Judges 7:13-14

7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. ¹  The man ²  said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw ³  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.” ⁴  7:14 The other man said, ⁵  “Without a doubt this symbolizes ⁶  the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.”

Judges 7:16-20

7:16 He divided the three hundred men into three units. ⁷  He gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them. ⁸  7:17 He said to them, “Watch me and do as I do. Watch closely! ⁹  I am going to the edge of the camp. Do as I do! 7:18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow your trumpets all around the camp. Then say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

7:19 Gideon took a hundred men to the edge of the camp ¹⁰  at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guards. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars they were carrying. ¹¹  7:20 All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. ¹²  Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

[7:13]  ¹ tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”

[7:13]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:13]  ³ tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.

[7:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”

[7:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[7:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”

[7:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “heads.”

[7:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “the jars.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“them”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:17]  ⁹ tn Or “look.”

[7:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Gideon went, along with the hundred men who were with him, to the edge of the camp.”

[7:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “that were in their hands.”

[7:20]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text adds, “in order to blow [them].” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.