Judges 6:11 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

NIV: The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

NASB: Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.

CSB: The angel of the Lord came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.

NLT: Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.

KJV: And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

NKJV: Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.

Israel has cried out to God to deliver them from the oppression of the Midianites (Judges 6:1–10). The Lord has responded by sending a prophet to remind the people both of His history of saving them and their history of betraying Him. Their suffering is because of their disobedience and worship of false gods.

Now the Lord begins the process of saving His people once more. He does so by sending "the angel of the Lord" to call a man named Gideon to fill that role. We're not told so, but the Old Testament often uses the phrase "the angel of the Lord" to refer to a pre-incarnate form of God the Son, the second member of the Trinity. That likely seems the case here since the passage will also refer to this same Being as "the Lord" (Judges 6:14). In any case, the Being arrives to represent the full authority of God in calling Gideon. In this instance, the Angel does not have a supernatural appearance. He looks like a common traveler.

The Angel comes and sits under a terebinth tree (Genesis 35:4) at a place called Ophrah. The location of this town is no longer known, but the tree belonged to a man named Joash the Abiezrite. The Abiezrites were a clan of the tribe of Manasseh, so the town was likely somewhere in that tribe's territory (Joshua 17:7–10).

Near the tree, Joash's son is threshing wheat. This process involves beating or crushing the harvested stalks to separate grain from inedible parts. The results will be sorted, later, in the process of winnowing. This is much easier in a large, flat, open space, called a "threshing floor." Yet Gideon is working in an inconvenient, crowded place: a winepress. He's hiding there to keep the food hidden from Midianite raiders. Israel's only hope to hold on to any of their crops, at all, was to keep them hidden from the marauders from the east.

Instead of doing his work in the open where he might be seen, Gideon was hiding because of the brutal oppression of Midian.

Judges 6:11–27 begins in a town called Ophrah. There, the Angel of the Lord appears to a man named Gideon. The Lord calls Gideon mighty, despite his apparent lack of influence or power, and commands him to save Israel from Midian. After a display of power, God commands Gideon to tear down the town's altars to false idols, replacing them with an altar to Yahweh complete with a sacrifice of his father's bull. Gideon does so under the cover of darkness out of fear of his family and the townspeople.

Israel follows the sad pattern of the book of Judges, and once again turns to evil and idols. God turns them over to the Midianites. These foreign raiders spend the next seven years invading and consuming Israel's crops and livestock. Israel cries for help to the Lord. His first step is to send a prophet to remind them of God's goodness and their disobedience. The Lord then appears to Gideon, commanding him to save Israel because God will be with him. Gideon obeys God's command to tear down a Baal altar and build one to Yahweh in its place. He calls his countrymen to follow him and asks for signs from God.

The book of Judges contains a series of stories with a common theme: Israel falls into sin, suffers, and is rescued by God, only to fall once again (Judges 1—2). The next phase in Israel's downward spiral comes after 40 years of peace, won by Deborah and Barak (Judges 4—5). Israel is punished for sin through the Midianites. After seven years, the Israelites cry out for help. The Lord appears to Gideon, challenging the timid man to lead the battle against Israel's oppressors. Empowered by the Spirit, Gideon calls for his people to follow him, but still asks the Lord for signs. Gideon's successful campaigns are depicted in chapters 7 and 8.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).