Judges 7:4-7

7:4 The Lord spoke to Gideon again, “There are still too many men.¹ Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more.² When I say, ‘This one should go with you,’ pick him to go;³ when I say,⁴ ‘This one should not go with you,’ do not take him.”⁵ 7:5 So he brought the men⁶ 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.”⁷ 7:6 Three hundred men lapped;⁸ the rest of the men⁹ kneeled to drink water. 7:7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will deliver the whole army¹⁰ and I will hand Midian over to you.¹¹ The rest of the men should go home.”¹²

¹tn Heb “too many people.”

²tn Heb “test them for you there.”

³tn Heb “he should go with you.”

⁴tn Heb also has “to you.”

⁵tn Heb “he should not go.”

⁶tn Heb “the people.”

⁷tn 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.”

⁸tc 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.

⁹tn Heb “the people.”

¹⁰tn Heb “you.” The Hebrew pronoun is masculine plural, probably referring to the entire army.

¹¹tn The Hebrew pronoun here is singular.

¹²tn Heb “All the people should go, each to his place.”