Hakim-hakim 6:11

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 

Hakim-hakim 9:27

9:27 They went out to the field, harvested their grapes, ⁶  squeezed out the juice, ⁷  and celebrated. They came to the temple ⁸  of their god and ate, drank, and cursed Abimelech.

Hakim-hakim 20:23

20:23 The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we ⁹  again march out to fight ¹⁰  the Benjaminites, our brothers?” ¹¹  The Lord said, “Attack them!” ¹² 

[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.”

[9:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “vineyards.”

[9:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “stomped” or “trampled.” This refers to the way in which the juice was squeezed out in the wine vats by stepping on the grapes with one’s bare feet. For a discussion of grape harvesting in ancient Israel, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-14.

[9:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[20:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “I” (collective singular).

[20:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “approach for battle.”

[20:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my brother” (collective singular).

[20:23]  ¹² tn Heb “Go up against him” (collective singular).