Font Size
Judges 7:3-5
New English Translation
Judges 7:3-5
New English Translation
3 Now, announce to the men,[a] ‘Whoever is shaking with fear[b] may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’”[c] 22,000 men[d] went home;[e] 10,000 remained. 4 The Lord spoke to Gideon again, “There are still too many men.[f] Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more.[g] When I say, ‘This one should go with you,’ pick him to go;[h] when I say,[i] ‘This one should not go with you,’ do not take him.”[j] 5 So he brought the men[k] down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.”[l]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Judges 7:3 tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”
- Judges 7:3 tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”
- Judges 7:3 tc 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).
- Judges 7:3 tn 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.)
- Judges 7:3 tn Or “turned around, back.”
- Judges 7:4 tn Heb “too many people.”
- Judges 7:4 tn Heb “test them for you there.”
- Judges 7:4 tn Heb “he should go with you.”
- Judges 7:4 tn Heb also has “about anyone to you.”
- Judges 7:4 tn Heb “he should not go.”
- Judges 7:5 tn Heb “the people.”
- Judges 7:5 tn 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.”
New English Translation (NET)
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.