Judges 7:5-7

7:5 So he brought the men ¹  down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.” ²  7:6 Three hundred men lapped; ³  the rest of the men ⁴  kneeled to drink water. 7:7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will deliver the whole army ⁵  and I will hand Midian over to you. ⁶  The rest of the men should go home.” ⁷ 

[7:5]  ¹ tn Heb “the people.”

[7:5]  ² tn Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”

[7:6]  ³ tc The Hebrew text adds, “with their hands to their mouths,” This makes no sense in light of v. 5, which distinguishes between dog-like lappers (who would not use their hands to drink) and those who kneel (who would use their hands). It seems likely that the words “with their hands to their mouths” have been misplaced from v. 6. They fit better at the end of v. 5 or v. 6. Perhaps these words were originally a marginal scribal note which was later accidentally inserted into the text in the wrong place.

[7:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “the people.”

[7:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “you.” The Hebrew pronoun is masculine plural, probably referring to the entire army.

[7:7]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew pronoun here is singular.

[7:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “All the people should go, each to his place.”