, Samson burns the Philistine grain with foxes; they burn the woman and her father; he strikes hip and thigh and lives in Etam's cleft.
B. 15:9–17 — Judah binds him; the jawbone at Lehi. Judah delivers Samson bound; the Spirit melts the ropes; a thousand fall by a donkey's jawbone; the place is named Ramath-lehi.
C. 15:18–20 — Water and twenty years. Thirst, a cry, a split hollow, En-hakkore; he judged Israel twenty years in Philistine days.

Textual note. Lehi (לחי, 'jawbone') is both place and weapon. The poem in v.16 puns חמור. הַמַּכְתֵּשׁ (v.19) is a mortar-hollow. Twenty years (v.20) is restated at 16:31. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 16 — שפטים 16

Theme. Judges 16 is the end of Samson: Gaza's gates, Delilah in Sorek, the Nazirite secret sold, eyes put out, and a last prayer that drops Dagon's house — more dead in his death than in his life.

Outline.

A. 16:1–3 — Gaza's gates. Samson spends the night with a prostitute; at midnight he carries the city gates toward Hebron.
B. 16:4–22 — Delilah; the secret told; the eyes put out. Three false bindings, then the Nazirite truth. He is shaved on her knees, YHWH turns, eyes are gouged, he grinds in Gaza; the hair begins to grow.
C. 16:23–31 — Dagon's house; more dead in his death. A sacrifice to Dagon; Samson prays, pulls the middle pillars, and dies with the Philistines. He is buried with Manoah; he had judged twenty years.

Textual note. Delilah (v.4) is not called a Philistine; the lords pay her. The three false tests echo 15:13's new ropes. מורה (v.17) restates 13:5. Dagon (v.23) is named as Philistine god. The 'one of two eyes' revenge (v.28) is a grim arithmetic. Versification follows the MT.

No King in Israel (17–21)

Judges 17 — שפטים 17

Theme. Judges 17 opens the 'no king' appendix: Micah's cursed silver becomes an image, a private shrine, and a hired Levite — each man doing what is right in his eyes.

Outline.

A. 17:1–6 — Micah's silver, image, and house of gods. Stolen silver is cursed, returned, and made into a carved and cast image; Micah ordains a son. In those days there was no king.
B. 17:7–13 — A Levite from Bethlehem hired. A sojourning Levite is hired as father and priest for ten a year; Micah fills his hand and is sure YHWH will do him good.

Textual note. Micah/Micayehu (vv.1, 4) varies by name-form. Eleven hundred silver (v.2) matches Delilah's price (16:5). פֶּסֶל וּמַסֵּכָה (v.3) is a carved image and a molten one. מִלֵּא יָד (v.5, 12) is the ordination idiom. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 18 — שפטים 18

Theme. Judges 18 is Dan's migration: spies blessedly lodged at Micah's shrine, a quiet city slaughtered, and a stolen image served by a Mosaic grandson until the exile.

Outline.

A. 18:1–10 — Spies at Micah's house and at Laish. Five Danites lodge with Micah, recognize the Levite, receive an oracle, and find Laish quiet like Sidonians, far from help.
B. 18:11–26 — Six hundred take the shrine. The host camps at Mahaneh-dan, seizes ephod, teraphim, and image; the priest is glad to go; Micah is overpowered and turns back.
C. 18:27–31 — Laish burned, Dan founded, the image until the exile. Laish is put to the sword and burned; the city is named Dan; Jonathan son of Gershom son of Moses priests there until the exile, all the days of the house of God at Shiloh.

Textual note. Laish/Leshem is Dan's northern city (Josh 19:47). v.30's מנשה with a suspended nun is widely read as Moses (משה); the Kethiv both hides and keeps the scandal. 'Exile of the land' (v.30) may be 734 or 722. Shiloh (v.31) dates the cult beside the sanctuary. Versification follows the MT.

Judges 19 — שפטים 19

Theme. Judges 19 is Gibeah's night: a Levite, a delayed departure, a square with no host but a sojourner, and an outrage that Genesis 19 placed in Sodom, now done in Benjamin. Twelve pieces go through Israel.

Outline.

A. 19:1–10 — The delayed departure from Bethlehem. A Levite retrieves his concubine; the father-in-law delays him through the fifth day until he will not lodge and sets out toward Jebus.
B. 19:11–21 — Gibeah: no one takes them in but a sojourner. They pass Jebus for an Israelite town; Gibeah's square is empty until an Ephraimite sojourner takes them in.
C. 19:22–30 — The outrage; twelve pieces. Sons of Belial demand the man; the concubine is put out, abused until dawn, and falls with her hands on the threshold. He cuts her into twelve pieces and sends her through Israel.

Textual note. The story is a deliberate echo of Genesis 19, with the outrage now inside Israel. וַתִּזְנֶה (v.2) may mean sexual infidelity or simple departure; the MT stands. 'House of YHWH' (v.18) as the Levite's destination is a crux (Shiloh?). Versification follows the MT.

Judges 20 — שפטים 20

Theme. Judges 20 is civil war over Gibeah: Israel as one man, Benjamin unyielding, two days of Israelite dead, then an ambush, a city in smoke, twenty-five thousand fallen, and six hundred left on a rock.

Outline.

A. 20:1–17 — Assembly, report, Benjamin refuses. Israel gathers at Mizpah; the Levite testifies; Benjamin will not surrender the men of Gibeah. Numbers: 400,000 Israel, 26,700 Benjamin, 700 left-handed slingers.
B. 20:18–28 — Two defeats; weeping at Bethel. Judah goes first; 22,000 then 18,000 fall. The third inquiry, with ark and Phinehas, is answered: go up, tomorrow I will give him.
C. 20:29–48 — The ambush; 25,000 fall; 600 at Rimmon. A feigned flight draws Benjamin out; smoke from the city; YHWH strikes. 25,100 fall that day; 600 flee to the rock of Rimmon; the rest of Benjamin's cities are put to the sword and fire.

Textual note. The numbers are huge and internally tense (vv.15, 35, 44–47). The ark and Phinehas (vv.27–28) place the tale in a priestly early frame. Place-names (Baal-tamar, Maareh-geba, Gidom, Rimmon) are given as the MT has them. The battle report is partly doubled (vv.35–36 and 36–46). Versification follows the MT.

Judges 21 — שפטים 21

Theme. Judges 21 is the aftermath of the civil war: an oath that forbids wives to Benjamin, a ḥerem on Jabesh-gilead, a raid on Shiloh's dances, and the last line of the book — no king, each man doing what is right in his own eyes.

Outline.

A. 21:1–14 — The oath, the gap, Jabesh-gilead. Israel weeps that a tribe is missing; Jabesh-gilead, absent from Mizpah, is put to the sword; four hundred virgins are given to Benjamin and are not enough.
B. 21:15–24 — The dances at Shiloh. Elders devise a raid on the Shiloh feast so Benjamin can seize wives without Israel 'giving' them; the men return and rebuild.
C. 21:25 — No king in Israel. The book ends on the refrain: in those days there was no king in Israel; each man did what was right in his own eyes.

Textual note. The chapter is a legal-and-ritual scramble to keep a tribe alive without breaking an oath. Jabesh-gilead's later bond with Benjamin/Saul (1 Sam 11; 31) is already seeded. The Shiloh feast (v.19) is located with unusual precision. The closing refrain (v.25 = 17:6) frames the whole appendix. Versification follows the MT.