Hakim-hakim 7:9-20

Gideon Reassured of Victory

7:9 That night the Lord said to Gideon, ¹  “Get up! Attack ²  the camp, for I am handing it over to you. ³  7:10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with Purah your servant 7:11 and listen to what they are saying. Then you will be brave ⁴  and attack the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to where the sentries were guarding the camp. ⁵  7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east covered the valley like a swarm of locusts. ⁶  Their camels could not be counted; they were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore. 7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. ⁷  The man ⁸  said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw ⁹  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.” ¹⁰  7:14 The other man said, ¹¹  “Without a doubt this symbolizes ¹²  the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.”

Gideon Routs the Enemy

7:15 When Gideon heard the report of the dream and its interpretation, he praised God. ¹³  Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up, for the Lord is handing the Midianite army over to you!” 7:16 He divided the three hundred men into three units. ¹⁴  He gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them. ¹⁵  7:17 He said to them, “Watch me and do as I do. Watch closely! ¹⁶  I am going to the edge of the camp. Do as I do! 7:18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow your trumpets all around the camp. Then say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

7:19 Gideon took a hundred men to the edge of the camp ¹⁷  at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guards. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars they were carrying. ¹⁸  7:20 All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. ¹⁹  Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

[7:9]  ¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:9]  ² tn Heb “Go down against.”

[7:9]  ³ tn The Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, emphasizing the certainty of the promise.

[7:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “your hands will be strengthened.”

[7:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “to the edge of the ones in battle array who were in the camp.”

[7:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east were falling in the valley like locusts in great number.”

[7:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”

[7:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.

[7:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”

[7:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[7:14]  ¹² tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”

[7:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “he bowed down” or “worshiped.”

[7:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “heads.”

[7:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the jars.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“them”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:16]  sn They hid the torches inside the earthenware jars to disguise their approach and to keep the torches from being extinguished by the breeze.

[7:17]  ¹⁶ tn Or “look.”

[7:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Gideon went, along with the hundred men who were with him, to the edge of the camp.”

[7:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “that were in their hands.”

[7:20]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds, “in order to blow [them].” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.