Core Glossary
Judges — Phase 1 Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term surfaced in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, drawn from the full book of Judges (chapters 1-21), covering both terms inherited unchanged from the Romans baseline Translation Memory and new terms proposed for formal Judges-package TM adoption. Risk tiers follow the definitions fixed in assets/bible_term_registry.json’s registry_metadata.risk_tier_definitions (Critical / High / Medium / Low). No inherited Critical or High term below receives an alternate rendering; all inherited entries reuse the baseline translation field verbatim, per the Romans package’s permanent-TM enforcement rule.
Part A — Inherited Terms (Reused Verbatim from Romans Baseline TM)
| English Term | Hebrew / LXX Greek | Hmong Rendering (baseline TM — unchanged) | Risk | Judges Chapters | Notes on Reuse in Judges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Elohim / θεός | Vajtswv | Low | all | Elohim consistently maps to the baseline god entry. |
| LORD | YHWH / κύριος | tus Tswv | Low | all | YHWH consistently maps to the baseline lord entry, following existing Hmong Bible tradition (“LORD” convention). |
| Holy Spirit | ruach YHWH / πνεῦμα κυρίου | Vaj Ntsuj Plig | Critical | 3, 6, 9 (contrast), 11, 13-16 | Mandatory “Vaj” prefix retained without exception. New nuance requiring teaching note: OT episodic/conditional empowering for a task (Doctrine 5), vs. NT permanent indwelling — see §07 Ch.3, Ch.13-16 discussion; flagged for human theologian review wherever taught. |
| Sin (act & condition) | chata/ra / ἁμαρτία | txhaum / kev txhaum | High | 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 17-21 | Reused for the recurring apostasy-formula “did evil in the sight of the LORD.” |
| Idol | pesel/massekah/gillulim / εἴδωλον | dab mlom | High | 2, 6, 8, 10, 17, 18 | Reused for graven/cast images; combined with new qualifiers for ephod_cultic_object and teraphim_household_idols (Part B) for specific cultic-object subtypes. |
| Wrath of God | charah aph YHWH / ὀργὴ κυρίου | kev npau taws ntawm tus Tswv | High | 2, 3, 6, 10 | Reused throughout the apostasy-judgment formula; “burned/kindled” intensifier added per context. |
| Salvation / Save / Deliver | yasha / σῴζω | kev cawm dim / cawm | High | 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15 | Reused for the judges’ physical/military deliverance; MUST be taught as distinct from eternal salvation — physical rescue from oppressors, always historically/temporally bounded (“all the days of the judge,” 2:18), never conflated with the gospel’s once-for-all salvation. |
| Mercy | nacham / ἔλεος (conceptual parallel) | txoj kev khuv leej | Medium | 2 (core passage v.18) | Clean reuse: God’s compassion toward suffering Israel, kept distinct from grace/txiaj ntsim per baseline note. |
| Hardening | qashah / πώρωσις (conceptual parallel) | lub siab tawv | Medium | 2 (core passage v.19) | Reused for “stubborn ways”; compounding/worsening sense across generations needs explicit teaching. |
| Worship/Serve (cultic) | avad / λατρεύω | pehawm / pab teev | High | 2 (core passage vv.7, 11), 3, 6, 10 | Mandatory object-anchoring rule applies with double force in Judges, since the identical verb describes both true worship of the LORD and false worship of Baal — the object, not the verb, carries the doctrinal weight. |
| Promise | epangelia-conceptual parallel (no single Heb. lexeme; cf. davar, berith-oath) | lus cog tseg | Low | 2 (core passage v.15, God’s sworn word) | Root for new covenant_berith and oath_swear/rash_vow_neder entries (Part B); baseline entry itself reused unchanged for God’s own unilateral pledges. |
| Heir / Inheritance | nachalah / κληρονομία | qub txeeg qub teg (adapted from baseline heir) | Low | 1, 2 (core passage vv.6, 9) | Reused for covenant land-inheritance; positive resonance carried forward from Romans baseline. |
| Kingdom of God | malkut Elohim-conceptual parallel / βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ | lub Nceeg Vaj ntawm Vajtswv | Low | (thematic, not literal) | Shares root morpheme with new king_melek entry (Part B); useful conceptual bridge for Doctrine 2/6 teaching (contrast between human kingship’s failure in Judges and God’s own kingship). |
| Nations / Gentiles | goyim / ἔθνη | lwm Haiv Neeg | Low | 1, 3, 10 | Reused for surrounding Canaanite/Philistine/Ammonite/Moabite peoples. |
| Servant/Slave (doulos) | eved / δοῦλος | qhev | High | 2 (core passage v.8, “eved YHWH”) | Reused for the honorific title “servant of the LORD” (Joshua); requires an additional teaching note beyond the Romans baseline’s caution, since here the term is a title of highest honor, not Paul’s total-surrender bondservant metaphor — risk of the honor being misread as literal degradation is elevated in this context. |
Part B — New Terms Surfaced in Judges (Proposed for Formal TM-Revision Adoption)
| # | English Term | Hebrew (Transliteration) | LXX Greek (Transliteration) | Proposed Hmong Rendering | Risk | Judges Chapters | Rationale / Collision Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J1 | Covenant knowledge of God | yada (know) | ginōskō | paub tus Tswv (raws li kev sib raug zoo) | High | 2 | Relational, experiential covenant-knowledge, not mere factual awareness; bare paub flattens the doctrinal point of 2:10. |
| J2 | Covenant (bilateral) | berith | diathēkē | kev cog lus (ntawm Vajtswv) | High | 2, 20-21 (oath contexts) | Built on baseline lus cog tseg root but marked as the fuller bilateral-relationship concept; risk of implying a negotiated pact of equals rather than sovereign grace. |
| J3 | Angel of the LORD | mal’akh YHWH | angelos kyriou | tus Tim Tswv ntawm tus Tswv | High | 2, 6 | Collision with Hmong spirit-messenger figures (dab qhua); Christophany question flagged for theologian review, not resolved unilaterally. |
| J4 | Baal (deity) | Ba’al | Baal | Npa-as | High | 2, 6, 8, 10 | Canaanite storm/fertility god; direct parallel to Hmong nature/field/mountain-spirit veneration (dab teb, dab toj roob); mandatory contrast teaching. |
| J5 | Ashtaroth (deity) | Ashtarot | Astartē | cov Atalauj | High | 2, 10 | Female fertility/war deity; parallel to female ancestral/household spirit veneration; mandatory contrast teaching. |
| J6 | Forsake/abandon God | azab | egkataleipō | tso Vajtswv tseg | Critical | 2, 10, 16 (Samson pattern) | Core apostasy-verb; must denote decisive covenant desertion, not mere forgetting or a single lapse. |
| J7 | Spiritual harlotry / apostasy metaphor | zanah | porneuō | ua dev nkauj rau luag tej dab (formal periphrasis required; see 07_semantic_analysis.md §2:17) | Critical | 2, 8 (ephod) | Covenant-marital-infidelity metaphor for idolatry; sexual explicitness must be handled with dignified register while preserving accusatory force; risk of literalistic misreading without a mandatory teaching note. |
| J8 | Judge (office) | shophet | kritēs | tus Txiav Txim | Critical | 2, 3-16 (all judge-cycle narratives) | Dual judicial-and-military-deliverer office unfamiliar to ordinary Hmong village dispute-adjudication concept (tu plaub); mandatory teaching note on the office’s full scope. |
| J9 | Oath / swear | shaba | omnyō | cog lus twv | Medium | 2, 20-21 | God’s self-binding oath vs. rash human oaths (Jephthah, Mizpah); bridges to Hmong blood-oath alliance custom but needs distinguishing note. |
| J10 | Groaning / distress-cry | na’aqah | stenagmos | lub suab quaj ntsuag | Medium | 2 | The suffering that evokes God’s compassion (Doctrine 3); comprehension-level, no collision. |
| J11 | Moral corruption / generational decline | shachath | diaphtheirō | ua phem dua lawv tej niam tej txiv | High | 2, and every recurrence of the apostasy formula (3, 4, 6, 10, 13) | Compounding, worsening-across-generations sense must be preserved each time the formula recurs; direct textual seed of Doctrine 6. |
| J12 | Drive out / dispossess | yarash | exolethreuō / klēronomeō | ntiab tawm / kav tau | Medium | 1 | Root spans both “inherit” (positive) and “forcibly expel” (conquest) senses; Hmong lacks a single unifying verb. |
| J13 | Test/try (God testing Israel) | nasah | peirazō | sim (Vajtswv sim Yixalayees) | Medium | 2 | Refining discipline, not temptation-to-sin; comprehension nuance only. |
| J14 | Land had rest | shaqat | hēsychazō | thaj av tau so | Low | 3 (and recurring) | Stable descriptive phrase marking cycle-respite periods. |
| J15 | Cry out in distress (to the LORD) | tsa’aq / za’aq | boaō / krazō | quaj thov tus Tswv | High | 3 (and recurring throughout book) | Must be distinguished from shamanic ritual spirit-calling (thov dab, hu plig); object (the LORD alone) and non-ritual, grace-based response must be explicit. |
| J16 | Deliverer (personal, “savior”) | moshia | sōtēr | tus cawm | High | 3 | Applied to individual judges; must be distinguished in teaching from the ultimate Tus Cawmseej (Savior) title reserved for Christ. |
| J17 | Prophetess | nevi’ah | prophētis | tus poj niam cev Vajtswv lus | Medium | 4 | Comprehension gap (unfamiliar office for women in customary structure), not a collision. |
| J18 | Curse (oath-curse) | arar | epikataratos | foom tsis zoo / tsis tau koob hmoov [CAUTION: see note] | Medium | 5, 20-21 | Caution: the natural Hmong idiom for “curse” risks drawing on koob hmoov vocabulary already PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN in the baseline for grace-contexts (see baseline grace entry); a curse-specific idiom avoiding any koob hmoov root must be used — recommend “raug foom tsis zoo” only, never any phrase built on the hmoov root, consistent with the baseline’s permanent prohibition on hmoov-family vocabulary for anything touching divine favor/disfavor with soteriological weight. |
| J19 | Ephod (cultic object) | ephod | ependytēs | efauj (transliteration + gloss) | Critical | 8, 17, 18 | Priestly/oracle object misused as an idol; Gideon’s and Micah’s ephods must be distinguished from the legitimate high-priestly ephod (Exodus 28) elsewhere in the canon. |
| J20 | King | melek | basileus | vaj ntxwv | Medium | 8 (Gideon’s refusal), 9 (fable), 17-21 (refrain) | Central to Doctrines 2 and 6; shares root morpheme with baseline kingdom_of_god; must be cross-referenced with the “no king” refrain (J26 below). |
| J21 | Evil spirit (sent by God) | ruach ra’ah | pneuma ponēron | ib tug ntsuj phem | High | 9 | Deliberately built without “Vaj” prefix (reserved for Holy Spirit) and distinct from dab; must be taught as fully under God’s sovereign command, not an autonomous animistic force. |
| J22 | God grieved/impatient (with Israel’s misery) | qatsar nephesh | oligopsycheō (conceptual parallel) | tus Tswv siab tsis taus lawm rau | Medium | 10 | Relational responsiveness facet, paired with mercy entry; comprehension nuance. |
| J23 | Rash vow (to God) | neder | euchē | lus cog tseg (rau Vajtswv) | Critical | 11 | Human-initiated binding pledge, tragically fulfilled (Jephthah); collision risk with Hmong binding ritual-vow custom; narrative is cautionary, not a model — mandatory [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED] flag wherever taught as potentially commendable. |
| J24 | Nazirite vow | nazir | naziraios | tus raug cais tseg rau tus Tswv | Medium-High | 13-16 | Consecration/separation vow (Samson); comprehension gap, with elevated risk because its violation drives the Spirit-departure narrative (J25). |
| J25 | Spirit’s departure (OT conditional empowering) | sar YHWH me’alav | apestē to pneuma (conceptual parallel) | tus Tswv twb tso nws tseg lawm | Critical | 16 | Built on forsake_abandon_god (J6) root reflected back onto the human-covenant-breaker; MUST be explicitly distinguished from NT permanent Spirit-indwelling (never implies today’s believers can lose the Spirit as Samson did) — escalate to human theologian review whenever taught. |
| J26 | Household idols / teraphim | teraphim | theraphin (transliteration) | dab mlom hauv tsev | Critical | 17, 18 | Direct structural parallel to Hmong household spirit-shrine/ancestral altar (xwm kab); narrative frames this as covenant violation, not harmless domestic devotion — mandatory explicit contrast teaching. |
| J27 | Priest (Levitical office) | kohen | hiereus | tus povthawj | Medium | 17, 18 | Distinguished from baseline priestly_minister (Romans’ metaphorical leitourgos); denotes the concrete, hereditary Levitical office. |
| J28 | ”Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (moral-relativism refrain) | ish ha-yashar be-eynav ya’aseh | anēr to euthes en ophthalmois autou epoiei (conceptual parallel) | txhua tus ua raws li nws pom zoo rau nws tus kheej | Critical | 17 (full), 18 (partial), 19 (partial), 21 (full) | THE central refrain of the book. Fixed collocation, reproduced character-for-character identically at every occurrence; direct scriptural anchor for Doctrines 2 and 6; must be taught in explicit contrast with baseline righteousness_of_god_righteous entry. |
| J29 | Concubine | pilegesh | pallakē | tus poj hluas / tus niam yau | Medium | 19 | Secondary-wife status; comprehension gap given differing marriage-custom structures, not a collision. |
| J30 | Inquire of God | sha’al be-Elohim | epērōtaō ton theon | thov Vajtswv qhia | High | 20 | Legitimate divine guidance-seeking through God’s appointed means; must be explicitly distinguished from shamanic divination (txiv neeb) practice. |
Part C — Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference
| Doctrine | Primary Terms (Part A + Part B IDs) |
|---|---|
| 1. The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance | sin_act_and_condition, wrath_of_god, J6 (forsake), J8 (judge), salvation_save, J11 (moral decline), core passage vv.11-19 as a whole |
| 2. The Absence of a Righteous King | J20 (king), J28 (refrain), Ch.9 fable (king_melek) |
| 3. God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers | J8 (judge), J16 (deliverer), mercy, J19 (Gideon’s ephod lapse), J23 (Jephthah’s vow), Ch.13-16 (Samson) |
| 4. Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | J1 (covenant knowledge), J2 (covenant), J4/J5 (Baal/Ashtaroth), J6 (forsake), J7 (harlotry metaphor), J26 (teraphim), idol, worship_serve_cultic |
| 5. The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges | holy_spirit (Vaj Ntsuj Plig), J24 (Nazirite vow), J25 (Spirit’s departure) |
| 6. Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King | J11 (generational corruption), J28 (refrain), Ch.19 (Gibeah atrocity), J20 (king) |
Part D — Chapters Reviewed with No New Theological Vocabulary
Per the full-book-coverage mandate, the following chapter is explicitly logged as reviewed rather than silently omitted:
- Chapter 12 (minor judges Ibzan, Elon, Abdon; Jephthah-Ephraim conflict): reviewed in full; introduces no new load-bearing theological vocabulary; reuses
judge_shophet(J8),salvation_save, and ordinary tribal/military vocabulary already logged under Chapters 4-5 and 11.
All other chapters (1-11, 13-21) contribute at least one new term or a significant new contextual application of an inherited term, as documented in 07_semantic_analysis.md §2 and Part B above.
Critical Risk Terms
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Vaj Ntsuj Plig
Transliteration: pneuma hagion (LXX conceptual parallel); ruach YHWH (Heb.)
Doctrine: The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges
Rejected alternatives: bare ntsuj plig (no Vaj prefix) — rejected, denotes an animistic wandering human soul
Inherited from Romans package; mandatory ‘Vaj’ prefix retained without exception at every occurrence (3:10, 6:34, 9:23 boundary case — see evil_spirit_ruach_raah, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6, 14:19, 15:14, 16:20). Judges introduces an ADDITIONAL doctrinal risk beyond Romans: the Spirit’s coming here is repeatedly episodic/task-specific and can depart (16:20). Must always be taught, with mandatory human theologian review, as the Old Testament’s temporary empowering pattern — never as evidence that the New Testament’s permanent Spirit-indwelling of believers (Romans 8, baseline in_christ_union_formula) is similarly revocable.
Grace
Approved rendering: txiaj ntsim
Transliteration: charis (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov (fortune/blessing tied to fate and ritual correctness) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this sense; would invert sola gratia
Inherited from Romans package. Judges has no single Hebrew lexeme mapping directly onto this entry, but the doctrine of grace through flawed deliverers depends on this term being available and kept sharply distinct from koob hmoov (fate/luck) whenever a judge’s unlikely success is explained: the judges succeed by God’s sovereign, gracious choice, never by fortune. Also kept distinct from mercy/txoj kev khuv leej per the baseline note.
Righteousness Of God Righteous
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txoj kev ncaj ncees / tus ncaj ncees
Transliteration: dikaiosynē theou / dikaios (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘kev ncaj ncees’ without the reckoning qualifier — rejected, reads as self-achieved moralism
Inherited from Romans package. Judges never applies this term to itself, but it is the mandatory contrast-term for teaching the moral_relativism_refrain (‘everyone did what was right in his own eyes’): the refrain’s yashar (‘right/straight’ in one’s own eyes) must be explicitly and repeatedly contrasted with this baseline entry (true righteousness reckoned by God, not judged by self), which is the theological photographic negative Judges leaves unresolved and Romans answers.
Forsake Abandon God
Approved rendering: tso Vajtswv tseg
Transliteration: azav (Heb.); egkataleipō (LXX)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: tsis nco qab (merely ‘forgot’) — rejected, softens decisive desertion into a comprehension failure, generic tso tseg with no Vajtswv object — rejected, loses the specific covenant-desertion referent
NEW ENTRY, the core apostasy-verb of the book (2:12, 10:6, and reflected back onto Samson’s covenant-breaking at 16:20 via spirit_departure_ot). Must denote decisive, willful covenant desertion — never merely ‘forgetting’ or ‘a single lapse.’ The marital-abandonment undertone (azav also used for divorce) anticipates spiritual_harlotry_apostasy below.
Spiritual Harlotry Apostasy
Approved rendering: tsis ncaj rau tus Tswv, mus nrog luag tej dab sib deev (dignified periphrasis; mandatory teaching note at every occurrence)
Transliteration: zanah (Heb.); porneuō (LXX)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: a fully sanitized rendering omitting the sexual-infidelity metaphor entirely — rejected, loses the accusatory covenant-marital force Paul’s own tradition (and Hosea/Ezekiel) depends on
NEW ENTRY (2:17; 8:27, Gideon’s ephod ‘which all Israel whored after’). Critical for two converging reasons: (a) the sexual explicitness of the Hebrew metaphor sits uneasily against the formal, reverent register mandated for this Language Package, requiring dignified phrasing that does not sanitize the accusatory force; (b) unless clearly marked as metaphor for covenant infidelity, Hmong hearers may read it as a literal accusation of temple prostitution rather than the theological point that idol-worship is relational betrayal of a covenant Husband. Mandatory teaching note required at every occurrence.
Judge Shophet
Approved rendering: tus Txiav Txim
Transliteration: shophet (Heb.); kritēs (LXX)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: transliterated loanword — rejected, carries zero inherent meaning for a first-time Hmong hearer and forfeits the partial bridge to the existing tu plaub dispute-adjudication concept
NEW ENTRY, the office central to the whole book (2:16 and throughout 3-16). Dual judicial-AND-military-deliverer office unfamiliar to ordinary Hmong village dispute-adjudication (tu plaub), which carries no military-leadership connotation. Critical because Doctrine 3 (grace through flawed deliverers) and the entire book’s structure depend on this dual sense being explicitly taught; never permit the term to stand alone without an accompanying deliverer-verb (cawm/kev cawm dim) in the same teaching unit.
Ephod Cultic Object
Approved rendering: efauj
Transliteration: ephod (Heb.); ependytēs (LXX)
Doctrine: God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers
Rejected alternatives: ‘a garment’ — rejected, loses the oracle-object sense, bare dab mlom (generic idol) — rejected, collapses Gideon’s/Micah’s specific object into the generic idol-term and erases the narrative’s specific irony
NEW ENTRY, transliteration with mandatory first-occurrence explanatory gloss (8:27, Gideon’s gold ephod that ‘became a snare’; 17:5, 18:14-20, Micah’s ephod). A striking case of a flawed deliverer himself becoming a source of apostasy — Gideon’s earlier faithful obedience (destroying his father’s Baal altar, 6:25-32) must never be confused with this later lapse. Must also be distinguished from the legitimate high-priestly ephod (Exodus 28) elsewhere in the canon.
Rash Vow Neder
Approved rendering: lus cog tseg (rau Vajtswv)
Transliteration: neder (Heb.); euchē (LXX)
Doctrine: God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers
Rejected alternatives: any framing presenting the vow as a commendable model of costly devotion — FORBIDDEN, Scripture itself does not commend Jephthah’s vow
NEW ENTRY (11:29-31, 11:34-40, Jephthah’s vow tragically fulfilled through the sacrifice of his daughter). Built on the promise root but explicitly marked as human-initiated and disastrously ill-considered, in deliberate contrast to God’s own unbreakable promise. Collision risk is severe: Hmong customary religion includes binding ritual vows made to spirits/ancestors believed to require literal fulfillment regardless of consequence; this narrative could be misread as VALIDATING that principle. Mandatory teaching note and [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: does not commend Jephthah’s vow as a model] flag required wherever taught.
Spirit Departure Ot
Approved rendering: tus Tswv twb tso nws tseg lawm
Transliteration: sar YHWH me’alav (Heb.); apestē ho kyrios ap’ autou (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges
Rejected alternatives: any phrasing implying NT believers can similarly lose the Holy Spirit’s permanent indwelling — FORBIDDEN
NEW ENTRY (16:20), built on the forsake_abandon_god root reflected back onto the human covenant-breaker. This is the single most doctrinally sensitive Spirit-related verse in the book: MUST be explicitly taught, with mandatory human theologian review and no exception, as an Old Testament episodic/conditional empowering-and-withdrawal pattern that NEVER implies today’s believers can lose the permanent, sealing indwelling of the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans baseline holy_spirit / in_christ_union_formula entries).
Teraphim Household Idols
Approved rendering: dab mlom hauv tsev
Transliteration: teraphim (Heb.); theraphin (LXX transliteration)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: presenting the object as a neutral domestic devotional item — FORBIDDEN, the narrative itself frames this as catastrophic covenant violation (18:1-31)
NEW ENTRY, built on the baseline idol root with a locative qualifier (17:5, Micah’s household shrine; 18:14-31, the Danite theft and enshrinement at Dan). One of the most direct collision points in the entire book: household teraphim function almost exactly as a Hmong household spirit-shrine/ancestral altar (xwm kab) does. Curriculum content must explicitly frame Micah’s household shrine as a DIRECT VIOLATION of exclusive covenant worship, never as harmless domestic devotion — never introduced without the covenant-violation frame in the same sentence or immediately adjacent clause.
Moral Relativism Refrain
Approved rendering: txhua tus ua raws li nws pom zoo rau nws tus kheej
Transliteration: ish ha-yashar be-eynav ya’aseh (Heb.); anēr to euthes en ophthalmois autou epoiei (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King
Rejected alternatives: any wording variant across occurrences — FORBIDDEN, fixed-collocation status requires character-for-character identical reproduction, presentation as a neutral proverb of admirable independence — FORBIDDEN
NEW ENTRY. THE central refrain of the book (full form 17:6, 21:25; no-king-only partial form 18:1, 19:1). Must be reproduced character-for-character identically at every occurrence, exactly parallel to the Romans TM’s treatment of fixed doctrinal collocations. Direct scriptural anchor for Doctrines 2 and 6; must always be taught in explicit, same-unit contrast with the baseline righteousness_of_god_righteous entry, never left as a bare narrative aside — Hmong customary decentralized clan/elder governance makes this refrain especially prone to being misheard as a neutral description rather than the book’s own indictment.
High Risk Terms
Sin Act And Condition
Approved rendering: txhaum / kev txhaum
Transliteration: hamartia (LXX); ra / chata (Heb.)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Inherited from Romans package. In Judges this anchors the recurring formula ‘did evil in the sight of the LORD’ that opens every apostasy cycle (2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, 13:1); must be kept distinct from ordinary reparable social/ritual fault — the recurring formula’s force depends on this being read as objective covenant-breach, not a breach repairable through customary clan mediation.
Idol
Approved rendering: dab mlom
Transliteration: eidōlon (LXX); pesel / massekah / gillulim (Heb.)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘statue’ softening — rejected, must not soften the term
Inherited from Romans package. Reused for graven/cast images throughout Judges (2, 6, 8, 10, 17, 18); combined with locative/object qualifiers for the more specific subtypes ephod_cultic_object and teraphim_household_idols below, which must never collapse back into this bare generic term without the qualifier.
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: orgē theou (LXX conceptual parallel); charah aph YHWH (Heb.)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘npau taws’ associated only with capricious spirit/ancestor anger — rejected without explicit contrast teaching
Inherited from Romans package (exact fixed-collocation string reused). Judges intensifies this term with a recurring ‘burned/kindled’ idiom (2:14) which must be added as a separate adverbial clause, never a new compound, and must be taught with double emphasis on non-appeasability given the narrative proximity of Baal-appeasement ritual in the same chapters (2, 6, 10).
Salvation Save
Approved rendering: kev cawm dim / cawm
Transliteration: sōzō (LXX); yasha (Heb.)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: unanchored ‘dim’ (escape) parallel to shamanic ua neeb soul-rescue — rejected without explicit Christ/LORD-anchoring
Inherited from Romans package. In Judges this must additionally be taught as bounded, physical/military deliverance (‘all the days of the judge,’ 2:18), never conflated with the gospel’s once-for-all eternal salvation — an additional distinction beyond the Romans baseline’s requirement, since here the referent is temporal rescue, not eschatological.
Worship Serve Cultic
Approved rendering: pehawm / pab teev
Transliteration: latreuō (LXX); avad (Heb.)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: bare, unanchored pehawm — FORBIDDEN, identical verb used for pehawm dab (ancestor/spirit veneration)
Inherited from Romans package. The mandatory object-anchoring rule applies with DOUBLE force in Judges, since the identical Hebrew/Greek verb describes both true worship of the LORD (2:7) and false worship of Baal (2:11) — an unusually exact match to pehawm’s own real-world dual use. The object, never the verb, carries the entire doctrinal weight; a bare ‘pehawm’ must never appear even in elliptical narrative summary or quiz-option abbreviation.
Servant Slave Doulos
Approved rendering: qhev
Transliteration: doulos (LXX); eved (Heb.)
Doctrine: God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers
Rejected alternatives: koom tes (co-worker/partner) — rejected softening, erases total-surrender force
Inherited from Romans package. Reused at 2:8 for the honorific covenant title ‘eved YHWH’ (Joshua, ‘servant of the LORD’). Requires an ADDITIONAL teaching note beyond the Romans baseline’s caution: here the term marks Israel’s HIGHEST covenant-leadership honor, not Paul’s total-surrender bondservant self-designation. Risk that Hmong hearers will wonder why Joshua’s greatest honor is called ‘qhev’ is elevated relative to Romans and must be explicitly resolved as a title of highest honor, never presented as literal degradation.
Covenant Knowledge Of God
Approved rendering: tsis paub tus Tswv raws li kev sib raug zoo (thiab tej uas nws twb ua rau Yixalayees)
Transliteration: lo yad’u et-YHWH (Heb.); ouk egnōsan ton kyrion (LXX)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: bare paub (‘know’, factual) — rejected, flattens the doctrinal hinge of 2:10 into a mere comprehension failure rather than a relational/covenantal one
NEW ENTRY. Judges 2:10 (‘another generation arose who did not know the LORD’) is the theological hinge-verse of the entire book: covenant faithfulness is transmitted generationally through relational, experiential knowledge of YHWH’s saving acts, and its failure is the root cause of the entire cycle. Must be paired consistently with the relational-covenant frame already established for the Romans baseline faith_believe entry.
Covenant Berith
Approved rendering: kev cog lus (ntawm Vajtswv)
Transliteration: berith (Heb.); diathēkē (LXX)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: bare kevcai (custom/rite) — rejected, collapses into kev cai dab qhuas (ancestral spirit-worship customs)
NEW ENTRY, built on the promise/lus cog tseg root but marked as the fuller bilateral covenant-relationship concept (2:1-2, 2:20; also 20-21 in the sense of communal covenant obligation). Collision risk: Hmong customary clan alliance-oaths (sometimes sealed with blood or animal sacrifice) provide a useful comprehension bridge but risk implying God’s covenant is a negotiated pact between equals rather than a sovereign, gracious, self-initiated relationship — requires a teaching note paralleling the Romans baseline’s grace/covenant distinction. Any reference to Israel’s covenant obligations must use this fixed phrase, never a bare kevcai term.
Angel Of The Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tim Tswv ntawm tus Tswv
Transliteration: mal’akh YHWH (Heb.); angelos kyriou (LXX)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: bare transliterated ‘angel’ loanword — rejected, opaque and forfeits the compositional link to tus Tswv
NEW ENTRY (2:1-4, 6:11-24, 13:3-21). Collision risk with Hmong spirit-messenger figures and ancestral-spirit intermediaries (dab qhua) who deliver messages/omens; unqualified rendering of ‘angel’ risks assimilation into this animistic category. Must be taught as a holy, obedient messenger sent FROM the one true God, categorically distinct from animistic spirit-messengers. The Christophany-vs-created-angel theological identity question is flagged [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: theological identity of the Angel of the LORD] for human theologian review, not resolved unilaterally in curriculum text.
Baal Deity
Approved rendering: Npa-as
Transliteration: Ba’al / ha-Ba’alim (Heb.); Baal / tois Baalim (LXX)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: paraphrase as ‘a false god’/‘a nature-spirit’ — rejected, erases the proper name and prevents the specific named contrast-teaching the doctrine requires
NEW ENTRY, fixed transliteration (2:11, 6:25-32, 8:33, 10:6). Direct, unavoidable parallel to Hmong veneration of nature-spirits and field/mountain spirits (dab teb, dab toj roob); a genuine collision requiring explicit contrast-teaching at every occurrence, not merely a comprehension gap. Also underlies Gideon’s alternate name ‘Jerubbaal’ (6:32), which should be transliterated consistently and glossed on first occurrence.
Ashtaroth Deity
Approved rendering: cov Atalauj
Transliteration: ha-Ashtarot (Heb.); Astartē (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: paraphrase/generic ‘goddess’ — rejected, same rationale as baal_deity
NEW ENTRY, fixed transliteration (2:13, 10:6). Direct parallel to Hmong veneration of female ancestral/household spirits; requires the same explicit-contrast teaching strategy as baal_deity. Confirms Israel’s apostasy is comprehensive (both male and female deity-cults), not an isolated lapse.
Moral Corruption Decline
Approved rendering: ua phem dua lawv tej niam tej txiv
Transliteration: shachath (Heb.); diaphtheirō (LXX)
Doctrine: Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King
Rejected alternatives: a static repetition-only rendering dropping the comparative clause — rejected, collapses the book’s spiral trajectory into a flat repeating cycle
NEW ENTRY (2:19, echoing Genesis 6:11-12’s Flood-generation corruption; recurs 3:7ff., 4:1, 6:1, 8:33-34, 10:6, 13:1). High risk because the compounding, generation-on-generation worsening sense must be preserved EVERY time the apostasy formula recurs; if dropped for brevity at any recurrence, the doctrine of moral decline collapses into the same static cycle-language used for Doctrine 1. Where space is genuinely constrained, use the shorter but still comparative form ‘phem dua ib tiam dhau ib tiam,’ never drop the comparative element entirely.
Cry Out Distress
Approved rendering: quaj thov tus Tswv
Transliteration: tsa’aq / za’aq (Heb.); boaō / krazō (LXX)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: thov dab / hu plig (ritual spirit-calling verbs) — rejected, would suggest the cry functions as a ritual-calling technique rather than covenant prayer
NEW ENTRY (3:9, 3:15, 4:3, 6:6-7, 10:10), recurring at the start of nearly every deliverance narrative. Must be distinguished from Hmong shamanic ritual spirit-calling for relief from misfortune (thov dab, hu plig); the verb itself is the ordinary, unavoidable Hmong word for a desperate cry for help, so the OBJECT (the LORD alone) and the ABSENCE of automatic ritual efficacy (God’s sovereign compassion saves, not the cry’s technique) must always be made explicit — directly parallel to the baseline’s caution about kev cawm dim.
Deliverer Moshia
Approved rendering: tus cawm
Transliteration: moshia (Heb.); sōtēr (LXX)
Doctrine: God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers
NEW ENTRY, extending the baseline salvation_save root (3:9, 3:15, applied personally to Othniel and Ehud). Must be consistently distinguished in teaching from the ultimate Tus Cawmseej (Savior) title reserved for Christ in the wider Hmong Christian tradition, to avoid implying the judges are saviors in the soteriological, once-for-all sense.
Evil Spirit Ruach Raah
Approved rendering: ib tug ntsuj phem
Transliteration: ruach ra’ah (Heb.); pneuma ponēron (LXX)
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King
Rejected alternatives: Vaj Ntsuj Plig-prefixed form — FORBIDDEN, would confuse this spirit with the Holy Spirit, dab (generic idol/false-god spirit term) — rejected, would imply this is a Baal-class deity
NEW ENTRY (9:23), a harmful spirit God sends between Abimelech and the men of Shechem as an instrument of judgment. Deliberately built WITHOUT the ‘Vaj’ prefix and WITHOUT the dab root, sitting in the same ntsuj lexical family as both Vaj Ntsuj Plig and bare ntsuj plig — must never be typeset or taught adjacent to either without an explicit disambiguating clause. Collision risk cuts both ways: teaching must stress this spirit acts ONLY under God’s sovereign command as an instrument of judgment between two wicked human parties, never as an autonomous animistic force to be feared, placated, or manipulated.
Inquire Of God
Approved rendering: thov Vajtswv qhia
Transliteration: sha’al be-Elohim (Heb.); epērōtaō ton theon (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
NEW ENTRY (20:18, 23, 27, consulting God via the Ark/priestly oracle before the civil war against Benjamin). This legitimate covenant practice of seeking divine guidance through God’s appointed means sits close to Hmong shamanic divination practice (txiv neeb consulting spirits for guidance/omens) and must be explicitly distinguished by naming the MEANS (priest, Ark, God’s appointed channel) — the underlying human need (seeking guidance in crisis) is genuinely shared across both systems, making this a stricter fencing requirement than a mere comprehension gap.
Medium Risk Terms
Mercy
Approved rendering: txoj kev khuv leej
Transliteration: eleos (LXX conceptual parallel); nacham (Heb.)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: txiaj ntsim (grace) used interchangeably for mercy — rejected, mercy and grace are theologically distinct emphases
Inherited from Romans package. Clean reuse at 2:18: God’s nacham is compassion toward Israel’s suffering/groaning, kept lexically distinct from grace/txiaj ntsim; must be taught as responding to suffering, not to confessed repentance (2:18-19 shows immediate relapse), preserving the baseline’s mercy/grace distinction.
Hardening
Approved rendering: lub siab tawv
Transliteration: pōrōsis (LXX conceptual parallel); qashah (Heb.)
Doctrine: Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King
Inherited from Romans package (idiom ‘hardened liver/heart’). Used at 2:19 for Israel’s ‘stubborn ways’; must additionally carry the compounding, generation-on-generation worsening sense of the surrounding verb shachath at every recurrence, not merely a static description.
Oath Swear
Approved rendering: cog lus twv
Transliteration: shaba (Heb.); omnyō (LXX)
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
NEW ENTRY (2:15 boundary; 20-21, the Mizpah oath against Benjamin). Must be distinguished from God’s own self-binding, unbreakable oath (baseline promise entry) and from rash_vow_neder (human vow to God); bridges usefully to Hmong blood-oath alliance custom but requires a note that human oaths invoking God’s name are binding yet can be rashly made and destructively rigid.
Groaning Distress
Approved rendering: lub suab quaj ntsuag
Transliteration: na’aqah (Heb.); stenagmos (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
NEW ENTRY (2:18), echoing Israel’s Egyptian-bondage groaning (Exodus 2:24). The suffering that evokes God’s mercy/compassion; comprehension-level, no direct collision, but must be taught alongside mercy as the occasion, not the merit-earning cause, of deliverance.
Drive Out Dispossess
Approved rendering: ntiab tawm / kav tau
Transliteration: yarash (Heb.); exolethreuō / klēronomeō (LXX)
Doctrine: Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King
NEW ENTRY (ch.1, Israel’s incomplete conquest). The root spans both ‘inherit’ (positive, covenant-gift sense) and ‘forcibly expel’ (conquest-task sense); Hmong lacks a single unifying verb, so two distinct context-dependent renderings are required — a comprehension gap, not a collision. Establishes the historical cause behind the book’s moral-decline trajectory (unconquered peoples → intermarriage/idolatry, 3:5-6).
Test Try God
Approved rendering: sim (Vajtswv sim Yixalayees)
Transliteration: nasah (Heb.); peirazō (LXX)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
NEW ENTRY (2:22, God testing/proving Israel through the unconquered nations left in the land). Must be distinguished from temptation-to-sin (which God does not do); a comprehension-level nuance regarding refining discipline versus enticement, not a collision with a competing religious system.
Prophetess
Approved rendering: tus poj niam cev Vajtswv lus
Transliteration: nevi’ah (Heb.); prophētis (LXX)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY (4:4, Deborah’s office). Comprehension gap (unfamiliar office for women in Hmong customary religious/social structure) rather than a collision; should be taught as the same office-family as male prophets, not a distinct or lesser category.
Curse Arar
Approved rendering: raug foom tsis zoo
Transliteration: arar (Heb.); epikataratos (LXX)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: any hmoov-root (‘fortune’) compound for curse/blessing — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, would draw on vocabulary the Romans baseline already prohibits for anything touching divine favor/disfavor
NEW ENTRY (5:23, the curse on Meroz; 21:18, the Mizpah oath-curse against giving wives to Benjamin). This rendering deliberately avoids any hmoov-root vocabulary; ‘raug foom tsis zoo’ must be the only permitted form for oath-curse contexts in this book, extending the Romans baseline’s permanent grace-context prohibition to the entire curse/blessing semantic field within Judges.
King Melek
Approved rendering: vaj ntxwv
Transliteration: melek (Heb.); basileus (LXX)
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King
NEW ENTRY, built on the same root morpheme as the baseline kingdom_of_god entry (lub Nceeg Vaj). Central to Doctrines 2 and 6 (8:22-23, Gideon’s refusal; ch.9, Abimelech’s illegitimate kingship and Jotham’s fable; 17-21, the refrain). Must be cross-referenced in teaching with moral_relativism_refrain below and carefully distinguished from God’s own kingship to prevent the narrative’s critique of Abimelech’s illegitimate kingship being misheard as a critique of kingship, or of God’s rule, as such.
God Grieved Impatient
Approved rendering: tus Tswv siab tsis taus lawm rau
Transliteration: qatsar nephesh (Heb.); oligopsycheō (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
NEW ENTRY (10:16, ‘the LORD could no longer bear’ Israel’s misery). Comprehension-level nuance; should be taught alongside the mercy entry as another facet of God’s relational responsiveness to Israel’s suffering, not a collision with a competing religious concept.
Priest Kohen
Approved rendering: tus povthawj
Transliteration: kohen (Heb.); hiereus (LXX)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY (17:5, 10-13; 18, Micah’s hired Levite). Uses an already-attested Hmong Christian compound for ‘priest.’ Must be distinguished from the Romans baseline’s priestly_minister entry (Paul’s metaphorical leitourgos, ‘tus ua haujlwm pab Vajtswv’), since kohen denotes the concrete, hereditary Levitical office, a more specific referent than Paul’s ministerial metaphor.
Concubine Pilegesh
Approved rendering: tus poj hluas / tus niam yau
Transliteration: pilegesh (Heb.); pallakē (LXX)
Doctrine: Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King
NEW ENTRY (19:1-2, the Levite’s concubine at the center of the Gibeah atrocity). Comprehension gap given differing marriage-status customs, not a collision with a competing religious system; must be handled with particular care given the surrounding narrative’s extreme violence against her — the text’s own candor must not be softened or euphemized.
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: theos (LXX); Elohim (Heb.)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Ntuj (impersonal sky/heaven) — rejected, lacks personal deity sense, dab (spirit) — rejected, denotes false/lesser spirit
Inherited from Romans package. Elohim (the term used throughout Judges) maps consistently onto this established entry; no collision. Used in every chapter of Judges.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: kyrios (LXX); YHWH (Heb.)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. Renders the covenant name YHWH throughout Judges by the established Hmong Bible-tradition convention (‘LORD’). Stable, used in every chapter.
Promise
Approved rendering: lus cog tseg
Transliteration: epangelia (LXX conceptual parallel); shaba/nishba (Heb., ‘to swear’)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Inherited from Romans package. Applied at 2:15 to God’s own self-binding, unilateral sworn word (including covenant-curse fulfillment, cf. Leviticus 26/Deuteronomy 28); kept distinct from the new oath_swear (human oath) and rash_vow_neder (human vow to God) entries below.
Heir
Approved rendering: tus qub txeeg qub teg
Transliteration: klēronomos (LXX conceptual parallel); nachalah (Heb.)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. Adapted for the covenant land-inheritance sense at 2:6, 2:9 (each tribe/family ‘to his inheritance’); strong positive resonance with Hmong lineage-inheritance custom carried forward unchanged.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: lub Nceeg Vaj ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: basileia tou theou (LXX conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King
Inherited from Romans package. Invoked thematically (not from a single Judges lexeme) as the implicit standard against which Israel’s failed/rejected human kingship (Gideon’s refusal 8:22-23; Abimelech ch.9) is measured. Shares root morpheme with the new king_melek entry; must be kept carefully distinguished so the narrative’s critique of failed human kingship is never heard as a critique of God’s own kingship.
Nations Gentiles
Approved rendering: lwm Haiv Neeg
Transliteration: ethnē (LXX); goyim (Heb.)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. Used for the unconquered Canaanite peoples of ch.1 and the oppressor-nations of ch.3, 10 (Ammon, Moab, Philistia, etc.).
Land Rest
Approved rendering: thaj av tau so
Transliteration: shaqat (Heb.); hēsychazō (LXX)
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
NEW ENTRY (3:11, 3:30, 5:31, 8:28), marking the temporary-respite stage of each apostasy cycle. Stable descriptive phrase; no collision.
Medium-High Risk Terms
Nazirite Vow
Approved rendering: tus raug cais tseg rau tus Tswv
Transliteration: nazir (Heb.); naziraios (LXX)
Doctrine: The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges
Rejected alternatives: transliterated loanword — rejected, a descriptive paraphrase is more immediately comprehensible and carries no collision risk requiring the ‘keep it foreign’ logic used for Baal/Ashtaroth
NEW ENTRY (13:5, 7; 13-16, Samson’s lifelong consecration vow — no wine, no haircut, no corpse-contact). Comprehension gap: no exact Hmong customary analogue for this specific lifelong ritual-abstention vow exists. Risk elevated above ordinary Medium because Samson’s progressive, willful violation of every element of this vow becomes the narrative vehicle for spirit_departure_ot; introduce with a first-occurrence explanatory gloss (13:5) and reconnect explicitly to the Spirit-departure verse at 16:17-20.