Judges 8:5

8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Give ¹  some loaves of bread to the men ²  who are following me, ³  because they are exhausted. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

Judges 8:8

8:8 He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request. ⁴  The men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth had. ⁵ 

Judges 8:16

8:16 He seized the leaders ⁶  of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men of Succoth with them. ⁷ 

¹ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

² tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because these were warriors and in ancient Israelite culture would have been exclusively males.

³ tn Heb “who are at my feet.”

⁴ tn Heb “and spoke to them in the same way.”

⁵ tn Heb “The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth answered.”

⁶ tn Heb “elders.”

⁷ tc The translation follows the reading of several ancient versions (LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate) in assuming the form וַיָּדָשׁ (vayyadash) from the verb דּוֹשׁ (dosh, “thresh”) as in v. 7. The MT reads instead the form וַיֹּדַע (vayyoda’, “make known”), a Hiphil form of יָדַע (yadah). In this case one could translate, “he used them [i.e., the thorns and briers] to teach the men of Succoth a lesson.”