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36 Gaal saw the men[a] and said to Zebul, “Look, men are coming down from the tops of the hills.” But Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadows on the hills—it just looks like men.”[b] 37 Gaal again said, “Look, men are coming down from the very center[c] of the land. A unit[d] is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners.”[e] 38 Zebul said to him, “Where now are your bragging words,[f] ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the men[g] you insulted?[h] Go out now and fight them!”

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 9:36 tn Heb “the people” (also in vv. 38, 43, 48). These were warriors, so “men” has been used in the translation, since in ancient Israelite culture soldiers would have been exclusively males.
  2. Judges 9:36 tn Heb “the shadow on the hills you are seeing, like men.”
  3. Judges 9:37 tn Heb “navel.” On the background of the Hebrew expression “the navel of the land,” see R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 178-79.
  4. Judges 9:37 tn Heb “head.”
  5. Judges 9:37 tn Some English translations simply transliterated this as a place name (HebElon-meonenim”); cf. NAB, NRSV.
  6. Judges 9:38 tn Heb “is your mouth that says.”
  7. Judges 9:38 tn Heb “the people.”
  8. Judges 9:38 tn Or “despised.”