Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Judges 6

1 And the sons of Israel did the bad in the eyes of Yahweh, and he gave them, Yahweh, into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And strong was the hand of Midian against Israel; from the face of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the shelters that are in the mountains, and the caves and the strongholds. 3 And it was, if Israel sowed—and Midian would ascend, and Amalek, and the sons of the East, and would ascend against them, 4 and encamp against them, and destroy the forthbringings of the land until thou come to Gaza, and leave nothing to give life in Israel—sheep and ox and he-ass— 5 in that they and their livestock would ascend, and their tents, coming in as the fullness of the locust for abundance, and they and their camels had no number, and they would come into the land to destroy it. 6 And poor was Israel, very, from the face of Midian, and the sons of Israel called unto Yahweh.

7 And it was, in that the sons of Israel called unto Yahweh upon cause of Midian— 8 and Yahweh sent a man, a prophet, unto the sons of Israel, and he said unto them, “Thus says Yahweh, God of Israel: I, I ascended you from Egypt, and brought you forth from the house of servitude, 9 and delivered you from the hand of Egypt, and from the hand of all who pressed you [down], and drove them out from your face, and gave unto you their land, 10 and said unto you, I am Yahweh your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell—and ye have not heard my voice.”

11 And the angel of Yahweh came and dwelled beneath the oak that was in Ophrah that is unto Yoash the Abi-Ezrite, and Gideon his son was beating out wheat in the winepress to flee it from the face of Midian. 12 And the angel of Yahweh made-seen to him and said to him, “Yahweh is with thee, O mighty-man of strength.” 13 And Gideon said unto him, “O my Lord, and is Yahweh with us? And why has all this found us? And where are all his accomplishings that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not from Egypt Yahweh ascend us?’ And now Yahweh has left us and given us into the palm of Midian.”

14 And Yahweh faced unto him and said, “Go in this thy power, and save thou Israel from the palm of Midian—have I not sent thee forth?”

15 And he said unto him, “O my Lord, by what can I save Israel? Lo, my thousand—the poorest in Manasheh; and I—the smallest in the house of my father.”

16 And Yahweh said unto him, “In that I am with thee, and thou shalt smite Midian as one man.”

17 And he said unto him, “If, pray, I have found grace in thine eyes, then do for me a sign that thou it is that speakest with me. 18 Do not, pray, remove thee from here, until I come in unto you, and bring forth my tribute, and set it unto thy face.” And he said, “I shall dwell until thou returnest.”1

19 And Gideon went in and made2 a kid of the goats, and from an ephah of flour, sweetdough;3 the flesh he set in a basket, and the broth he set in a pot; and he brought them forth unto him beneath the oak, and drew near. 20 And the angel of God said unto him, “Take the flesh and the sweetdough and set them on this rock, and the broth pour out”—and he did so. 21 And the angel of Yahweh sent forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and sweetdough, and fire ascended from the rock and ate the flesh and the sweetdough—and the angel of Yahweh was gone from his eyes. 22 And Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh, and Gideon said, “Aah, Lord Yahweh, for I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face!” 23 And Yahweh said unto him, “Shalom unto thee;4 fear not; thou shalt not die.”

24 And Gideon built there an altar unto Yahweh, and called it Yahweh Shalom; until this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abi-Ezrites.

25 And it was, on that night, and Yahweh said unto him, “Take a bullock of the oxen, that is unto thy father, and the second bullock of seven years, and tear down the altar of Ba’al that is unto thy father, and the Asherah that is by it, cut down; 26 and build an altar unto Yahweh thy God upon the head of this fort, in array, and take the second bullock and ascend an ascension with the wood of the Asherah that thou shalt cut.”

27 So Gideon took ten5 men from his servants, and did as that Yahweh had spoken unto him; and it was, as that he feared the house of his father and the men of the city, from doing it by day, and he did it by night. 28 And the men of the city shouldered up6 in the morning, and lo—broken down was the altar of Ba’al, and the Asherah that was by it was cut down, and the second bullock ascended upon the altar which was built. 29 And they said, each man to his comrade, “Who hath done this thing?”7 And they inquired and sought, and they said, “Gideon, son of Yoash, hath done this thing.” 30 And the men of the city said unto Yoash, “Bring forth thy son, and let him die, in that he hath broken down the altar of Ba’al, and in that he hath cut down the Asherah that was by it.”

31 And Yoash said unto all that stood against him, “Ye—do ye contend unto Ba’al? Do ye save him? Who contendeth unto him, let him die before the morning—if a god he is, let him contend unto him, in that he hath broken down his altar.”8 32 And he called him on that day, Yerub-Ba’al,9 saying, “Let Ba’al contend with him, in that he hath broken down his altar.”

33 And all Midian, and Amalek, and the sons of the East gathered together, and crossed,10 and encamped in the valley of Yizre’el.11 34 And the Spirit of Yahweh clothed Gideon, and he blew with the shofar,12 and Avi-Ezer was called after him. 35 And he sent forth angels13 in all Manasheh, and he also was called after him; and he sent forth angels in Asher, and in Zebulun, and in Naphtali, and they ascended to meet him.

36 And Gideon said unto God, “If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as that thou hast spoken, 37 lo, I am placing a14 shearing of wool in the threshing floor; if dew be on the shearing alone, and on all the land dryness—and I will know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as that thou hast spoken.” 38 And it was so: and he shouldered up on the morrow, and squished out15 the shearing, and drained dew from the shearing—a full dish of water. 39 And Gideon said unto God, “Let not thy nose burn with me, and I will speak only this time: let me test, pray, only this time with the shearing—let there be dryness, pray, unto the shearing alone, and upon all the land let there be dew.” 40 And God did so on that night, and there was dryness unto the shearing alone, and upon all the land there was dew.

Footnotes

  1. Literally, until thou turnest back. ↩

  2. Hebrew made or did; he prepared a kid of the goats. ↩

  3. Hebrew sweetness. This is a standard term for flatbread; I have translated it sweetdough because it is set in contrast to leavened dough, which is sour. ↩

  4. That is, peace be with thee. ↩

  5. Hebrew asarah, perhaps a pun on Asherah. ↩

  6. An idiom for getting up early. ↩

  7. Literally, who hath done this word? ↩

  8. The Hebrew is tricky here; the preposition lamed can mean from (Gen 1:6), after (Gen 1:11), for (Gen 1:14), to (Gen 1:16), at (Gen 8:11) — it simply indicates some kind of connection, and can most commonly be translated as unto. Yoash’s statement could therefore also be translated, “Who contendeth for him shall be put to death before the morning—if a god he is, let him contend for himself, in that his altar was broken down.” This has the advantage that Yoash would be using lamed with a consistent meaning; though that is only an advantage if that is what he actually did. It has the disadvantage of assuming that Yoash was in a position to put anyone to death, which seems unlikely, in that there is no indication that the office of judge was dynastically inherited, such that Gideon would have received it from Yoash (indeed, this becomes an issue with Gideon’s son Abimelech later on). My translation assumes that Yoash is not threatening to kill anyone, but is rather telling them to wait and see if Ba’al kills his son. The advantage of this is that the clauses of Yoash’s speech then parallel each other, rather than being two separate ideas; and it meshes with Gideon’s fear that having a god face “unto” one was a death sentence (v. 14, 22–23). ↩

  9. That is, let Ba’al contend. ↩

  10. They crossed the Jordan. ↩

  11. That is, God will sow. ↩

  12. Literally, he drove with the shofar. The image is of driving air through the horn. ↩

  13. That is, messengers. ↩

  14. The? ↩

  15. Squished is, in my view, the best English word available for this relatively rare verb; it is the only word that works in all the places it appears. I will grant that it is oddly whimsical in English, but perhaps we can consider this a feature rather than a bug. ↩