"In Amalek came down" or "into the valley"

Question

In Judges 5:14,

• NASB

“From Ephraim those whose root is in Amalek came down, Following you, Benjamin, with your peoples; From Machir commanders came down, And from Zebulun those who wield the staff of office.

• ESV

From Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley, following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen; from Machir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant’s staff;

• GNT

They came from Ephraim into the valley, behind the tribe of Benjamin and its people. The commanders came down from Machir, the officers down from Zebulun.

I presume this is because there is an actual manuscript difference between the Masoretic Hebrew and the Septuagint Greek (similar to what I learned here). Are we dealing with corruption here too?

Answer 1

As best I can determine, the ESV and GNT are providing an interpretive translation as "into the valley" is not in the Hebrew. What is there is the word, יָרַד = came down or descend. Thus, "into the valley" is interpretive.

The NASB, as usual, provides a fairly literal and reliable version:

From Ephraim those whose root is in Amalek came down, Following you, Benjamin, with your peoples; From Machir commanders came down, And from Zebulun those who wield the staff of office.

This agrees with the NIV, NLT, BSB, KJV, NKJV, etc.

It is V15 that has the explicit explanation of what "came down" means, namely, "into the valley by using the word, עֵמֶק

And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; As was Issachar, so was Barak; Into the valley they rushed at his heels; Among the divisions of Reuben There were great determinations of heart.

The ESV and GNT interpretive translation anticipates this.