UTN uW Translation Notes:

Judges 7 General Notes

Structure and formatting

The account of Gideon, which began in chapter 6, continues in this chapter.

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

Why does the barley loaf represent Gideon?

In 7:13, a Midianite soldier tells his friend that the loaf of barley bread in the dream the friend has just recounted must represent Gideon. He says this because barley was a grain that only poorer people ate, and as 6:6 states, the Midianites had reduced the Israelites to poverty. In 6:11, Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites; they may have taken the wheat from Israel but left the barley because they did not want to eat it. Beyond this, the “sons of the east” were nomadic herders, so they would have associated grain with a farming culture such as the Israelites had. For these reasons, the soldier recognizes that the loaf of barley bread represents the Israelite army under the command of Gideon. A note to verse 13 suggests a way to indicate this in your translation.

Mount Gilead

In 7:3, Yahweh tells Gideon to announce to his troops that anyone who is afraid can depart from “Mount Gilead.” In this context, that name cannot refer, as it usually does, to the mountainous region east of the Jordan river. The Valley of Jezreel, where the two armies had gathered for battle, was west of the Jordan river. Since Gilead was the ancestor of a major part of the tribe of Manasseh, including the Abiezrites, and since that tribe had territory on both sides of the Jordan, it is possible that the people of Manasseh had named a mountain after Gilead on the west side of the river, near where Gideon’s army had assembled. But such a mountain is not known from any other source. Some commentators have suggested instead that “Mount Gilead” might have been a name that the soldiers of Manasseh gave to their army, to describe both its strength and its lineage. However, there is no evidence elsewhere for that either. But since this is ultimately a matter of interpretation rather than of translation, is probably best to translate the expression as “Mount Gilead” and allow preachers and teachers of the Bible to explain the possible meanings.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

“into their hand”/“into your hand” (plural “you”)

In several places in this chapter, the author or characters use the expressions “into their hand” and “into your hand” (with a plural “you”). Since this expression refers to a group of people, it might be more natural in your language to use the plural form of hand. (See: grammar-collectivenouns)