Judges 8:6

8:6 The officials of Succoth said, “You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give ¹  bread to your army?” ² 

Judges 19:5

19:5 On the fourth day they woke up early and the Levite got ready to leave. ³  But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have a bite to eat for some energy, ⁴  then you can go.”

Judges 7:13

7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. ⁵  The man ⁶  said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw ⁷  a stale cake of barley bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard it knocked it over and turned it upside down. The tent just collapsed.” ⁸ 

Judges 8:5

8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Give ⁹  some loaves of bread to the men ¹⁰  who are following me, ¹¹  because they are exhausted. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

Judges 8:15

8:15 He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ¹²  Zebah and Zalmunna! You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” ¹³ 

Judges 13:16

13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, ¹⁴  I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) ¹⁵ 

Judges 19:19

19:19 We have enough straw and grain for our donkeys, and there is enough food and wine for me, your female servant, ¹⁶  and the young man who is with your servants. ¹⁷  We lack nothing.”

¹ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

² tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your army bread?” Perhaps the reference to the kings’ “palms” should be taken literally. The officials of Succoth may be alluding to the practice of mutilating prisoners or enemy corpses (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 155).

³ tn Heb “and he arose to go.”

⁴ tn Heb “Sustain your heart [with] a bit of food.”

⁵ tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.

⁸ tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”

⁷ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

⁸ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because these were warriors and in ancient Israelite culture would have been exclusively males.

⁹ tn Heb “who are at my feet.”

⁹ tn Heb “Look!” The words “what I have” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Are the palms of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give to your exhausted men bread?”

¹¹ tn Heb “If you detain me.”

¹² tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the Lord. In the preceding narrative the narrator has informed the reader that the visitor is the Lord’s messenger, but Manoah and his wife did not perceive this. In vv. 5 and 7 the angel refers to “God” (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim), not the Lord (יְהוַה, yÿhvah). Manoah’s wife calls the visitor “a man sent from God” and “God’s messenger” (v. 6), while Manoah prays to the “Lord” (אֲדוֹנָי, ’adonay) and calls the visitor “a man sent from God” (v. 8).

¹³ tn By calling his concubine the old man’s “female servant,” the Levite emphasizes their dependence on him for shelter.

¹⁴ tc Some Hebrew mss and ancient witnesses read the singular, “your servant,” which would refer to the Levite. If one retains the plural, then both the Levite and his wife are in view. In either case the pronominal suffix emphasizes their dependence on the old man for shelter.