translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JDG

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “and all the people who were with him.”


text: Heb “Midian.” The LXX reads “and Amalek” (cf. v. 12; 6:33 ).


text: Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”


text: Heb “might glorify itself against me.”


text: Heb “my hand has delivered me.”


text: Heb “call into the ears of the people.”


text: Heb “afraid and shaking.”


label: NET textual note

text: Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).


text: Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 .)


text: Or “turned around, back.”


text: Heb “too many people.”


text: Heb “test them for you there.”


text: Heb “he should go with you.”


text: Heb also has “to you.”


text: Heb “he should not go.”


text: Heb “the people.”


text: Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”


text: The Hebrew text adds, “with their hands to their mouths,” This makes no sense in light of v. 5 , which distinguishes between dog-like lappers (who would not use their hands to drink) and those who kneel (who would use their hands). It seems likely that the words “with their hands to their mouths” have been misplaced from v. 6 . They fit better at the end of v. 5 or v. 6 . Perhaps these words were originally a marginal scribal note which was later accidentally inserted into the text in the wrong place.


text: Heb “you.” The Hebrew pronoun is masculine plural, probably referring to the entire army.


text: The Hebrew pronoun here is singular.


text: Heb “All the people should go, each to his place.”


text: Heb “The people.”


text: The words “who were chosen” are supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: The Hebrew text has “in their hands.”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “tents.”


text: Heb “Midian.”


text: The Hebrew text adds “him” (i.e., Gideon).


text: Heb “him”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “Go down against.”


text: The Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, emphasizing the certainty of the promise.


text: Heb “your hands will be strengthened.”


text: Heb “to the edge of the ones in battle array who were in the camp.”


text: Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east were falling in the valley like locusts in great number.”


text: Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.


text: Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”


text: Heb “answered and said.”


text: Heb “This can be nothing but.”


text: Heb “he bowed down” or “worshiped.”


text: Heb “heads.”


text: Heb “the jars.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“them”) in the translation for stylistic reasons. sn They hid the torches inside the earthenware jars to disguise their approach and to keep the torches from being extinguished by the breeze.


text: Or “look.”


text: Heb “Gideon went, along with the hundred men who were with him, to the edge of the camp.”


text: Heb “that were in their hands.”


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


text: Heb “each in his place.”


text: Or “fled.”


text: Heb “the Lord set the sword of each one against his friend.”


text: MT has “and throughout the camp,” but the conjunction (“and”) is due to dittography and should be dropped. Compare the ancient versions, which lack the conjunction here.


text: The words “they went” are supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: Heb “Midian.”


text: Heb “to meet Midian.”


text: Heb “capture before them the waters.”


text: The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification (also later in this verse).


text: Heb “And all the men of Ephraim were summoned.”


text: Heb “they captured the waters.”


text: The Hebrew text repeats the verb “executed.” This has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “beyond the Jordan.” The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity (also in 8:4 ).