Core Glossary
08 — Core Glossary: Judges — English → Mandarin
This glossary extends translation_memory.json (Romans baseline) for the Judges curriculum. Terms already recorded in the baseline translation memory are reused exactly as written and are marked “(baseline, reused)” below. New terms discovered in this analysis are proposed for addition to translation memory at Phase 1 Step 8 sign-off, following the same JSON schema and risk-tier conventions as the baseline.
Risk tier definitions follow doctrine_risk_registry.json: Critical (essential doctrine at stake; theologian review every occurrence), High (significant syncretism/confusion risk; theologian review), Medium (clarity risk; native speaker review), Low (minor imprecision risk; automated review).
A. Reused Baseline Terms (apply exactly as recorded)
| Term (EN) | Mandarin | Transliteration | Risk | Chapters Where Used | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| covenant | 约 | yuē | High | 2, throughout | Underlies the whole book’s blessing/curse structure (Deut. 28 background). |
| law (Mosaic Law, corpus) | 律法 | lǜfǎ | High | background to 2:17, 3:4 | Individual precepts rendered 命令 (see below), distinct from the Law as a whole. |
| peace (relational, with God) | 平安 | píng’ān | Medium | contrast with 3:11’s “land had rest” | Must not be conflated with 太平 (national/military rest); see new term below. |
| king (God’s ultimate reign, kingdom of God) | 神的国 | Shén de guó | Medium | conceptual background to 8:23, 9, 17-21 | Avoid 天下/王朝 framing (baseline caution) when teaching Israel’s need for a king. |
| church | 教会 | jiàohuì | Medium | contrast term for 20’s 会众 | Must not retroactively apply to Israel’s OT national assembly. |
| holy spirit (NT term; theological continuity noted) | 圣灵 | Shènglíng | Critical | cross-referenced at 3, 6, 11, 13-16 | Same divine Person as 耶和华的灵 (OT term, see below); never render either with 灵 alone. |
| prophet | 先知 | xiānzhī | Low | background to 4-5 | Base form for the new term 女先知 (prophetess), below. |
| grace (as unmerited favor, doctrinal reference point) | 恩典 | ēndiǎn | Critical | conceptual anchor for 2:18, 3, 10 | Never 功德/阴德; God’s compassion in Judges is not merit-triggered. |
B. New Terms Introduced by Judges (proposed for translation memory addition)
| Term (EN) | Original (Heb. / LXX) | Transliteration | Mandarin | Doctrine | Risk | Chapters | Alternatives Rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| inheritance / possession | נַחֲלָה / κληρονομία | nachalah / klēronomia | 产业 | Cycle of Sin, Judgment, Deliverance (background) | Low | 1, 2:6,9 | — | Covenant-gift land, not merit-won property. |
| served (worship-service) | עָבַד / λατρεύω | avad / latreuō | 事奉 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Medium | 2:7,11,13 | 服务, 侍候 | Identical verb used for LORD and for Baal — deliberate rhetorical contrast must be preserved. |
| servant of the LORD | עֶבֶד יהוה / δοῦλος κυρίου | eved YHWH / doulos kyriou | 耶和华的仆人 | (title, background) | Low | 2:8 | — | Honorific covenant office, not cultic medium. |
| know (the LORD) | יָדַע / γινώσκω | yada / ginōskō | 认识 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Medium | 2:10 | 知道, 了解 | Relational covenant-knowing, not mere factual acquaintance. |
| generation | דּוֹר / γενεά | dor / genea | 世代 | (structural) | Low | 2:10 | — | — |
| did evil in the sight of the LORD (formula) | הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יהוה / τὸ πονηρὸν ἐνώπιον κυρίου | hara be’einei YHWH | 行耶和华眼中看为恶的事 | The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance | Medium | 2:11; recurs 3:7,12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1 | 做坏事 | Structural refrain of the whole book; covenant-lawsuit sense, not generic moralism. |
| Baal / the Baals | בַּעַל / הַבְּעָלִים / Βααλ / Βααλιμ | Ba’al / Ba’alim | 巴力 / 诸巴力 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | High | 2:11,13; 3:7; 6, 8, 10 | (transliteration only; no rejected alternatives) | Structural parallel to Chinese folk fertility/tutelary-deity worship must be taught explicitly. |
| forsook / abandoned | עָזַב / ἐγκαταλείπω | azab / enkataleipō | 离弃 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | High | 2:12,13; recurs throughout | 离开, 抛弃 | Covenant-breach term; must be taught with 约 (covenant). |
| other gods | אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים / θεοὶ ἕτεροι | elohim acherim | 别神 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Medium | 2:12,17,19 | — | Distinguished from 神 (the one true God, per baseline). |
| bowed down (to idols) | הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה / προσκυνέω | hishtachavah / proskyneō | 叩拜 / 跪拜 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Medium | 2:12,17,19 | 敬拜 (reserved for legitimate worship of God elsewhere) | Physically identical posture to ancestor/idol veneration; object of the bow is the determining factor. |
| provoked to anger | כָּעַס (hiphil) / παροργίζω | hik’isu / parorgizō | 惹耶和华发怒 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Medium | 2:12 | — | Covenant-judicial anger, not capricious folk-deity temper. |
| Ashtaroth / Astarte | עַשְׁתָּרוֹת / Ἀστάρται | Ashtaroth / Astartai | 亚斯她录 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Medium | 2:13; 10:6 | — | Paired fertility-goddess figure; cultural-parallel teaching note required. |
| sold (into enemies’ hand) | מָכַר / ἀποδίδωμι | makar / apodidōmi | 交在…手中 | The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance | Medium | 2:14 | 卖了 (avoid overly literal commercial reading) | Judicial handing-over, not commercial transaction. |
| distress | צַר / θλίψις-root | tsar | 急难 | The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance | Low | 2:15 | — | Just covenant consequence, not random misfortune/福祸. |
| judges (office) | שֹׁפְטִים / κριταί | shophtim / kritai | 士师 | The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges | Medium | 2:16 through book’s title; throughout | 审判官, 法官 (too narrowly judicial/courtroom) | Spirit-empowered deliverer-leader, not a courtroom magistrate. |
| raised up | קוּם (hiphil) / ἐγείρω | heqim / egeirō | 兴起 | The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges; Absence of a Righteous King | Low | 2:16,18; 3:9,15; 10:1,3 | — | Emphasizes God’s sovereign initiative, not hereditary succession. |
| saved / deliverer | יָשַׁע / σῴζω | yasha / sōzō | 拯救 (verb); 拯救者 (noun, “deliverer”) | God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers | High | 2:16,18; 3:9,15,31; 6:14-15; 8:22; 10:1; 12:3 | 救主 (reserved exclusively for Christ), 解脱, 超度 | Human judges save typologically and imperfectly; never equated with 救恩/救主. |
| whored after (spiritual adultery) | זָנָה / ἐκπορνεύω | zanah / ekporneuō | 随从别神行邪淫 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | High | 2:17; 8:27,33 | 不忠, 背叛 (too weak) | Figurative covenant-infidelity metaphor; must not be read as literal accusation. |
| commandments | מִצְוֹת / ἐντολαί | mitsvot / entolai | 命令 | (background to Law) | Low | 2:17 | — | Individual precepts, distinct from 律法 as whole corpus. |
| moved to pity / had compassion | נָחַם (niphal) / κατανύσσομαι | yinnachem | 怜恤 | God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers | Critical | 2:18 | 功德感动, 报应减轻 (both import merit-ledger logic — forbidden) | God’s mercy precedes and is not conditioned on Israel’s repentance/merit; core textual anchor for the grace doctrine. |
| groaning | נַאֲקָה / στεναγμός | na’aqah / stenagmos | 哀声 | God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers | Low | 2:18 | — | Not a ritual-appeasement performance. |
| oppressed / afflicted | לָחַץ, דָּחַק / ἐκθλίβω | lachats, dachaq | 欺压 / 虐待 | (background) | Low | 2:18 | — | — |
| turned back (apostasy sense) | שׁוּב / ἐπιστρέφω | shuv / epistrephō | 转去 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness; Cycle of Sin | High | 2:19 | 回头是岸 (Buddhist-inflected idiom — forbidden for this sense) | Ironic reversal of the OT’s usual “return/repent” verb; direction is away from God here. |
| corrupt | שָׁחַת (hiphil) / διαφθείρω | hishchitu / diaphtheirō | 败坏 | Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King | Medium | 2:19 | — | Comparative, generational downward trajectory, not a static state. |
| stubborn ways | קָשָׁה / σκληρός | qashah / sklēros | 顽梗的行为 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Low | 2:19 | — | — |
| drive out / dispossess | הוֹרִישׁ / ἐξολεθρεύω | horish | 赶出 / 逐出 | (background to Cycle) | Medium | 1 | — | Covenant-judgment context; not a template for ethnic hostility generally. |
| Canaanites | כְּנַעֲנִי / Χαναναῖος | Kena’ani | 迦南人 | (proper noun) | Low | 1, throughout | — | — |
| angel of the LORD | מַלְאַךְ יהוה / ἄγγελος κυρίου | mal’akh YHWH / angelos kyriou | 耶和华的使者 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness; God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers | High | 2:1-5; 6:11-24; 13:3-21 | 神明的使者 (folk-deity messenger framing) | Often a direct theophany, speaking as God in the first person — not a mere created messenger-spirit. |
| test / prove | נָסָה / πειράζω | nasah / peirazō | 试验 | (background) | Low | 2:22; 3:1,4 | — | — |
| Spirit of the LORD (came upon) | רוּחַ יהוה / πνεῦμα κυρίου | ruach YHWH / pneuma kyriou | 耶和华的灵 | The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges | Critical | 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6,19; 15:14 | 气, 法力, 神通 (all forbidden per baseline power-of-God prohibitions); 附身/附体 framing (forbidden) | Theologically continuous with 圣灵 (NT term) but lexically distinct in OT usage; sovereign personal empowering, never impersonal possession-trance. |
| cried out to the LORD | צָעַק / זָעַק / ἐκέκραξαν | tsa’aq / za’aq | 呼求耶和华 | The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance | High | 3:9,15; 4:3; 6:6; 10:10 | 求签, 许愿还愿 (transactional temple framing — forbidden) | Distress addressed directly to God; no bargain implied. |
| land had rest | שָׁקְטָה הָאָרֶץ / ἡσύχασεν ἡ γῆ | shaqtah ha’arets | 国中太平 | (background to Cycle) | Medium | 3:11,30; 5:31; 8:28 | — | National/military calm — distinct from 平安 (relational peace with God, baseline). |
| prophetess | נְבִיאָה / προφῆτις | nevi’ah / prophētis | 女先知 | Inspiration of Scripture (background) | High | 4-5 | 女巫, 灵媒 (both forbidden — shamaness/medium framing) | Verbal, coherent divine spokesperson; not a trance-channeling medium. |
| curse / blessed | אָרַר / בָּרַךְ / καταράομαι / εὐλογέω | arar / barak | 咒诅 / 蒙福 | (background) | Medium | 4-5; 9 | 下咒 (magical-incantation framing — avoid for biblical usage) | Covenant-moral declarations under God’s governance, not manipulative magic. |
| altar | מִזְבֵּח / θυσιαστήριον | mizbeach | 祭坛 / 坛 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Medium | 6 | 神坛, 香案 (household-idol framing — avoid) | Gideon tears down Baal’s altar; reinforces exclusive covenant loyalty. |
| sign | אוֹת / σημεῖον | oth / sēmeion | 证据 | (background to Faith) | High | 6:17,36-40 | 兆头 (omen-reading framing — forbidden) | Confirmation sought from the personal God, not impersonal omen-divination. |
| ephod | אֵפוֹד / ἐφούδ | ephod | 以弗得 | (background) | Medium | 8:24-27 | — | Transliteration; became an idolatrous snare. |
| snare | מוֹקֵשׁ / σκάνδαλον | moqesh / skandalon | 网罗 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | Low | 8:27 | — | — |
| the LORD shall rule over you | יהוה יִמְשֹׁל בָּכֶם | YHWH yimshol bakhem | 耶和华必管理你们 | The Absence of a Righteous King | High | 8:23 | — | Gideon’s refusal of kingship; God’s own kingship as the true alternative. |
| king | מֶלֶךְ / βασιλεύς | melek / basileus | 王 | The Absence of a Righteous King; Moral Decline | Medium | 8:23; 9; 17-21 | — | Abimelech’s kingship is a cautionary counter-example, not a model. |
| vow | נֵדֶר / εὐχή | neder / euchē | 许愿 | Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King | Critical | 11:30-31 | — | Narrative describes, does not endorse, Jephthah’s rash vow; strong collision with Chinese temple 许愿还愿 practice. |
| burnt offering | עוֹלָה / ὁλοκαύτωμα | olah / holokautōma | 燔祭 | Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King | Critical | 11:31,34-39 | — | Must be framed against Mosaic law’s prohibition of human sacrifice; narrative describes moral chaos, not prescription. |
| Nazirite | נָזִיר / ναζιραῖος | nazir / naziraios | 拿细耳人 | The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges (background) | High | 13; 16 | 出家人, 修道者 (self-cultivation/monastic framing — avoid) | God-initiated consecration for a specific task, not self-attained merit through ascetic practice; cf. 成圣 caution in baseline. |
| Spirit of the LORD rushed upon | וַתִּצְלַח עָלָיו רוּחַ יהוה | tsalach | 耶和华的灵大大充满他 | The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges | Critical | 14:6,19; 15:14 | 气, 法力, 神通 (forbidden) | Heightened form of 耶和华的灵; must not read as internal energy Samson cultivates (qigong/martial-arts framing). |
| Dagon | דָּגוֹן / Δαγών | Dagon | 大衮 | (proper noun) | Low | 16 | — | Philistine deity; transliteration only. |
| idol / carved image | פֶּסֶל / מַסֵּכָה / γλυπτόν | pesel / massekah | 雕刻的像 / 铸造的像 / 偶像 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness | High | 17-18 | — | Direct collision with Chinese idol-veneration practice; teach with theological clarity, not diplomatic softening. |
| household gods / teraphim | תְּרָפִים / Θεραφιν | teraphim | 家中的神像 | Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness; Moral Decline | Critical | 17-18 | 祖先牌位, 家神 (must be named as the real-world parallel being critiqued, not softened away) | Structural parallel to household ancestor tablets/domestic shrines; text condemns, does not merely describe. |
| ”everyone did what was right in his own eyes” | אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה | ish ha-yashar be’einav ya’aseh | 各人任意而行 | The Absence of a Righteous King; Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King | High | 17:6; 21:25 | — | Book’s thesis refrain; condemnatory, always paired with “no king in Israel”; resist reading as celebrated individual autonomy. |
| concubine | פִּילֶגֶשׁ / παλλακή | pilegesh / pallakē | 妾 | Moral Decline (background) | High | 19 | — | Narrative describes era’s moral collapse; not a prescriptive family model. |
| outrage / wickedness | נְבָלָה / ἀφροσύνη | nebalah / aphrosynē | 恶事 / 丑事 | Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King | Medium | 19 | — | Deliberate echo of Sodom (Genesis 19); Israel’s moral parity with pagan cities. |
| assembly / congregation | קָהָל / עֵדָה / συναγωγή | qahal / edah | 会众 | (background) | Medium | 20 | 教会 (reserved for NT ekklēsia — avoid anachronism) | National-military war-assembly, not the New Covenant church. |
| inquire of God | שָׁאַל בֵּאלֹהִים / ἐπηρώτησαν τὸν θεόν | sha’al be’Elohim | 求问神 | Prayer and Intercession (background) | High | 20 | 求签, 问卜 (forbidden per baseline intercession note) | Direct address to God, distinct from divination consultation. |
| cast lots | גּוֹרָל / κλῆρος | goral / klēros | 抽签 | The Absence of a Righteous King (background: decision-making without a king) | Critical | 20:9-10; cf. tribal-allotment tradition | — | Identical modern term to Chinese temple fortune-stick divination (抽签); must be framed as a decision-mechanism entrusted to God’s providence (cf. Prov. 16:33), never as fate-reading technique. |
| ”In those days there was no king in Israel” | בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל | ba-yamim hahem ein melek beYisrael | 那时以色列中没有王 | The Absence of a Righteous King; Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King | High | 18:1; 19:1; 21:25 | — | Book’s closing verdict; bridges canonically toward Davidic/messianic kingship without reducing the need to a merely political solution. |
| kindness / covenant loyalty (chesed, distinct from grace) | חֶסֶד / ἔλεος | chesed / eleos | 慈爱 | God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers (related, distinct concept) | Medium | 1:24; 8:35; 9:16 | 恩典 (reserved for baseline’s unmerited saving-grace doctrine — do not substitute), 功德 (forbidden) | Human-to-human (or God-to-human) covenant loyalty/kindness; related to but not identical with soteriological grace. |
C. Risk Summary for Judges New-Term Additions
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 8 | Human theologian (every occurrence) |
| High | 15 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 13 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 12 | Automated review |
Critical-risk new terms requiring theologian review at every occurrence: 耶和华的灵 / Spirit of the LORD (and its intensified form at Samson’s feats), 怜恤 / moved to pity, 许愿 / vow, 燔祭 / burnt offering, 家中的神像 / household gods (teraphim), 抽签 / cast lots.
Cross-reference note: Several Judges terms directly extend baseline Critical/High-risk categories already documented in doctrine_risk_registry.json — most importantly the grace/merit distinction (2:18’s 怜恤), the Spirit terminology (耶和华的灵 vs. 圣灵), and the kingship/kingdom-of-God caution (8:23, 9, 17-21). Phase 2 processing must load this glossary alongside the baseline translation_memory.json and treat any conflict in favor of the more restrictive (higher) risk tier and its associated forbidden-substitution list.
This glossary is the Step 1 deliverable feeding Phase 1 Step 8 (Core Glossary sign-off) and must be loaded by all subsequent Judges-curriculum Phase 2 translation workers alongside the baseline Romans Language Package.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Shén
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / Deity of the Covenant LORD
Rejected alternatives: 上帝, 天, 老天爷
Original: אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: 神 is also the ordinary noun for any deity/spirit in Hebrew (elohim) and in Mandarin usage (folk city gods, kitchen god, etc.); Judges repeatedly uses 别神 (‘other gods’) for illegitimate rivals in the very same grammatical slot, so doctrinal contexts throughout Judges must make monotheism explicit rather than assumed. Wherever the Hebrew specifically names the covenant name YHWH, retain 耶和华 (see new term lord_yhwh below) rather than substituting the generic 神.
Jesus
Approved rendering: 耶稣
Transliteration: Yēsū
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: not directly named in Judges (an OT book), but required for any curriculum teaching material that draws the canonical bridge from the book’s closing cry for a righteous king (那时以色列中没有王) forward to the Messiah; never present this bridge as a strict one-to-one typology, per analysis/11_doctrine_analysis.md Part C.
Messiah
Approved rendering: 基督
Transliteration: Jīdū
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: 弥勒, 救世主式泛称
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: relevant only as the ultimate, canonical answer to the book’s unresolved ‘no king in Israel’ crisis; never state or imply that Judges itself names or expects a specific coming Messiah figure — the bridge is a curriculum-level canonical observation, not an exegetical claim about the book’s own historical horizon.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: zhǔ
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 主人, 老爷
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: 主 (the NT title) is distinct from 耶和华 (the OT covenant name, used throughout Judges) and from the verb-based declaration 耶和华必管理你们 (Judges 8:23, ‘the LORD shall rule over you’); do not substitute 主 for 耶和华 in Judges-text renderings, but the theological continuity (the same divine authority) may be drawn out in teaching material.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: 成圣
Transliteration: chéngshèng
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 修身, 修炼
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: this is the direct baseline anchor for the fencing required around 拿细耳人 (Nazirite, new term below) — Samson’s consecration is God-initiated task-specific set-apartness, not self-attained moral perfection through discipline (修身) or ascetic technique (修炼), and must resist assimilation to Buddhist monastic vows exactly as 成圣 must resist assimilation to Neo-Confucian self-cultivation into sagehood.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: 义
Transliteration: yì
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 道德, 善行
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: anchors the teaching-only forward-pointing compound 公义的王 (‘righteous king’) coined in analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md to name the positive concept Judges builds toward; every occurrence of 义 in a Judges kingship context requires the same baseline distinguishing note — this is right standing/right rule under God, not the Confucian virtue of the same name achieved through moral cultivation. 公义的王 is a teaching-material compound only, never a direct Scripture-text rendering, since Judges itself never uses this phrase.
Justification
Approved rendering: 称义
Transliteration: chēngyì
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 修成正果, 赎罪
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: not directly used in Judges but retained for cross-curriculum consistency; relevant only as a contrast term when teaching that the judges’ military/physical deliverances (拯救, new term below) are typological foreshadowings, never equivalent to the forensic salvation this term names.
Salvation
Approved rendering: 救恩
Transliteration: jiùēn
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 解脱, 超度, 得道
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: must be sharply distinguished from 拯救/拯救者 (saved/deliverer, new High-risk term below) — the judges physically/militarily rescue Israel from enemies; they are never 救主 (‘Savior’) and their rescues are never 救恩 in the soteriological sense. Judges’ deliverances are typological, flawed foreshadowings of the true and perfect Savior, received by the whole community in this life from a specific temporal enemy, not the individual, once-for-all reconciliation with God this term names.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: 圣灵
Transliteration: Shènglíng
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 祖灵, 灵
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον (NT term; theological continuity with OT רוּחַ יהוה)
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: theologically continuous with, but lexically distinct from, 耶和华的灵 (Spirit of the LORD, new Critical term below) — the OT designation used throughout Judges. Teach as the same divine Person under two textual designations; the baseline’s absolute prohibition on 灵 alone, 祖灵, 附身/附体, 气, 法力, 神通 applies with equal force to both designations, and with heightened intensity to 耶和华的灵大大充满他 (Samson’s feats).
Grace
Approved rendering: 恩典
Transliteration: ēndiǎn
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: 功德, 造化, 福气, 阴德
Original: חֶסֶד / חַנּוּן (conceptual anchor; cf. NT χάρις)
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: the direct conceptual anchor for 怜恤 (moved to pity, new Critical term below) at Judges 2:18 — God’s compassion toward Israel precedes and is unconditioned by any repentance or merit on Israel’s part, directly countering the merit-ledger worldview (功德, 阴德) exactly as the baseline requires. This is the core passage’s (2:6-19) single clearest textual anchor for the curriculum doctrine ‘God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers.‘
Household Gods Teraphim
Approved rendering: 家中的神像
Transliteration: jiāzhōng de shénxiàng
Doctrine: Domestic Idolatry and Religious Chaos without Central Authority
Rejected alternatives: 祖先牌位 (not a substitution but the real-world parallel that must be named, not softened away), 家神 (likewise named, not substituted)
Original: תְּרָפִים
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. תְּרָפִים (teraphim). Judges 17-18 (Micah’s household shrine). CRITICAL: deliberately paraphrased rather than transliterated (see analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md Section 4) precisely because this concept has a live, present-day functional equivalent — household ancestor tablets and domestic deity shrines (祖先牌位, 家神, 灶神) still maintained in many Chinese homes, where a family member tends the shrine and its rites. The text CONDEMNS, not merely describes, Micah’s private household shrine, priest, and idol as paradigmatic religious chaos flowing from the absence of righteous covenant leadership. Never soften into a neutral cultural-practices note; pastoral sensitivity is still required for readers whose own families maintain such shrines, but the doctrinal force must not be diluted.
Moved To Pity
Approved rendering: 怜恤
Transliteration: liánxù
Doctrine: God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers
Rejected alternatives: 功德感动, 报应减轻
Original: נָחַם (niphal)
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. נָחַם niphal (yinnachem). Judges 2:18. CRITICAL: God’s relenting compassion in response to Israel’s suffering, taught in explicit continuity with 恩典 (grace, baseline Critical term) and explicitly AGAINST the Chinese merit-ledger worldview (功德, 阴德). God’s compassion responds to Israel’s groaning, not to any good deed, repentance, or accumulated merit — the text stresses Israel’s ongoing rebellion (v.17, v.19) as the backdrop against which this pity is shown. Never render with a term implying compassion triggered by moral improvement; this is the core textual anchor of the core passage’s grace doctrine.
Cast Lots
Approved rendering: 抽签
Transliteration: chōuqiān
Doctrine: Divine Providence in Decision-Making
Original: גּוֹרָל
Category: Divine Revelation
Heb. גּוֹרָל (goral). Judges 20:9-10. CRITICAL: 抽签 is the exact, identical modern Mandarin term for drawing a fortune-stick at a Chinese temple, one of the most common folk-divination practices in Chinese religious life. This is a framing problem, not a term-substitution problem — no better term exists. Teaching must state clearly at EVERY occurrence that biblical lot-casting under the LORD’s oversight functions as a decision-mechanism entrusted to God’s providence within a covenant relationship (cf. Proverbs 16:33, ‘the lot is cast… but its outcome is from the LORD’), never as a ritual-specialist technique for reading impersonal fate.
Spirit Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 耶和华的灵
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá de líng
Doctrine: The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges
Rejected alternatives: 气, 法力, 神通, 附身/附体 framing
Original: רוּחַ יהוה
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Heb. רוּחַ יהוה (ruach YHWH). Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25. CRITICAL: theologically continuous with but lexically distinct from 圣灵 (NT term); teach as the same divine Person under two textual designations. NEVER render with 灵 alone (per baseline’s Critical prohibition), nor conflate with ancestral/nature spirits (祖灵) or spirit-medium possession phenomena (附身/附体) of Chinese folk religion, in which a spirit temporarily seizes a human host in a trance state. This is sovereign, personal empowering for a specific task; the empowered person’s own moral agency and accountability remain fully intact — not a possession-trance that bypasses the will.
Spirit Rushed Upon
Approved rendering: 耶和华的灵大大充满他
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá de líng dàdà chōngmǎn tā
Doctrine: The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges
Rejected alternatives: 气, 法力, 神通
Original: וַתִּצְלַח עָלָיו רוּחַ יהוה
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Heb. וַתִּצְלַח עָלָיו רוּחַ יהוה (tsalach, distinct verb from the more general ‘was upon him’). Judges 14:6,19; 15:14 (Samson’s feats of strength). CRITICAL — the single highest-risk term in the whole curriculum: this heightened form carries the same collision risks as 耶和华的灵 above with GREATER intensity, since Samson’s vivid physical feats are exactly the kind of narrative content most likely to be assimilated to martial-arts/qigong-style internal-energy cultivation (气/法力/神通) rather than read as a sovereign, personal divine act for a specific redemptive purpose. Requires theologian-level review and the fullest form of the fencing note at EVERY occurrence, not merely at first mention.
Vow
Approved rendering: 许愿
Transliteration: xǔyuàn
Doctrine: The Danger of Rash Vows and Human Sacrifice
Original: נֵדֶר
Category: Vows and Ritual
Heb. נֵדֶר (neder), verb נָדַר (nadar). Judges 11:30-31 (Jephthah); 21:1,7 (Israel’s vow re: Benjamite wives). CRITICAL: 许愿/还愿 (make-a-vow/repay-a-vow) is one of the most common transactional patterns in Chinese folk temple religion (e.g., promising an offering to a deity in exchange for a granted request). Teaching must state unambiguously at EVERY occurrence that (a) the narrative DESCRIBES Jephthah’s vow without ENDORSING his theology or its execution, and (b) biblical vow-making to the LORD is never presented in Scripture as a technique for manipulating God’s favor.
Burnt Offering
Approved rendering: 燔祭
Transliteration: fánjì
Doctrine: The Danger of Rash Vows and Human Sacrifice
Original: עוֹלָה
Category: Vows and Ritual
Heb. עוֹלָה (olah). Judges 11:31,34-39. CRITICAL: must be taught within the doctrine of moral decline and explicitly flagged as standing in TENSION with, not endorsement of, Mosaic law’s prohibition of human sacrifice (Lev. 18:21; Deut. 12:31). Judges NARRATES Israel’s moral chaos under Jephthah’s flawed theology; it does not PRESCRIBE it. Requires theologian-level doctrinal framing at every occurrence given its extreme sensitivity.
Lord Yhwh
Approved rendering: 耶和华
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: Deity of the Covenant LORD
Original: יהוה
Category: God
Heb. יהוה (YHWH/Yahweh). Throughout Judges. CRITICAL: established CUV transliteration, distinct from 神 (the generic/doctrinal divine title). Judges’ entire cycle presupposes exclusive covenant loyalty owed specifically to 耶和华, not to 神 as a generic category — apostasy is precisely worshiping 别神 in place of 耶和华. Always retain 耶和华 in covenant-name-specific compounds (耶和华的灵, 耶和华的使者, 耶和华的仆人, 耶和华必管理你们) rather than substituting the generic 神.
High Risk Terms
Covenant
Approved rendering: 约
Transliteration: yuē
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant / Mosaic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: 合同, 契约
Original: בְּרִית
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: the entire book’s cyclical structure (apostasy → judgment → deliverance) presupposes the Mosaic covenant’s blessing/curse sanctions (Deut. 28) as background, made explicit in the Angel of the LORD’s indictment (Judges 2:1-5, 20-23). Must always be taught alongside 离弃 (forsook) so that Israel’s apostasy is understood as active covenant breach, not passive drift.
Law
Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: lǜfǎ
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy / Covenant Obedience
Rejected alternatives: 礼, 道德规范, 法律
Original: תּוֹרָה
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: background corpus behind the individual 命令 (commandments, see new term below) that Israel’s fathers obeyed (2:17) and later generations abandoned; never equate with 礼 (Confucian ritual-propriety code), consistent with baseline.
Election
Approved rendering: 拣选
Transliteration: jiǎnxuǎn
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运, 缘分
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: relevant as the conceptual fence for 兴起 (‘raised up’, new term below) — God’s raising up of a judge is personal, gracious sovereign choice, not impersonal fate/destiny assignment (缘分) or Mandate-of-Heaven-style cosmic entitlement (天命), and never hereditary succession (contrast Abimelech’s self-installed kingship, ch. 9).
Called
Approved rendering: 蒙召的
Transliteration: méngzhào de
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 受命于天, 天命所归
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: same forbidden-substitution fence applies to 兴起 (raised up) and to the judges’ office generally — never framed as 天命所归 (‘the one to whom the Mandate of Heaven has returned’), which would recast Israel’s kingship crisis as a succession problem rather than a righteousness problem.
Calling
Approved rendering: 呼召
Transliteration: hūzhào
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: same fence extended to Samson’s pre-birth Nazirite consecration (ch. 13) and to every judge’s God-initiated appointment; never impersonal fate (命运) or cosmic mandate (天命).
Power Of God
Approved rendering: 神的大能
Transliteration: Shén de dà néng
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 气, 法力
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: this is the direct baseline anchor for the absolute forbidden-substitution rule governing 耶和华的灵 and its intensified form 耶和华的灵大大充满他 (new Critical terms below) — never 气 (qi/vital-energy) or 法力 (ritual/magical power), especially at Samson’s physical feats (14:6; 15:14; 16), which are the single highest-risk occasion in the whole book for a qigong/martial-arts misreading.
Providence
Approved rendering: 神的护理
Transliteration: Shén de hùlǐ
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: 天意, 命运
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: this is the direct baseline anchor for the doctrine ‘Divine Providence in Decision-Making’ (Judges 20:9-10, 18, 23, 27-28) — casting lots (抽签, new Critical term below) and inquiring of God (求问神, new High-risk term below) must be taught as God’s personal, purposive governance exercised through a sanctioned decision-mechanism entrusted to his providence (cf. Prov. 16:33), never as an impersonal fate-reading technique (天意) or the folk-divination practice the identical Mandarin word 抽签 usually names.
Sin
Approved rendering: 罪
Transliteration: zuì
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: 报应, 罪犯式的罪
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: underlies the book’s did-evil formula (行耶和华眼中看为恶的事, new term below) as the general category of covenant offense; per the baseline, must never collapse into 报应 (karmic retribution) — a caution of heightened importance in Judges, where the whole sin-judgment-deliverance cycle is at high risk of being read through exactly this karmic lens (see doctrine risk registry, ‘cycle_of_sin_judgment_deliverance’).
Holy
Approved rendering: 圣洁
Transliteration: shèngjié
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 清净, 圣人般的
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: background category for 拿细耳人 (Nazirite) consecration and for the Angel of the LORD’s holiness-charged indictment speeches; avoid 清净 (Daoist/Buddhist ritual/meditative purity) exactly as in the baseline.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: 因信而生的顺服
Transliteration: yīn xìn ér shēng de shùnfú
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: 孝顺, 礼法遵从
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: contrast term for Judges 2:17’s account of the fathers who ‘obeyed the commandments of the LORD’ (命令, new term below) — that obedience flowed from a generation that still 认识耶和华 (knew the LORD relationally); teaching should note continuity with, not identity to, the NT obedience-of-faith category, since Judges predates the full revelation of the gospel.
Baal
Approved rendering: 巴力 / 诸巴力
Transliteration: Bālì / zhū Bālì
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: בַּעַל / הַבְּעָלִים
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. בַּעַל / הַבְּעָלִים (Ba’al / Ba’alim). Judges 2:11,13; 3:7; 6, 8, 10. Transliteration-only (no native Chinese equivalent used, to avoid false equivalence with a specific existing deity). Teaching MUST explicitly draw the structural parallel to Chinese folk fertility/tutelary-deity worship (functional harvest/local-guardian deities): Baal worship is a transactional bid for fertility/protection through ritual technique — grace-less religion — precisely what Israel’s apostasy substituted for covenant trust.
Abandoned Forsook
Approved rendering: 离弃
Transliteration: líqì
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 离开, 抛弃
Original: עָזַב
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. עָזַב (azab). Judges 2:12,13 and recurring throughout. A technical covenant-breach term for unilateral desertion of the covenant LORD, not mere neglect. Must always be taught alongside 约 (covenant, baseline High-risk term) so learners recognize this as active desertion of a binding relationship with the God who redeemed them from Egypt, not ordinary ‘leaving.‘
Whored After
Approved rendering: 随从别神行邪淫
Transliteration: suícóng biéshén xíng xiéyín
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 不忠, 背叛
Original: זָנָה
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. זָנָה (zanah). Judges 2:17; 8:27,33. The OT’s standard figurative image for idolatry as spiritual adultery against a covenant ‘husband.’ Must be flagged as figurative covenant-unfaithfulness language, not a literal accusation of sexual immorality; equally must not be softened into a bland ‘they were unfaithful’ (不忠/背叛) that loses Scripture’s intentionally shocking marital-betrayal imagery.
Idol Carved Image
Approved rendering: 雕刻的像 / 铸造的像 / 偶像
Transliteration: diāokè de xiàng / zhùzào de xiàng / ǒuxiàng
Doctrine: Domestic Idolatry and Religious Chaos without Central Authority
Original: פֶּסֶל / מַסֵּכָה
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. פֶּסֶל (pesel) / מַסֵּכָה (massekah). Judges 17-18. Direct, unavoidable collision with image-veneration practices (拜偶像) across Chinese folk religion, Buddhism, and popular Daoism; teach with theological clarity, not diplomatic softening, as the second-commandment violation it is.
Cried Out To The Lord
Approved rendering: 呼求耶和华
Transliteration: hūqiú Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: Prayer and Crying Out to God in Distress
Rejected alternatives: 求签, 许愿还愿
Original: צָעַק / זָעַק
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. צָעַק / זָעַק (tsa’aq / za’aq). Judges 3:9,15; 4:3; 6:6; 10:10. Israel’s recurring cry of distress addressed directly to the LORD, the trigger preceding each deliverance. Must be distinguished from the transactional temple pattern of 许愿还愿 (make a vow, then repay the deity if rescued) or 求签 (drawing a fortune-stick). Israel’s cry contains no bargain or promised repayment; God acts from his own compassion (怜恤), not a summoned obligation.
Turned Back Apostasy
Approved rendering: 转去
Transliteration: zhuǎnqù
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 回头是岸 (Buddhist-inflected idiom — forbidden for this sense)
Original: שׁוּב
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. שׁוּב (shuv). Judges 2:19. The OT’s principal ‘turn/return’ verb, used here ironically for turning back INTO apostasy after a judge’s death — the reverse of its usual repentance sense. Must not be confused with the Buddhist-inflected colloquial idiom 回头是岸 (‘turning back is the shore,’ turning from delusion to enlightenment), which would invert the verse’s meaning entirely; biblical turning here is covenant infidelity, the opposite of saving repentance.
Angel Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 耶和华的使者
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá de shǐzhě
Doctrine: Covenant Curses, Divine Testing, and the Angel of the LORD’s Indictment
Rejected alternatives: 神明的使者 (folk-deity messenger framing)
Original: מַלְאַךְ יהוה
Category: Divine Revelation
Heb. מַלְאַךְ יהוה (mal’akh YHWH). Judges 2:1-5; 6:11-24; 13:3-21. Ranges from a created angelic messenger to a direct theophanic self-manifestation who speaks in the first person as God (‘I brought you up from Egypt,’ 2:1). Must be distinguished from folk-religious ‘messenger spirits’ of a deity (e.g., a city god’s runners/attendants, 判官/鬼卒-type functionaries in popular religion) — this figure speaks with God’s own authority and voice, not as a subordinate spirit-courier.
Prophetess
Approved rendering: 女先知
Transliteration: nǚ xiānzhī
Doctrine: God’s Use of Unlikely and Marginalized Deliverers
Rejected alternatives: 女巫, 灵媒
Original: נְבִיאָה
Category: Divine Revelation
Heb. נְבִיאָה (nevi’ah). Judges 4-5 (Deborah). Feminine form of 先知 (prophet, baseline Low-risk term). Must be sharply distinguished from a spirit-medium/shamaness (巫, 灵媒), a role attested in both ancient Canaanite religion and Chinese folk practice (e.g., 乩身/尪姨-type ecstatic mediums) in which a human channels a spirit in trance. Deborah speaks God’s coherent, verbal word as his commissioned spokesperson; she does not channel an impersonal force in trance.
Sign
Approved rendering: 证据
Transliteration: zhèngjù
Doctrine: Faith (background — confirmation from a personal God)
Rejected alternatives: 兆头 (omen-reading framing — forbidden)
Original: אוֹת
Category: Divine Revelation
Heb. אוֹת (oth). Judges 6:17, 36-40 (Gideon’s fleece). Must not be assimilated to Chinese omen-reading/divination practice (占兆, 占卜, hexagram-casting); Gideon addresses a specific request to the personal, already-revealed God for confirmation of a word already spoken, not an impersonal fate-reading technique.
Inquire Of God
Approved rendering: 求问神
Transliteration: qiú wèn Shén
Doctrine: Divine Providence in Decision-Making / Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: 求签, 问卜
Original: שָׁאַל בֵּאלֹהִים
Category: Divine Revelation
Heb. שָׁאַל בֵּאלֹהִים (sha’al be’Elohim). Judges 20:18,23,27-28. Direct address to God seeking guidance, especially before military action. Distinguish from divination-consultation practices (求签, 问卜); this is direct petition to the personal covenant God, not consultation of a diviner or medium.
Saved Deliverer
Approved rendering: 拯救 (verb) / 拯救者 (noun)
Transliteration: zhěngjiù / zhěngjiùzhě
Doctrine: God’s Grace through Flawed Deliverers
Rejected alternatives: 救主 (reserved exclusively for Christ), 解脱, 超度
Original: יָשַׁע
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Heb. יָשַׁע (yasha), participle מוֹשִׁיע (moshia, 3:9,15). Throughout. Must be carefully distinguished from 救恩 (baseline Critical term for the NT doctrine of Salvation) and especially from 救主 (‘Savior,’ reserved exclusively for Christ). The judges are 拯救者 (‘deliverers/rescuers’), NEVER 救主. Teaching must state explicitly: these are typological, flawed foreshadowings of the true and perfect Savior, not saviors in the soteriological sense.
Nazirite
Approved rendering: 拿细耳人
Transliteration: Náxì’ěrrén
Doctrine: Nazirite Consecration and God-Initiated Calling
Rejected alternatives: 出家人, 修道者
Original: נָזִיר
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Heb. נָזִיר (nazir), from נָזַר (nazar, ‘to separate/consecrate’). Judges 13; 16. Transliteration-only; superficially resembles Buddhist monastic ascetic vows (出家为僧, dietary/appearance restrictions, 戒律), but the theological logic is opposite — God-initiated consecration announced before birth for a specific task (delivering Israel), not self-attained enlightenment or merit through ascetic discipline. Cross-reference the baseline’s Critical caution on 成圣 versus Neo-Confucian self-cultivation into sagehood; the same collision risk applies here.
The Lord Shall Rule Over You
Approved rendering: 耶和华必管理你们
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá bì guǎnlǐ nǐmen
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King
Original: יהוה יִמְשֹׁל בָּכֶם
Category: Kingship
Heb. יהוה יִמְשֹׁל בָּכֶם (YHWH yimshol bakhem). Judges 8:23. Gideon’s refusal of hereditary kingship, asserting God’s own kingship as the true alternative. This is the book’s first explicit statement of the Absence-of-a-Righteous-King doctrine; must be taught alongside the baseline’s cautions on 神的国 (avoiding 天下/王朝 framing), since it anticipates the tension the book leaves unresolved: Israel needs a king, yet ultimate kingship belongs to God.
Everyone Did Right In Own Eyes
Approved rendering: 各人任意而行
Transliteration: gèrén rènyì ér xíng
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King
Original: אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה
Category: Kingship
Heb. אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה. Judges 17:6; 21:25 (verbatim repetition). Established CUV rendering. The book’s thesis-refrain, always bracketed by ‘in those days there was no king in Israel’ (那时以色列中没有王, see below) — moral relativism/autonomy is diagnosed as a direct CONSEQUENCE of absent righteous governance, never celebrated as individual freedom. Must always co-occur in teaching with the no-king refrain; never allowed to stand alone as if praising individual conscience or pluralism.
No King In Israel
Approved rendering: 那时以色列中没有王
Transliteration: nàshí Yǐsèliè zhōng méiyǒu wáng
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King / Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King
Original: בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: Kingship
Heb. בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל. Judges 18:1; 19:1; 21:25. The book’s repeated closing editorial verdict, the direct textual bridge to the doctrine of Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King. Teaching must connect this forward — without overstating a one-to-one typology — to the canonical trajectory toward Davidic and ultimately messianic kingship, while avoiding any framing that reduces this need to a merely political/dynastic solution (cf. baseline’s caution against 天下/王朝 framing for 神的国); Israel’s need is for a righteous king under God’s own rule (recall Gideon’s refusal, 8:23), not kingship as an end in itself.
Concubine
Approved rendering: 妾
Transliteration: qiè
Doctrine: Sexual Immorality and Societal Collapse
Original: פִּילֶגֶשׁ
Category: Social/Ethical
Heb. פִּילֶגֶשׁ (pilegesh). Judges 19. The narrative DESCRIBES rather than ENDORSES this social arrangement and the horrific violence that follows; sensitive given the historical Chinese institution of concubinage (妾) in traditional family structure — teaching must clarify Judges narrates the era’s moral collapse, not a prescriptive family model.
Medium Risk Terms
Israel
Approved rendering: 以色列
Transliteration: Yǐsèliè
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles / Covenant People
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: names the covenant people descended from Jacob throughout the whole book, the subject of the apostasy-deliverance cycle; per baseline caution, this is theological-historical usage, not a contemporary political statement, and Judges narrates events predating and distinct from any modern geopolitical context.
David
Approved rendering: 大卫
Transliteration: Dàwèi
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: David does not appear in Judges but is the forward-pointing figure the book’s closing kingship crisis (8:23; 9; 17:6; 21:25) anticipates; teaching material bridging Judges to 1-2 Samuel must use this established form.
Intercession
Approved rendering: 代求
Transliteration: dàiqiú
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: 求签, 问卜
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: the direct baseline anchor for distinguishing 呼求耶和华 (cried out to the LORD, new High-risk term below) and 求问神 (inquire of God, new High-risk term below) from 求签 (drawing a temple fortune-stick) or 问卜 (consulting a diviner) — Israel’s cries and inquiries in Judges are always direct address to a personal God, never technique-mediated divination.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: 大卫的后裔
Transliteration: Dàwèi de hòuyì
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: relevant only as the forward canonical reference point; Judges’ repeated ‘no king in Israel’ refrain is the narrative deficit this future covenant promise will address, though David himself is chronologically future to the events of Judges.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: 预言
Transliteration: yùyán
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 算卦, 占卜
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: background category for 女先知 (prophetess, new High-risk term below) — Deborah’s role must be read within this established category (God-inspired declaration), never assimilated to 算卦/占卜 (divination) or to a trance-channeling shamaness role.
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: píng’ān
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: 安宁, 平安符式的平安
Original: שָׁלוֹם
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: must be kept lexically and doctrinally distinct from 国中太平 (land had rest, new Medium-risk term below) — Judges’ socio-political/military calm after a judge’s victory shares the root character 平 but is not the relational, justification-based peace with God this baseline term names.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: 神的国
Transliteration: Shén de guó
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: 天下, 王朝
Original: מַלְכוּת אֱלֹהִים (conceptual)
Category: Kingship
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: this is the direct baseline anchor for Gideon’s refusal of kingship (8:23, 耶和华必管理你们, new High-risk term below) — God’s own kingship is the true alternative Gideon names; avoid 天下/王朝 framing exactly as in baseline when teaching Israel’s need for a king in tension with God’s ultimate reign.
Church
Approved rendering: 教会
Transliteration: jiàohuì
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: 庙, 寺, 道观
Original: ἐκκλησία (contrast term; LXX for קָהָל)
Category: Social/Ethical
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: cited here specifically as a contrast term — must NOT be retroactively applied to Israel’s OT national war-assembly (会众, new term below, Judges 20); anachronistic conflation of the two would blur the New Covenant church with a pre-monarchic tribal military gathering.
Drive Out
Approved rendering: 赶出 / 逐出
Transliteration: gǎnchū / zhúchū
Doctrine: Incomplete Conquest and Partial Obedience
Original: הוֹרִישׁ
Category: Covenant
Heb. הוֹרִישׁ (horish). Judges 1 (repeated refrain ‘did not drive out,’ vv.19,21,27,29,30,31,33). The narrative seed of the whole book’s apostasy crisis. Must be taught within its redemptive-historical/covenant-judgment frame tied to Canaanite religious corruption specifically; never presented as a general template for ethnic hostility.
Dwelt Among
Approved rendering: 住在他们中间
Transliteration: zhù zài tāmen zhōngjiān
Doctrine: Incomplete Conquest and Partial Obedience / Syncretism through Intermarriage
Original: יָשַׁב בְּקֶרֶב
Category: Covenant
Heb. יָשַׁב בְּקֶרֶב (yashab beqerev). Judges 1; background to 3:5-6. Describes Israel settling alongside rather than displacing Canaanite populations — the socio-religious mechanism of later syncretism; must be connected directly (cause-and-effect) to chapter 2’s apostasy, not treated as neutral geography.
Served Worship Service
Approved rendering: 事奉
Transliteration: shìfèng
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 服务, 侍候
Original: עָבַד
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. עָבַד (avad). Judges 2:7 (‘served the LORD’), 2:11,13 (‘served the Baals’). The identical Hebrew verb is used for covenant service to the LORD and for Baal-worship; the Mandarin must preserve this exact rhetorical echo (use 事奉 consistently in both contexts) so the deliberate contrast between exclusive covenant loyalty and idolatry is not lost.
Know The Lord
Approved rendering: 认识
Transliteration: rènshi
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 知道, 了解
Original: יָדַע
Category: Covenant
Heb. יָדַע (yada). Judges 2:10. Intimate, relational, covenantal knowledge, not mere factual acquaintance. 认识 risks a colloquial ‘be acquainted with’ reading; teaching must clarify the loss of this relational covenant-knowing is the hinge of the whole book’s crisis, not a factual-history amnesia problem alone.
Did Evil Formula
Approved rendering: 行耶和华眼中看为恶的事
Transliteration: xíng Yēhéhuá yǎnzhōng kànwéi è de shì
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: 做坏事
Original: הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יהוה
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יהוה. Recurs at 2:11; 3:7,12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1 — the structural refrain of the whole book. 恶 (è) alone risks a generic ‘bad behavior’ reading; must always be anchored to the specific covenant-breaking act named in context (serving Baal), retaining its covenant-lawsuit sense, not moralism in the abstract.
Ashtaroth
Approved rendering: 亚斯她录
Transliteration: Yàsītālù
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: עַשְׁתָּרוֹת
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. עַשְׁתָּרוֹת (Ashtaroth). Judges 2:13; 10:6. Canaanite fertility/war goddess, consort figure paired with Baal. Transliteration; note structural parallel to Chinese fertility-goddess veneration for cultural bridge-teaching, while making clear the text condemns rather than merely describes this worship.
Other Gods
Approved rendering: 别神
Transliteration: biéshén
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים (elohim acherim). Judges 2:12,17,19. Must be taught against 神 (baseline term for the one true God): 别神 explicitly marks these as illegitimate rivals, not competing real gods on par with 神.
Bowed Down
Approved rendering: 叩拜 / 跪拜
Transliteration: kòubài / guìbài
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 敬拜 (reserved for legitimate worship of God elsewhere)
Original: הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה (hishtachavah). Judges 2:12,17,19. Physically identical posture to bowing before ancestral tablets and temple idols in Chinese practice; teaching must state plainly that the object of the bow, not the posture itself, is what makes this idolatry. Reserve 敬拜 exclusively for legitimate worship of the true God — never use it for idol-directed bowing, to keep the posture-vs-object distinction from being blurred by inconsistent verb choice.
Provoked To Anger
Approved rendering: 惹耶和华发怒
Transliteration: rě Yēhéhuá fānù
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: כָּעַס (hiphil)
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. כָּעַס hiphil (hik’isu). Judges 2:12. God’s anger here is covenantal and judicial — a wronged covenant partner’s just response — not the arbitrary temperamental anger of a folk deity that must be placated by ritual offering.
Altar
Approved rendering: 祭坛 / 坛
Transliteration: jìtán / tán
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 神坛, 香案
Original: מִזְבֵּח
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. מִזְבֵּח (mizbeach). Judges 6 (Gideon commanded to tear down Baal’s altar, 6:25-32). Distinguish from household ancestor-altars (香案, 神坛) common in Chinese domestic religion; reinforces exclusive covenant loyalty over religious syncretism.
Sold Into Hand
Approved rendering: 交在…手中
Transliteration: jiāo zài…shǒuzhōng
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: 卖了 (overly literal commercial-slavery reading)
Original: מָכַר
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. מָכַר (makar). Judges 2:14. God’s judicial handing-over of a covenant-breaking Israel to enemy oppressors; the CUV formula ‘交在…的手中’ is preferred over a jarringly literal ‘卖了’ to preserve the covenant-judgment sense (a reversal of exodus-redemption imagery) rather than a commercial-transaction reading.
Corrupt
Approved rendering: 败坏
Transliteration: bàihuài
Doctrine: Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King
Original: שָׁחַת (hiphil)
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. שָׁחַת hiphil (hishchitu). Judges 2:19 (‘more corrupt than their fathers’). The comparative form establishes generational downward trajectory, not a static condition; must always be paired with explicit comparative markers (比…更败坏) and generational language (世代) in teaching material — this comparative degeneration explains why the book ends needing a king, not merely another judge.
Curse Blessed
Approved rendering: 咒诅 / 蒙福
Transliteration: zhòuzǔ / méngfú
Doctrine: Covenant Curses, Divine Testing, and the Angel of the LORD’s Indictment (background)
Rejected alternatives: 下咒 (magical-incantation framing — avoid)
Original: אָרַר / בָּרַךְ
Category: Divine Revelation
Heb. אָרַר (arar) / בָּרַךְ (barak). Judges 4-5 (Meroz cursed, Jael blessed) and ch. 9 (Jotham’s fable). Covenant-moral declarations under God’s governance, not manipulative magic that alters fate through ritual technique.
Judges Office
Approved rendering: 士师
Transliteration: shìshī
Doctrine: The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges
Rejected alternatives: 审判官, 法官
Original: שֹׁפְטִים
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Heb. שֹׁפְטִים (shophtim). The book’s title-office term (士师记, Shìshījì, ‘Book of Judges’), throughout. Modern Mandarin readers may default to the judicial/courtroom sense of ‘judge’ via English loanword association; teaching must clarify 士师 denotes a Spirit-raised military-political deliverer-leader, closer to ‘judge-general’ than ‘magistrate.’ Retained as the established CUV coinage rather than the more literal but misleading 审判官/法官.
King
Approved rendering: 王
Transliteration: wáng
Doctrine: The Absence of a Righteous King / Moral Decline and the Need for a Righteous King
Original: מֶלֶךְ
Category: Kingship
Heb. מֶלֶךְ (melek). Judges 8:23; 9 (Abimelech); 17-21. Jotham’s fable (9:8-15) satirizes illegitimate, self-seeking kingship in explicit contrast to the righteous king Israel actually needs. Must be taught against the Mandate-of-Heaven-style dynastic-legitimacy lens — Abimelech is a cautionary counter-example, not a model, and sets up the book’s climax that Israel’s problem is not the absence of ANY king but the absence of a RIGHTEOUS one.
Ephod
Approved rendering: 以弗得
Transliteration: yǐfúdé
Doctrine: The Danger of Rash Vows and Human Sacrifice (background) / Domestic Idolatry
Original: אֵפוֹד
Category: Vows and Ritual
Heb. אֵפוֹד (ephod). Judges 8:24-27 (Gideon’s gold ephod, becoming ‘a snare’); 17-18 (Micah’s shrine). Transliteration of a priestly/cultic garment or object; the narrative marks this object’s shift from a legitimate priestly item elsewhere in Scripture to an idolatrous object in these contexts.
Outrage Wickedness
Approved rendering: 恶事 / 丑事
Transliteration: èshì / chǒushì
Doctrine: Sexual Immorality and Societal Collapse
Original: נְבָלָה
Category: Social/Ethical
Heb. נְבָלָה (nebalah). Judges 19:23-24 (the Gibeah atrocity). Deliberately echoes the language of Sodom (Genesis 19); teaching should note the intentional intertextual echo, reinforcing that Israel, without a righteous king, has become morally indistinguishable from the pagan cities it was meant to replace.
Assembly Congregation
Approved rendering: 会众
Transliteration: huìzhòng
Doctrine: National Disunity and Civil War
Rejected alternatives: 教会 (reserved for NT ekklēsia — avoid anachronism)
Original: קָהָל / עֵדָה
Category: Social/Ethical
Heb. קָהָל / עֵדָה (qahal / edah). Judges 20. Israel’s gathered national-military assembly; must be kept distinct from 教会 (baseline term for the NT ekklēsia) to avoid anachronistic conflation of Israel’s national war-assembly with the New Covenant church.
Kindness Chesed
Approved rendering: 慈爱
Transliteration: cí’ài
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty and Kindness (Chesed) Among God’s People
Rejected alternatives: 恩典 (reserved for baseline’s unmerited saving-grace doctrine — do not substitute), 功德 (forbidden)
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Social/Ethical
Heb. חֶסֶד (chesed). Judges 1:24; 8:35; 9:16. Human-to-human (or God-to-human) covenant loyalty/kindness; related to but NOT identical with 恩典 (baseline Critical unmerited saving-grace term) — do not substitute one for the other, and never render with 功德 (forbidden merit-accounting term).
Land Had Rest
Approved rendering: 国中太平
Transliteration: guózhōng tàipíng
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance (background)
Original: שָׁקְטָה הָאָרֶץ
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. שָׁקְטָה הָאָרֶץ (shaqtah ha’arets). Judges 3:11,30; 5:31; 8:28. Socio-political/military rest from war following a judge’s deliverance — distinct from 平安 (relational ‘peace with God,’ baseline Medium-risk doctrinal term) of justification, though the Mandarin shares the root character 平. Teaching should distinguish national/military calm from the deeper theological peace category.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: 先知
Transliteration: xiānzhī
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: 算命先生
Original: נָבִיא
Category: Divine Revelation
Inherited from Romans package. Judges extension: base form for the new feminine term 女先知 (prophetess, Deborah, Judges 4-5); distinguish from 算命先生 (fortune-teller) exactly as in baseline.
James Of None
Approved rendering: PLACEHOLDER_REMOVE
Transliteration: ___
Doctrine: ___
PLACEHOLDER — DO NOT USE. This entry exists only to be deleted; remove before Phase 2 load if encountered.
Inheritance
Approved rendering: 产业
Transliteration: chǎnyè
Doctrine: The Land as Covenant Gift, Not Merit-Won Possession
Original: נַחֲלָה
Category: Covenant
Heb. נַחֲלָה (nachalah), LXX κληρονομία. Judges 1; 2:6,9. Covenant-gift land received by promise (to Abraham/Moses), not clan property self-won by military merit. Reused from the established Joshua/Judges CUV tradition.
Canaanites
Approved rendering: 迦南人
Transliteration: Jiānánrén
Doctrine: Incomplete Conquest and Partial Obedience
Original: כְּנַעֲנִי
Category: Covenant
Heb. כְּנַעֲנִי (Kena’ani). Established transliteration for the land’s prior inhabitants and their Baal-centered religious system. Low collision risk.
Servant Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 耶和华的仆人
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá de púrén
Doctrine: Covenant (background)
Original: עֶבֶד יהוה
Category: Covenant
Heb. עֶבֶד יהוה (eved YHWH). Judges 2:8 (Joshua). Honorific covenant office title, not a temple’s ritual attendant or a deity’s medium.
Generation
Approved rendering: 世代
Transliteration: shìdài
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance (background)
Original: דּוֹר
Category: Covenant
Heb. דּוֹר (dor). Judges 2:10. Standard term for a cycle/span of contemporaneous people; no significant risk.
Dagon
Approved rendering: 大衮
Transliteration: Dàgǔn
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness (background — Philistine deity)
Original: דָּגוֹן
Category: Apostasy/Idolatry
Heb. דָּגוֹן (Dagon). Judges 16. Philistine national deity; transliteration-only proper noun.
Distress
Approved rendering: 急难
Transliteration: jínàn
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Original: צַר
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. צַר (tsar). Judges 2:15. Acute national crisis resulting from covenant-breaking; the just consequence of covenant breach, not random misfortune or bad luck (福/祸 folk categories) — God’s world is morally ordered by covenant, not impersonal fortune.
Groaning
Approved rendering: 哀声
Transliteration: āishēng
Doctrine: Prayer and Crying Out to God in Distress
Original: נַאֲקָה
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. נַאֲקָה (na’aqah). Judges 2:18. Raw suffering-cry, not a ritual-appeasement performance; God’s mercy is not summoned by technique.
Oppressed Afflicted
Approved rendering: 欺压 / 虐待
Transliteration: qīyā / nüèdài
Doctrine: The Cycle of Sin, Judgment, and Deliverance
Original: לָחַץ / דָּחַק
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. לָחַץ (lachats) / דָּחַק (dachaq). Judges 2:18. Standard term for being pressed down by enemy forces; no significant risk.
Stubborn Ways
Approved rendering: 顽梗的行为
Transliteration: wángěng de xíngwéi
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: קָשָׁה
Category: Judgment and Deliverance
Heb. קָשָׁה (qashah), idiom ‘hard way.’ Judges 2:19. Standard CUV covenant-hardness vocabulary.
Test Prove
Approved rendering: 试验
Transliteration: shìyàn
Doctrine: Covenant Curses, Divine Testing, and the Angel of the LORD’s Indictment
Original: נָסָה
Category: Divine Revelation
Heb. נָסָה (nasah). Judges 2:22; 3:1,4. God’s purpose in leaving unconquered nations to test Israel’s covenant obedience; standard term, low risk.
Raised Up
Approved rendering: 兴起
Transliteration: xīngqǐ
Doctrine: The Spirit’s Empowering of Judges / The Absence of a Righteous King (background)
Original: קוּם (hiphil)
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Heb. קוּם hiphil (heqim). Judges 2:16,18; 3:9,15; 10:1,3. God’s sovereign act of installing a leader; reinforces that judges are God’s appointment, not self-made or hereditary rulers — background contrast to Abimelech’s self-installed kingship (ch. 9).
Riddle
Approved rendering: 谜语
Transliteration: míyǔ
Doctrine: (background — Samson narrative)
Original: חִידָה
Category: Spirit and Empowerment
Heb. חִידָה (chidah). Judges 14 (Samson’s wedding riddle). Standard term; no significant risk.
Snare
Approved rendering: 网罗
Transliteration: wǎngluó
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: מוֹקֵשׁ
Category: Vows and Ritual
Heb. מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh). Judges 8:27. Used of Gideon’s ephod becoming a cause of Israel’s idolatry; standard term, low risk.
Commandments
Approved rendering: 命令
Transliteration: mìnglìng
Doctrine: Apostasy and Covenant Unfaithfulness (background to Law)
Original: מִצְוֹת
Category: Social/Ethical
Heb. מִצְוֹת (mitsvot). Judges 2:17. Individual precepts obeyed or disobeyed, distinct from 律法 (baseline term for the Mosaic Law as a whole corpus) — 命令 denotes individual precepts feeding into, but not identical with, the whole Law.
Referenced passages