Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Judges 8

1

And the men of Ephraim said unto him, “What is this thing thou hast done unto us, not to call for us in that thou wentest to war with Midian?” And they contended1 with him strongly.

2

And he said unto them, “What have I done now as unto you? Is not better the windfall2 of Ephraim than the harvest of Avi-Ezer?

3

Into your hand God gave the principals of Midian, Orev and Ze’ev, and what was I able to do as unto you?” Then their spirit slackened from upon him in his speaking this thing.3

4

And Gideon came to the Jordan, crossing, he and the three hundred men that were with him, languishing and pursuing,

5

and he said unto the men of Sukot,4 “Give, pray, gyres5 of bread unto the people that are at my feet,6 in that they are languishing, and I am pursuing after Zevah7 and Tsalmunna,8 kings of Midian.”

6

And the principals of Sukot said, “Is the palm of Zevah and Tsalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give unto thine host bread?”

7

And Gideon said, “For so, in Yahweh’s giving Zevah and Tsalmunna into mine hand, and I will thresh9 your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”10

8

And he ascended from there to Penuel and spoke unto them as thus, and they answered him, the men of Penuel, as that had answered the men of Sukot;

9

and he spoke also unto the men of Penuel, saying, “In my turning back11 in peace, I shall break down12 this tower.”

10

And Zevah and Tsalmunna were in Qarqor, and their camps with them, as unto fifteen thousand—all that remained from all the camp of the sons of the east; and those falling were a hundred and twenty thousand men drawing the sword.

11

And Gideon ascended the way of the abiders in tents13 from the east unto Novach14 and Yogbahah15 and smote the camp; and the camp was confident.16

12

And Zevah and Tsalmunna fled, and he pursued after them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zevah and Tsalmunna, and all the camp he entrembled.

13

And Gideon son of Yoash turned back from the war out of the ascent of the sun.17

14

And he captured a lad from the men of Sukot and asked him, and he inscribed18 for him the principals of Sukot and its elders: seventy and seven men.

15

And he came unto the men of Sukot and said, “Lo: Zevah and Tsalmunna, with whom you scorned me, saying, ‘Is the palm of Zevah and Tsalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give unto thy men that are languishing bread?’”

16

And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and he threshed19 by them the men of Sukot.

17

And the tower of Penuel he broke down, and he slew the men of the city.20

18

And he said unto Zevah and Tsalmunna, “Where21 are the men that ye slew in Tavor?” And they said, “As that thee, as that they; each was as the form of the sons of the king.”

19

And he said, “My brothers, the sons of my mother they. Living Yahweh! Would ye have kept them alive, I would not slay you.”22

20

And he said unto Yeter, his firstborn,23 “Stand up, slay them.” And the lad drew not his sword, ‹in› that he feared,24 ‹in› that he was still a lad.

21

And Zevah and Tsalmunna said, “Stand up ·thou and meet upon25 us, in that as the man is his might.” And Gideon rose and slew Zevah and Tsalmunna and took the crescents26 that were on the necks of their camels.

22

And the men of Israel said unto Gideon, “Rule over us, also thou, also thy son, also the son of thy son, in that thou hast saved us from the hand of Midian.”

23

And unto them Gideon said, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; Yahweh will rule over you.”

24

And unto them Gideon said,27 “Let me ask from you an asking, and give ye unto me, each man, the ring of his loot”—‹in› that rings of gold they had, ‹in› that they were Ishmaelites.

25

And they said, “Giving we give,” and they spread out a garment, and cast therein each man the ring of his loot.

26

And the weight28 of the rings of gold that he asked was a thousand and seven hundred of gold29 apart from the crescents and the drops30 and the garments of purple that were upon the kings of Midian, and apart from the collars31 that were on the necks of their camels.

27

And Gideon made of it an ephod and placed32 it in his city, in Ophrah, and all Israel whored after it there, and it was unto Gideon and unto his house unto a snare.33

28

And Midian was laid low before the face of the sons of Israel, and added not to bear up their heads, and the land had quiet34 forty years in the days of Gideon.

29

And Yerub-Ba’al son of Yoash went and dwelt in his house,

30

and unto Gideon were seventy sons brought forth of his loin, in that abundant women35 had he;

31

and his slavewife36 that was in Shekhem begot unto him, also she, a son, and he set ‹up›37 his name: Avi-Melek.

32

And Gideon son of Yoash died in good hoar and was buried in the burial‹ground› of Yoash his father in Ophrah of the Avi-Ezrites.

33

And it came to be, as that Gideon was dead, the sons of Israel turned back and whored after ba’als,38 and set up for themselves Ba’al Berith39 for god.

34

And the sons of Israel remembered not Yahweh their god, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies from around ‹them›,

35

and they did no covenantlove with the house of Yerub-Ba’al Gideon, as unto all the goodness that he did with Israel.

Footnotes

  1. Perplexingly, even Young does not notice that this is the same word from which Gideon gets his other name, Yerub-Ba’al. His father says, “Let Ba’al contend with him;” but here, it is Ephraim contending with him, standing in the place of Ba’al. ↩

  2. The Hebrew word refers specifically to fruit gleanings (especially olives or grapes; Isa 17:6; Jer 49:9), for which there is no English term. The ASV thus says, “Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?” But the word “grapes” is not in the text, and is too specific as it excludes other kinds of fruit. I have mixed feelings about rendering this “windfall,” as it doesn’t refer purely to gleanings, and also creates a kind of double meaning in English, implying that Gideon is calling Ephraim’s victory an unexpected stroke of fortune. He is not doing this in Hebrew, yet at the same time, it is contextually appropriate to recognize that as far as Ephraim is concerned, their victory really is a windfall in that sense; they did nothing to earn it and did not see it coming. ↩

  3. Or “word,” but the same term is used in verse 1 for “thing.” ↩

  4. There are two Hebrew words that sound like sukot, starting with the two different Hebrew letters for S. The name of this city is spelled like the Hebrew word for cloud or booth or tent (something shady). However, the other spelling means thorns or barbs (Num 33:55; Job 41:7; Mic 7:4), which foreshadows Gideon’s punishment of this city. ↩

  5. The Hebrew term comes from the verb to whirl or gyrate. In addition to items of bread, it is only used of the circular plain of the Jordan, along with what most Bibles translate as “talents.” The word “round” might do, but three factors motivate me to use gyre instead: Firstly, it retains the link with David’s dancing in 2 Samuel 6:14, 16, where he is whirling or gyrating before the ark (I argue that gyrating is a good translation in English given that it sounds suspect, and clearly Mikal was disgusted by it, albeit wrongly). Secondly, “rounds” tends to connote multiple items in a series, as in rounds of beer. Thirdly, this is such a specific term that a generic word like round doesn’t seem to capture its technical, specialized nature: a round of gold does not sound like a measurement, while gyre, being an uncommon word in English, suggests something closer to the Hebrew meaning. ↩

  6. In English we might say, “the people following at my heels.” ↩

  7. “Sacrifice” or “Slaughter” (very often the word sacrifice in English is translating the Hebrew word for slaughter). ↩

  8. “Shade is Withheld.” Cf. Numbers 14:9: “their shade is turned aside from upon them.” It seems likely that these are not the real names of the kings, but either names invented for them by the author of Judges to emphasize their end, or more likely alterations of their real names to create new meanings in Hebrew through wordplay. For instance, there is an Assyrian god named Tsalmu, associated with Saturn; perhaps Tsalmunna’s actual name has something to do with a foreign deity. In any case, as with the “Cushite of Double Wickedness” in Judges 3, these kings are given satirical names. There is thus modeled for us a sanctified version of Donald Trump’s political tactic of giving uncomplimentary poetic epiphets to his opponents. ↩

  9. Thresh means to beat or trample, especially when dividing wheat kernels from their chaff husks. A similar punishment appears elsewhere in scripture: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I do not reverse it: upon their threshing Gilead with sharp-pointed irons…” (Amos 1:3) By comparison with Isaiah 41:15; Micah 4:13, this could be interpreted metaphorically, but by comparison with Judges 8 it could also be literal. ↩

  10. The exact meaning of this word is unclear; I am following the majority of translations in assuming a thorny bush of the field. The Hebrew word seems to be derived from baraq, meaning a flash, as of lightning; perhaps similar to seraph, “burning,” which can refer to venomous snakes because of the pain their bites inflict? Alternatively, it may refer to threshing-wains or sledges, which some commentators propose are so-called for the “flashing stones” (flints) embedded in their undersides. This seems less likely, however, given the conceptual rhyme with “thorns of the wilderness.” The punishment Gideon chooses is fitted to the crime of Sukot. They should be people of the Eden-like promised land, but instead they ally themselves with wanderers of the wilderness, under the curse of Cain (Gen 4:16); which curse is an extension of the curse on Adam (Gen 3:18). Far from capriciously choosing a cruel and unusual punishment for their slight, Gideon is making God’s curse rebound upon Sukot as a well-fitted punishment for their treason against him. We would do well to recall that hell is a far worse punishment justly inflicted by God on all those who despise him as Sukot did. ↩

  11. I.e., returning. ↩

  12. The same word for Gideon’s breaking down the altar of Ba’al in chapter 6. ↩

  13. Gideon is taking a nomad caravan route around to the east, circling around Midian to meet them coming the other way. However, the use of the specific word “abiders” to describe these nomads seems calculated to evoke an extra layer of meaning beyond the obvious: although this is a common root word in scripture, its first use is Genesis 3:24, where God makes cherubs (angelic palace-guardians) to “abide” at the east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life. After this, while it does have mundane meanings, it is overwhelmingly used in the books of Moses and Joshua of “the abode”—or, traditionally translated, the tabernacle. Indeed, it is a word so significant in this regard that it has been received into English (in a somewhat odd form) as Shekhinah. ↩

  14. “Barking.” ↩

  15. “Lofty” or “exalted” (possibly “haughty”). ↩

  16. I.e., Gideon took advantage of them being overconfident about having escaped. ↩

  17. The Hebrew is ambiguous, and could be read as a place name, or as meaning “out of the rising sun” (or “at the rising of the sun”). Given that Gideon is returning from the east, it seems very likely we are supposed to envisage him coming from victory with the sun rising at his back. Cf. Gen 32:31; Ex 14:27; Jdg 5:31. ↩

  18. Not “described,” as many translations have it; this refers to writing. Israel was a literate people, from the smallest to the greatest. ↩

  19. Alt, gave knowledge. The MT says wayyoda, “to make known,” while other manuscripts attest wayyadash, to thresh. The difference in Hebrew is only the final letter, and the MT reading may be explained by a scribe mistaking shin (ש) for ayin (ע). Given that the rest of the verse repeats the same words used in Gideon’s promise from verse 7, it seems more likely to me that threshed is the correct reading. However, this could very well be a pun, drawing on the similar spellings to allude to the manner in which Gideon “schooled” them: “And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and he gave knowledge by them to the men of Sukot,” meaning that he taught them a lesson. ↩

  20. This probably means the chief men; as with Sukot, so here: the elders are “the men of the city.” ↩

  21. I have translated this as written; the Hebrew literally does mean “where.” However, all Bibles take this in some kind of idiomatic sense to mean, “How were the men?” I.e., what did they look like? ↩

  22. 2 Kings 6:21–22 indicates that to kill a prisoner of war was essentially murder: “And the king of Israel saith unto Elisha, at his seeing them, ‘Shall I smite, shall I smite, my father?’ And he said, ‘Thou shalt not smite; those whom thou hadst taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow, would thou smite?’” Israel was not authorized to kill whomever they wanted of their enemies; it was only the ten tribes of the land who were to be utterly devoted to destruction. These men were not of these tribes, being sons of the East; and were no longer a threat, having surrendered. The justness of killing in war is an application of the principle of self-defense, and one can hardly justify killing an unarmed man in self-defense. However, there is another justification for killing: retributive justice. Numbers 35:19–21 requires that a murderer be put to death by the payer-back of the blood; a word in this passage typically translated “avenger,” but also in other places as “[kinsman] redeemer.” Contrary to many commentators, Gideon is not acting lawlessly here, but in accordance with Torah; he is the lawful payer-back of the blood of his brothers, and his position as civil magistrate does not negate this. ↩

  23. A pregnant motif, in that Israel is God’s firstborn (Ex 4:22–23), and Yeter is by rights God’s possession (Ex 13:2, 15). Here, Gideon is seeking to teach his son holy war, as God has taught Israel, embodied in Gideon himself. But, like Israel so often has, Gideon’s son fails because of his immaturity. ↩

  24. This is a repeated motif in the Gideon story (cf especially Jdg 7:3,10), and here we see that the son is not greater than the father. ↩

  25. This is a relatively uncommon word in scripture, but it is also used of the avenger of blood “meeting upon” the killer he is hunting (Num 35:19–21). See note on verse 19. ↩

  26. Or “moons,” but this is not the ordinary word for moon; it is likely related to the name of the moon god Sahar. Ashtar, also, was connected with the moon. These are golden ornaments around the camels’ necks, and probably have idolatrous significance. ↩

  27. The dialog is framed to show how Gideon, until now ruling over his fear, caves to the implied response of the men of Israel. They say nothing, and the silence is more than he can handle; he blurts out a compromise to placate them, that seems to fit with his anointing by God as a lay priest. It is easy to imagine how they are stunned by his initial refusal, and as they are gathering their thoughts, he loses his nerve and tries to fill in the silence. Failure of nerve like this is common in negotiating; it takes a strong will to endure the silence of the other party, and silence is often used to pressure weak opponents into unasked-for proposals or concessions. ↩

  28. This word in another form is also translated shekel; the shekels of the rings of gold were 1,700. ↩

  29. About 19.4 kg; at the time of this writing, approximately $2.65 million USD. ↩

  30. That is, tear-drop shaped ornaments; perhaps pendants or earrings. ↩

  31. Or chains; the word is used elsewhere of necklaces, but seems to carry the connotation of restraint or influence that we associate with collars; cf. Psalm 73:6; Proverbs 1:9; Song 4:9. ↩

  32. A relatively rare word in Hebrew; used only three times in Judges: of Gideon placing the fleece on the threshing-floor (6:37), of him placing the men who lapped apart (7:5), and here. It is also used of the ark being placed beside Dagon (1 Sam 5:2) and placed in its spot in the tent David pitched for it (2 Sam 6:17). ↩

  33. Cf. Judges 2:3. ↩

  34. It would be more accurate to say the land “quieted” 40 years; i.e., it rested 40 years. But this is not the common word for rest, as used in the sixth commandment, and quiet is a better translation, though it is not a natural verb in English. ↩

  35. I.e., wives. ↩

  36. Or sexslave. Most Bibles translate this “concubine,” but dictionaries generally indicate that a concubine is synonymous with a mistress, and that is not what the Hebrew word here means. This woman was a female slave (she is called as such in Judges 9:18: “she-slave”) with whom her master could legally have sexual relations, without her having the full rights of a wife. Easton describes the situation as “a female conjugally united to a man, but in a relation inferior to that of a wife.” The essence of this arrangement is that she is a sex slave; however, the modern connotations of this term are skewed solely toward pleasure, whereas in ancient Israel there was another half to the equation: the securing of an heir. As with Abraham and Hagar, children born to a concubine could legally belong to the master’s “primary” wife. Moreover, she might be expected to perform other wifely duties besides sex. Thus, sexslave seems an inferior translation to slavewife; yet not a wholly bad one, especially in this case: the woman is evidently a Canaanite slave (Jdg 9:28), and Gideon apparently has her remain in her father’s house, rather than taking her into his own in any wifely capacity—in defiance of Genesis 2:24. ↩

  37. I.e., he established his name. This is not a normal way of saying that he named him Avi-Melek; it is a term that generally means to establish, in any number of contexts. It is rarely associated with a name (shem) at all, and even more rarely refers to naming. In 1 Kings 9:3; 11:36; 14:21, Yahweh speaks of setting his name in the temple and in Jerusalem—in contradistinction to which Jeroboam sets two golden calves in Beyt-El and Dan (cf. 2 Ki 21:4,7; 2 Ch 6:20; 12:13; 33:7). In 1 Chronicles 17:21, God “makes” (sets up) for himself a name. In 2 Kings 17:34, most Bibles say God “renames” (sets up) Jacob as Israel. The closest parallel doesn’t come until Nehemiah 9:7 where Yahweh “gave” (set upon) Abram the name Abraham, and Daniel 1:w, where the principal of the eunuchs “gave” names to Daniel and his comrades. ↩

  38. Or masters. Ba’al is not a name, but a title or descriptor. ↩

  39. “Master of the Covenant.” The audacity of this title is breathtaking. ↩