6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger 6 came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon 7 was threshing 8 wheat in a winepress 9 so he could hide it from the Midianites. 10
1 tn Heb “They encamped against them.”
2 tn Heb “destroyed.”
3 tn Heb “the crops of the land.”
4 tn Heb “They left no sustenance in Israel.”
5 tn The words “they took away” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.
7 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.
8 tn Heb “beating out.”
9 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.
10 tn Heb “Midian.”