Judges 6:11

Gideon Meets Some Visitors

6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger ¹  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ²  was threshing ³  wheat in a winepress ⁴  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ⁵ 

Judges 6:30

6:30 The men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so we can execute him! ⁶  He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.”

Judges 7:14

7:14 The other man said, ⁷  “Without a doubt this symbolizes ⁸  the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.”

Judges 9:18

9:18 But you have attacked ⁹  my father’s family ¹⁰  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate ¹¹  sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative. ¹² 

Judges 11:2

11:2 Gilead’s wife also gave ¹³  him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they made Jephthah leave and said to him, “You are not going to inherit any of our father’s wealth, ¹⁴  because you are another woman’s son.”

Judges 13:5

13:5 Look, you will conceive and have a son. ¹⁵  You must never cut his hair, ¹⁶  for the child will be dedicated to God ¹⁷  from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power ¹⁸  of the Philistines.”

¹ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

² tn Heb “Now Gideon his son…” The Hebrew circumstantial clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + predicate) breaks the narrative sequence and indicates that the angel’s arrival coincided with Gideon’s threshing.

³ tn Heb “beating out.”

⁴ sn Threshing wheat in a winepress. One would normally thresh wheat at the threshing floor outside the city. Animals and a threshing sledge would be employed. Because of the Midianite threat, Gideon was forced to thresh with a stick in a winepress inside the city. For further discussion see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.

⁵ tn Heb “Midian.”

⁶ tn Heb “and let him die.” The jussive form with vav after the imperative is best translated as a purpose clause.

¹¹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

¹² tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “have risen up against.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “house.”

¹⁸ tn The word “legitimate” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁹ tn Heb “your brother.”

²¹ tn Heb “bore.”

²² tn Heb “in the house of our father.”

²⁶ tn Another option is to translate, “you are already pregnant and will have a son.” The earlier reference to her being infertile (v. 3) suggests that her conception is still future, but it is possible that the earlier statement only reflects her perspective (as far as she is concerned, she is infertile). According to this interpretation, in v. 5 the angel reveals the truth to her – actually she has recently conceived and is now pregnant (see the translation in R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 217). Usage favors this interpretation. The predicate adjective הָרָה (harah, “[be/become] pregnant”) elsewhere has a past (1 Sam 4:19) or present (Gen 16:11; 38:25; 2 Sam 11:5) translation value. (The usage in Isa 7:14 is debated, but a present translation is definitely possible there.) A final, but less likely possibility, is that she miraculously conceived during the angel’s speech, sometime between his statements recorded in vv. 3 and 5.

²⁷ tn Heb “a razor should not go up on his head.”

²⁸ tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).

²⁹ tn Heb “hand.”