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 8:21

8:21 Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, ⁶  “Come on, ⁷  you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength.” ⁸  So Gideon killed ⁹  Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.

Judges 15:11

15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.”

[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.”

[8:21]  ⁶ tn The words “to Gideon” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:21]  ⁷ tn Or “Arise.”

[8:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “for as the man is his strength.”

[8:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “arose and killed.”