Judges 6:11–12

Gideon Meets Some Visitors

6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger24 came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon25 was threshing26 wheat in a winepress27 so he could hide it from the Midianites.28 6:12 The Lord’s messenger appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!”

24	tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive. sn The Lord’s angelic messenger is also mentioned in Judg 2:1.
25	tn Heb “Now Gideon his son …” The Hebrew circumstantial clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + predicate) breaks the narrative sequence and indicates that the angel’s arrival coincided with Gideon’s threshing.
26	tn Heb “beating out.”
27	sn Threshing wheat in a winepress. One would normally thresh wheat at the threshing floor outside the city. Animals and a threshing sledge would be employed. Because of the Midianite threat, Gideon was forced to thresh with a stick in a winepress inside the city. For further discussion see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.
28	tn Heb “Midian.”