Discovery BoxJudges 8:7 
Context8:7 Gideon said, “Since you will not help, 1 after the Lord hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh 2 your skin 3 with 4 desert thorns and briers.”
Judges 10:10
Context10:10 The Israelites cried out for help to the Lord: “We have sinned against you. We abandoned our God and worshiped 5 the Baals.”
Judges 10:12
Context10:12 the Sidonians, Amalek, and Midian 6 when they oppressed you? 7 You cried out for help to me, and I delivered you from their power. 8
1 tn Heb “Therefore.”
2 sn I will thresh. The metaphor is agricultural. Threshing was usually done on a hard threshing floor. As farm animals walked over the stalks, pulling behind them a board embedded with sharp stones, the stalks and grain would be separated. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63-65. Gideon threatens to use thorns and briers on his sledge.
3 tn Or “flesh.”
4 tn This is apparently a rare instrumental use of the Hebrew preposition אֵת (’et, note the use of ב [bet] in v. 16). Some, however, argue that אֵת more naturally indicates accompaniment (“together with”). In this case Gideon envisions threshing their skin along with thorns and briers, just as the stalks and grain are intermingled on the threshing floor. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 229-30.
5 tn Or “served”; or “followed.”
6 tc The translation follows the LXX which reads “Midian”; the Hebrew text has “Maon.”
7 tn The words “Did I not deliver you” are interpretive. The Hebrew text simply reads, “Is it not from Egypt…when they oppressed you?” Perhaps the incomplete sentence reflects the
8 tn Heb “hand.”
