2:1 The Lord’s angelic messenger 1 went up from Gilgal to Bokim. He said, “I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land I had solemnly promised to give to your ancestors. 2 I said, ‘I will never break my agreement 3 with you,
5:23 ‘Call judgment down on 4 Meroz,’ says the Lord’s angelic 5 messenger;
‘Be sure 6 to call judgment down on 7 those who live there,
because they did not come to help in the Lord’s battle, 8
to help in the Lord’s battle against the warriors.’ 9
6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger 10 came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon 11 was threshing 12 wheat in a winepress 13 so he could hide it from the Midianites. 14
13:6 The woman went and said to her husband, “A man sent from God 15 came to me! He looked like God’s angelic messenger – he was very awesome. 16 I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
1 sn See Exod 14:19; 23:20.
2 tn Heb “the land that I had sworn to your fathers.”
3 tn Or “covenant” (also in the following verse).
4 tn Heb “Curse Meroz.”
5 tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.
6 tn Heb “Curse, cursing.” The Hebrew construction is emphatic.
7 tn Heb “[to] curse.”
8 tn Heb “to the help of the
9 tn Or “along with the other warriors.”
10 tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.
sn The
11 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.
12 tn Heb “beating out.”
13 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.
14 tn Heb “Midian.”
15 tn Heb “The man of God.”
16 tn Heb “His appearance was like the appearance of the messenger of God, very awesome.”