Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Judges 7

1

And Yerub-Ba’al shouldered up (he is Gideon), and all the people that were with him, and they encamped by the Eye of Charod,1 and the camp of Midian was from the north unto them, from the hill of Moreh,2 in the valley.

2

And Yahweh said unto Gideon, “Too abundant are the people that are with thee for me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel magnify themselves against me, saying, ‘Mine hand hath saved me.’

3

And now, call, pray, in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoso is fearful and trembling, let him turn back and wind away3 from mount Gilead.’”4 And there turned back from the people twenty and two thousand; and ten thousand were left.

4

And Yahweh said unto Gideon, “Still the people are too abundant; descend them unto the water and I will refine5 them for thee there; and it shall be of whom I say unto thee, ‘This shall go with thee,’ he shall go with thee; and of whomever I say unto thee, ‘This shall not go with thee,’ he shall not go.” 5 And he descended the people unto the water, and Yahweh said unto Gideon, “Everyone that lappeth with his tongue from the water, as that the dog lappeth, place thou him alone; and everyone that bendeth upon his knees to drink.”

6

And the number of those lapping was three hundred men, and all the remainder of the people bent upon their knees to drink water with their hand unto their mouth.6

7

And Yahweh said unto Gideon, “In the three hundred men lapping will I save you and give Midian into thine hand—and let all the people go, each man unto his standing.”7

8

And they took the provision of the people in their hand, and their shofars; and all the men of Israel he sent forth, each man unto his tent; and the three hundred men he held onto—and the camp of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

9

And it came to be, in that night, and Yahweh said unto him, “Rise, descend into the camp, in that I have given it into thine hand;

10

and if thou fear to descend: descend thou, and Furah8 thy young man, unto the camp,

11

and hear thou what they speak—and after, thine hands will be strengthened, and descend thou into the camp.” And he descended, he and Furah his young man, unto the end of the armed ranks9 that were in the camp;

12

and Midian and Amalek and all the sons of the East were fallen10 upon the valley as unto the locust for abundance, and of their camels there was no number, as unto sand upon the lip of the sea for abundance.

13

And Gideon came, and lo, a man was recounting unto his comrade a dream, and said, “Lo, a dream I dreamed, and lo, a biscuit11 of barley bread was turning itself,12 into the camp of Midian, until it came to the tent and smote it, and it fell, and turned it up—and it fell, the tent.”

14

And his comrade answered and said, “This is nothing if not the sword of Gideon, son of Yoash, man of Israel; God hath given into his hand Midian and all the camp.”

15

And it came to be, when Gideon heard the sum of the dream, and its breakdown13—and he prostrated himself, and turned back unto the camp of Israel, and said, “Stand up, in that Yahweh hath given into your hand the camp of Midian.”

16

And he split the three hundred men into three heads,14 and he gave shofars into the hand of all, and empty pitchers, and torches15 in the middle of the pitchers.

17

And he said unto them, “From me see, and so do; and lo, I am going into the end of the camp—it shall be, as that I do, so shall ye do.

18

And I will blow with the shofar, I and all that are with me—and blow ye with the shofars, ye also, around all the camp, and say, ‘For Yahweh and for Gideon!’”

19

And Gideon went, and the hundred men that were with him, into the end of the camp, at the head16 of the middle guard—they had only just, standing, stood up the guards—and they blew with the shofars and smashed the pitchers that were in their hand.

20

And the three heads blew with the shofars, and broke17 the pitchers, and held onto18 in their left hands the torches,19 and in their right hands the shofars to blow, and they called, “A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!”

21

And they took a stand,20 each man in place,21 around the camp—and all the camp ran, and they bellowed,22 and they fled.

22

And the three hundred blew the shofars, and Yahweh set the sword of each man into his comrade in all the camp, and the camp fled until Beyt Hash-Shittah23 in Tseradat,24 until the lip25 of the brook Mecholah26 by Tabat.27

23

And the men of Israel were called28 from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasheh and pursued after Midian, 24 and Gideon sent forth angels in all the mountain[land] of Ephraim, saying, “Descend to meet Midian and capture before them the waters until Beyt Barah29 and the Jordan.” And every man of Ephraim was called, and captured the waters until Beyt Barah and the Jordan. 25 And they captured two principals of Midian, Orev30 and Ze’ev,31 and they slew Orev on the Rock of Orev, and Ze’ev they slew in the Winepress of Ze’ev, and they pursued Midian; and the heads of Orev and Ze’ev they brought unto Gideon across the Jordan.

Footnotes

  1. I.e., the eye of Trembling. An eye is a well. ↩

  2. I.e., the hill of Instruction. ↩

  3. This word is used only here, but the sense seems to be of twisting in a circle; i.e., taking circuitous routes away from the mountain, possibly with the connotation of slinking, or perhaps being all twisted up from fear. Another possibility, based on a different root, is that it means to leave early. ↩

  4. Either this is a different mount Gilead, or (more likely in my view) a symbolic term for the camp of Abi-Ezer, since Gilead was a son of Abi-Ezer (Num 26:30). ↩

  5. The word is that used for purifying metal by separating the ore from the dross; i.e., by purging the contaminants. ↩

  6. The Hebrew text says, “those lapping with their hand unto their mouth.” I have made the unusual and possibly audacious assumption that this is because “with their hand unto their mouth” was accidentally moved from the end of the verse to the middle. My reason is simple: it is those who bow on their knees (i.e., who crouch down) who would use their hands to drink; it is precisely the point of the test that lapping like a dog does not involve using the hands. The distinction cannot be between those who crouch and merely lap, and those who crouch and drink from both hands, because one group is said to crouch and the other is not. What is happening is that the vast majority drink normally, crouching or kneeling and using their hands; while a small minority of weirdos go down on all fours and lap the water from the river with their tongues. ↩

  7. Standing. I.e., his place or station ↩

  8. Branch. ↩

  9. The Hebrew term is somewhat uncertain; it may mean ranks of five, but the key point is that this is the edge of the fighting force, for there were many other people in the camp besides these fighting men. ↩

  10. Or lying, but this is the same word used in the next verse for how the tent in the dream falls (Jdg 7:13); and, for example, earlier in Judges of how Eglon and Sisera were fallen to the ground (Jdg 3:25; 5:27). There seems to be a foreshadowing in the ambiguity that comes with this choice of words. ↩

  11. The word occurs only here and has an uncertain meaning; possibly a flat round wafer or loaf. ↩

  12. As the flaming sword is described in Genesis 3:24. This is a whirling biscuit. ↩

  13. Literally its breaking; i.e., its analysis. ↩

  14. I.e., three columns; the heads stand in here for their three bodies. ↩

  15. I would prefer to translate this blazers or possibly shiners, but unfortunately both have wildly wrong denotations in English. The word almost always refers to torches, except in Exodus 20, at the covenant-cutting, where it refers to the blazing of lightning. I have taken the unusual approach of simply translating it torch there as well, and letting the reader determine its true referent from the context. This is preferable to obscuring the connection, because what Gideon is doing here is a liturgical reflection of God’s covenant-cutting with “shining things” in thick darkness in both Genesis 15 and Exodus 20. ↩

  16. I.e., the beginning. While this means the beginning, to translate it as such for clarity would simultaneously obscure its connection to the other repeated references to heads in the passage. ↩

  17. The same word as verse 15. ↩

  18. The verb is the same as “strengthened” in verse 11. ↩

  19. See note on v 16. ↩

  20. The same root is used of the pillar of cloud, and the pillars of the tabernacle. ↩

  21. The same Hebrew word means beneath, as in verse 8; there is a “fractal unfolding” taking place from Gideon to the men. ↩

  22. Cf. Josuha 6:16, 20; also Psalm 66:1; 95:1–2. Usually translated shout here, this word really means to make a loud noise—not necessarily with the voice: it is used of shofars sounding the alarm (Num 10:5–9), and of musical instruments in Psalm 33:3. It is tempting to translate it yawp. ↩

  23. House of the acacia. ↩

  24. Or Tserarath, but this place is unknown. ↩

  25. I.e., the bank or shore. ↩

  26. Most Bibles read Abel Mecholah, meadow of dancing; Alter argues that avel is a variant of yuval, brook, which does make sense of the fact that it has a lip (i.e., a bank). The place does not seem to be surely known otherwise, and this reading much better explains why Midian stops here: they reach a natural boundary they cannot easily cross. ↩

  27. Celebrated/renowned. ↩

  28. Hebrew cried. ↩

  29. House of the ford. ↩

  30. Raven. ↩

  31. Wolf. ↩