Judges 7:3

7:3 Now, announce to the men, ¹  ‘Whoever is shaking with fear ²  may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” ³  Twenty-two thousand men ⁴  went home; ⁵  ten thousand remained.

Judges 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ⁶  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ⁷ 

Judges 8:4

Gideon Tracks Down the Midianite Kings

8:4 Now Gideon and his three hundred men had crossed over the Jordan River, and even though they were exhausted, they were still chasing the Midianites. ⁸ 

Judges 13:4

13:4 Now be careful! Do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat any food that will make you ritually unclean. ⁹ 

Judges 14:2

14:2 When he got home, ¹⁰  he told his father and mother, “A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. ¹¹  Now get her for my wife.”

Judges 17:5

17:5 Now this man Micah owned a shrine. ¹²  He made an ephod ¹³  and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest. ¹⁴ 

---

¹ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

² tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

³ tc Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).

⁴ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)

⁵ tn Or “turned around, back.”

⁶ tn Heb “gleanings.”

⁷ sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.

⁸ tn Heb “And Gideon arrived at the Jordan, crossing over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, exhausted and chasing.” The English past perfect (“had crossed”) is used because this verse flashes back chronologically to an event that preceded the hostile encounter described in vv. 1-3. (Note that 7:25 assumes Gideon had already crossed the Jordan.)

⁹ tn Heb “eat anything unclean.” Certain foods were regarded as ritually “unclean” (see Lev 11). Eating such food made one ritually “contaminated.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he went up.”

¹¹ tn Heb “I have seen a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”

¹² tn Heb “house of God.”

¹³ sn Here an ephod probably refers to a priestly garment (cf. Exod 28:4-6).

¹⁴ tn Heb “and he filled the hand of one of his sons and he became his priest.”