This is a highly marked verse, since it contains several rhetorical questions, as well as three sets of repeated verbs. The answer to all the rhetorical questions is “No!” so these questions may also be rendered as strong negative statements.

Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab?: This rhetorical question clearly has a mocking tone. Now is literally “And now” (compare verse 11.13). Here this expression shows that the conversation is taking a new turn. Jephthah is once again building a new argument against the Ammonites. The Hebrew pronoun for you is emphatic. It refers to the Ammonite king. Are you any better renders an emphatic and repetitive expression in Hebrew, literally “are you good being good?” We could say “Now do you think you are better than…?” or “Now do you consider yourself better than…?” Balak the son of Zippor was the king of Moab around the time of Moses. When this king felt he could not defeat Israel, he summoned Balaam, hoping this prophet would put a curse on the Israelites so he could defeat them. But this ploy did not work (see Num 22–24). It is difficult to know in which way the Ammonite king might be better than Balak. This question might mean “Do you think you have a better claim on the land than Balak?” However, in this context it is more likely that Jephthah’s point is: “Balak, king of Moab, could not defeat us. Do you think you are more powerful than him?” But since there is no way to know exactly what is meant, translators can simply render the text as it stands, without additional explanations.

Did he ever strive against Israel…? is literally “Did he strive striving against Israel…?” The Hebrew verb here is repeated for emphasis, as in the previous question. For the verb strive, see verse 6.31, where it is translated “contend.” Some versions render strive against as “challenge” (Good News Translation) or “quarrel with” (Contemporary English Version, New International Version). In fact, Balak never did challenge or attack the Israelites because he was afraid of them. Jephthah is trying to reason with the Ammonite king by showing him that Balak, a great king of the past, did not challenge or fight against the Israelites. So, then why should the Ammonite king? Good News Translation renders this rhetorical question as “He never challenged Israel, did he?” It may also be translated as a statement as in Contemporary English Version: “he didn’t quarrel with Israel.”

Or did he ever go to war with them? is literally “or waging war, did he wage war against them?” Once again the verb is repeated for emphasis, which Revised Standard Version expresses well with ever go to war. For the Hebrew verb rendered go to war (lacham), see verse 1.1, where it is translated “fight.” The pronoun them refers to the Israelites. This rhetorical question indicates that Balak never fought against the Israelites either. It may be combined with the previous one by saying “Did he ever threaten the Israelites or go to war against them?”

Translation models for this verse are:

• Now look, you certainly aren’t any stronger than Balak, son of Zippor, the Moabite king! He wasn’t able to challenge or attack Israel! Can you?

• Do you really think you’re any better than Zippor’s son Balak, the Moabite king? Did he even dare to challenge the Israelites? Did he even dare to wage war against them?

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .