Judges 6:37
6:37 Look, I am putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and the ground around it 1 is dry, then I will be sure 2 that you will use me to deliver Israel, 3 as you promised.”
Judges 7:13
7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. 4 The man 5 said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw 6 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.” 7
Judges 13:16
13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, 8 I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) 9
1 tn Heb “all the ground.”
2 tn Or “know.”
3 tn Heb “you will deliver Israel by my hand.”
4 tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”
5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.
7 tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”
8 tn Heb “If you detain me.”
9 tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the Lord. In the preceding narrative the narrator has informed the reader that the visitor is the Lord’s messenger, but Manoah and his wife did not perceive this. In vv. 5 and 7 the angel refers to “God” (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim), not the Lord (יְהוַה, yÿhvah). Manoah’s wife calls the visitor “a man sent from God” and “God’s messenger” (v. 6), while Manoah prays to the “Lord” (אֲדוֹנָי, ’adonay) and calls the visitor “a man sent from God” (v. 8).