Text -- Judges 7:1-4 (NET)

Gideon Reduces the Ranks

7:1 Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and his men got up the next morning and camped near the spring of Harod. The Midianites were camped north of them near the hill of Moreh in the valley. 7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. Israel might brag, ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’ 7:3 Now, announce to the men, ‘Whoever is shaking with fear may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” Twenty-two thousand men went home; ten thousand remained. 7:4 The Lord spoke to Gideon again, “There are still too many men. Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more. When I say, ‘This one should go with you,’ pick him to go; when I say, ‘This one should not go with you,’ do not take him.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jdg 7:1

¹ tn Heb “and all the people who were with him.”

² sn The name Harod means, ironically, “trembling.”

³ tn Heb “Midian.” The LXX reads “and Amalek” (cf. v. 12; 6:33).

NET Notes: Jdg 7:2

¹ tn Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”

² tn Heb “might glorify itself against me.”

³ tn Heb “my hand has delivered me.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:3

¹ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

² tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

³ tc Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).

⁴ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)

⁵ tn Or “turned around, back.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:4

¹ tn Heb “too many people.”

² tn Heb “test them for you there.”

³ tn Heb “he should go with you.”

⁴ tn Heb also has “to you.”

⁵ tn Heb “he should not go.”