Hakim-hakim 6:11-12

Gideon Meets Some Visitors

6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger ¹  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ²  was threshing ³  wheat in a winepress ⁴  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ⁵  6:12 The Lord’s messenger appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!”

Hakim-hakim 13:3

13:3 The Lord’s angelic ⁶  messenger appeared to the woman and said to her, “You ⁷  are infertile and childless, ⁸  but you will conceive and have a son.

[6:11]  ¹ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

[6:11]  sn The Lord’s angelic messenger is also mentioned in Judg 2:1.

[6:11]  ² 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.

[6:11]  ³ tn Heb “beating out.”

[6:11]  ⁴ 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.

[6:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Midian.”

[13:3]  ⁶ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive (also in vv. 6, 9).

[13:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “Look, you.”

[13:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and have not given birth.”