Discovery BoxJudges 5:11 
Context5:11 Hear 1 the sound of those who divide the sheep 2 among the watering places;
there they tell of 3 the Lord’s victorious deeds,
the victorious deeds of his warriors 4 in Israel.
Then the Lord’s people went down to the city gates –
Judges 6:11
Context6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger 5 came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon 6 was threshing 7 wheat in a winepress 8 so he could hide it from the Midianites. 9
Judges 6:26
Context6:26 Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. 10 Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”
Judges 6:31
Context6:31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, 11 “Must you fight Baal’s battles? 12 Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause 13 will die by morning! 14 If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! 15 After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” 16
Judges 7:4
Context7:4 The Lord spoke to Gideon again, “There are still too many men. 17 Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more. 18 When I say, ‘This one should go with you,’ pick him to go; 19 when I say, 20 ‘This one should not go with you,’ do not take him.” 21
Judges 7:13
Context7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. 22 The man 23 said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw 24 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.” 25
Judges 7:24
Context7:24 Now Gideon sent messengers throughout the Ephraimite hill country who announced, “Go down and head off the Midianites. 26 Take control of the fords of the streams 27 all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.” 28 When all the Ephraimites had assembled, 29 they took control of the fords 30 all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.
Judges 15:11
Context15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.”
Judges 20:45
Context20:45 The rest 31 turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites 32 caught 33 five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels 34 all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.
1 tn The word “Hear” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
2 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain. Some translate “those who distribute the water” (HALOT 344 s.v. חצץ pi). For other options see B. Lindars, Judges 1-5, 246-47.
3 tn Or perhaps “repeat.”
4 tn See the note on the term “warriors” in v. 7.
5 tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.
sn The
6 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.
7 tn Heb “beating out.”
8 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.
9 tn Heb “Midian.”
10 tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.
11 tn Heb “to all who stood against him.”
12 tn Heb “Do you fight for Baal?”
13 tn Heb “fights for him.”
14 sn Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning. This may be a warning to the crowd that Joash intends to defend his son and to kill anyone who tries to execute Gideon. Then again, it may be a sarcastic statement about Baal’s apparent inability to defend his own honor. Anyone who takes up Baal’s cause may end up dead, perhaps by the same hand that pulled down the pagan god’s altar.
15 tn Heb “fight for himself.”
16 tn Heb “for he pulled down his altar.” The subject of the verb, if not Gideon, is indefinite (in which case a passive translation is permissible).
17 tn Heb “too many people.”
18 tn Heb “test them for you there.”
19 tn Heb “he should go with you.”
20 tn Heb also has “to you.”
21 tn Heb “he should not go.”
22 tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”
23 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
24 tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.
25 tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”
26 tn Heb “to meet Midian.”
27 tn Heb “capture before them the waters.”
28 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification (also later in this verse).
29 tn Heb “And all the men of Ephraim were summoned.”
30 tn Heb “they captured the waters.”
31 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the rest [of the Benjaminites]) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
32 tn Heb “and they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.
34 tn Heb “stuck close after them.”
