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 9:24

9:24 He did this so the violent deaths of Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons might be avenged and Abimelech, their half-brother ⁹  who murdered them, might have to pay for their spilled blood, along with the leaders of Shechem who helped him murder them. ¹⁰ 

Judges 11:34

11:34 When Jephthah came home to Mizpah, there was his daughter hurrying out ¹¹  to meet him, dancing to the rhythm of tambourines. ¹²  She was his only child; except for her he had no son or daughter.

Judges 13:5

13:5 Look, you will conceive and have a son. ¹³  You must never cut his hair, ¹⁴  for the child will be dedicated to God ¹⁵  from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power ¹⁶  of the Philistines.”

[6:11]  ¹ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

[6:11]  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.

[6:11]  ³ tn Heb “beating out.”

[6:11]  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.

[6:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Midian.”

[6:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “and let him die.” The jussive form with vav after the imperative is best translated as a purpose clause.

[7:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[7:14]  ¹² tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”

[9:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “their brother.”

[9:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerub-Baal might come, and their blood might be placed on Abimelech, their brother, who murdered them, and upon the leaders of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to murder his brothers.”

[11:34]  ²¹ tn Heb “Look! His daughter was coming out.”

[11:34]  ²² tn Heb “with tambourines and dancing.”

[13:5]  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.

[13:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a razor should not go up on his head.”

[13:5]  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”).

[13:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “hand.”