Judges 8:7
New International Version
Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”

New Living Translation
So Gideon said, “After the LORD gives me victory over Zebah and Zalmunna, I will return and tear your flesh with the thorns and briers from the wilderness.”

English Standard Version
So Gideon said, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

Berean Standard Bible
“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”

King James Bible
And Gideon said, Therefore when the LORD hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

New King James Version
So Gideon said, “For this cause, when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers!”

New American Standard Bible
So Gideon said, “For this answer, when the LORD has handed over to me Zebah and Zalmunna, I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

NASB 1995
Gideon said, “All right, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

NASB 1977
And Gideon said, “All right, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

Legacy Standard Bible
And Gideon said, “Thus, when Yahweh has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

Amplified Bible
Gideon said, “For that [response], when the LORD has handed over Zebah and Zalmunna to me, I will thrash your bodies with the thorns and briars of the wilderness.”

Christian Standard Bible
Gideon replied, “Very well, when the LORD has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will tear your flesh with thorns and briers from the wilderness! ”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Gideon replied, “Very well, when the LORD has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will trample your flesh on thorns and briers from the wilderness!”

American Standard Version
And Gideon said, Therefore when Jehovah hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Gedun said to them, “Because of this, when LORD JEHOVAH has delivered Zebakh and Tsalmenna into my hands, I shall tread upon on your flesh with thorns that are in the wilderness and with thistles!”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Gedeon said, Therefore when the Lord gives Zebee and Salmana into my hand, then will I tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and the Barkenim.

Contemporary English Version
"Just wait!" Gideon said. "After the LORD helps me defeat them, I'm coming back here. I'll make a whip out of thorns and rip the flesh from your bones."

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he said to them: When the Lord therefore shall have delivered Zebee and Salmana into my hands, I will thresh your flesh with the thorns and briers of the desert.

English Revised Version
And Gideon said: Therefore when the LORD hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Gideon responded, "Alright, then. When the LORD hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I'll whip your bodies with thorns and thistles from the desert."

Good News Translation
So Gideon said, "All right! When the LORD has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briers from the desert!"

International Standard Version
So Gideon responded, "Okay then, but when the LORD has turned over Zebah and Zalmunna into my control, I'm going to whip you with thorns and briers from the desert!"

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Gideon said: 'Therefore when the LORD hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.'

Literal Standard Version
And Gideon says, “Therefore—in YHWH’s giving Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand—I have threshed your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with the threshing instruments.”

Majority Standard Bible
“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”

New American Bible
Gideon said, “Very well; when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, I will thrash your bodies with desert thorns and briers.”

NET Bible
Gideon said, "Since you will not help, after the LORD hands Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will thresh your skin with desert thorns and briers."

New Revised Standard Version
Gideon replied, “Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will trample your flesh on the thorns of the wilderness and on briers.”

New Heart English Bible
Gideon said, "Therefore when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will thresh your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers."

Webster's Bible Translation
And Gideon said, Therefore when the LORD hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

World English Bible
Gideon said, “Therefore when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

Young's Literal Translation
And Gideon saith, 'Therefore -- in Jehovah's giving Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand -- I have threshed your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with the threshing instruments.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Gideon Defeats Zebah and Zalmunna
6But the leaders of Succoth asked, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give bread to your army?” 7“Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!” 8From there he went up to Penuel and asked the same from them, but the men of Penuel gave the same response as the men of Succoth.…

Cross References
Judges 7:15
When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Get up, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand."

Judges 8:5
So Gideon said to the men of Succoth, "Please give my troops some bread, for they are exhausted, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian."


Treasury of Scripture

And Gideon said, Therefore when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

tear.

Judges 8:16
And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.

Jump to Previous
Bed Bodies Briers Crushed Delivered Hand Hands Right Sharp Stems Stretched Tear Thorns Waste Wilderness Zalmunna Zalmun'na Zebah
Jump to Next
Bed Bodies Briers Crushed Delivered Hand Hands Right Sharp Stems Stretched Tear Thorns Waste Wilderness Zalmunna Zalmun'na Zebah
Judges 8
1. Gideon pacifies the Ephraimites
4. Succoth and Penuel refuse to deliver Gideon's army
10. Zebah and Zalmunna are taken
13. Succoth and Penuel are destroyed
17. Gideon revenges his brothers's death on Zebah and Zalmunna
22. He refuses government
24. His ephod the cause of idolatry
28. Midian subdued
29. Gideon's children, and death
33. The Israelites' idolatry and ingratitude














(7) And Gideon said.--Notice in this verse the mixture of heroic faith and barbarous severity. It was this courage and faith (Hebrews 11:32) which ennobled Gideon and made him an example for all time. The ruthlessness of the punishment which he threatened to inflict belongs to the wild times in which he lived, and the very partial spiritual enlightenment of an imperfect dispensation (Matthew 5:21; Matthew 19:8; Acts 17:30). It is no more to be held up for approval or imitation than his subsequent degeneracy; while, at the same time, Gideon must, of course, be only judged by such light as he had.

I will tear your flesh.--Rather, as in the margin, I will thresh (LXX., alo?so, which is better than the other reading, kataxano, "will card"; Vulg., conteram). It has usually been supposed that they were scourged with thorns, which would be terrible enough; but the verb here used is stronger, and seems to imply that they were "put under harrows" after thorns and briers had been scattered over them. That Gideon should inflict a retribution so awful cannot be surprising if we remember that David seems to have done the same (2Samuel 12:31; 1Chronicles 20:3; Amos 1:3). In this case, however, the torture was more terrible, because it was inflicted not on aliens, but on Israelites. It must be borne in mind that every man is largely influenced by the spirit of the age in which he lives, and that in the East to this day there is (1) far greater indifference than there is in Europe to the value of human life, and (2) far greater insensibility to the infliction of pain; so that the mere mention of punishments inflicted, even in this century, by such men as Djezzar and Mehemet Ali makes the blood run cold. It was only by slow degrees that (as we can trace in the writings of their prophets and historians) the Jews learnt that deeper sense of humanity which it was certainly the object of many precepts of the Mosaic Law to inspire. The defections of Succoth and Penuel were even worse than that indifference of Meroz which had called forth the bitter curse of Judges 5:23. . . .

Verse 7. - I will tear your flesh, etc. These words breathe a fierce and vindictive spirit; such, however, as cannot surprise us m the age and country of which we arc reading (cf. vers. 9 and 21). The provocation, it must be allowed, was very great, but still the spirit was very different from that which dictated the prayer under far greater provocation, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Thorns of the wilderness. The nature of the punishment here threatened, and the execution of which is related in ver. 16, is uncertain. The word here rendered tear means literally to thresh,. Hence some suppose that the punishment here spoken of was a severe kind of capital punishment inflicted by threshing instruments with sharp iron points, called here "thorns of the wilderness," and "briers (though some again understand literally thorns and briers); and they compare 2 Samuel 12:31, where the word rendered harrows means threshing instruments, as also Isaiah 28:27; Isaiah 41:15. But others, as Bertheau, Keil, and Delitzsch, do not think it was a capital punishment at all, and take the word thresh figuratively in the sense of punishing severely, and think that literal thorns and thistles were the implements of punishment.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
“Very well,”
לָכֵ֗ן (lā·ḵên)
Adverb
Strong's 3651: So -- thus

Gideon
גִּדְע֔וֹן (giḏ·‘ō·wn)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1439: Gideon -- a judge of Israel

replied,
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“when the LORD
יְהוָ֛ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

has delivered
בְּתֵ֧ת (bə·ṯêṯ)
Preposition-b | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

Zebah
זֶ֥בַח (ze·ḇaḥ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 2078: Zebah -- a Midianite king

and
וְאֶת־ (wə·’eṯ-)
Conjunctive waw | Direct object marker
Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case

Zalmunna
צַלְמֻנָּ֖ע (ṣal·mun·nā‘)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 6759: Zalmunna -- a king of Midian

into my hands,
בְּיָדִ֑י (bə·yā·ḏî)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 3027: A hand

I will tear
וְדַשְׁתִּי֙ (wə·ḏaš·tî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 1758: To trample, thresh

your flesh
בְּשַׂרְכֶ֔ם (bə·śar·ḵem)
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 1320: Flesh, body, person, the pudenda of a, man

with
אֶת־ (’eṯ-)
Preposition
Strong's 854: Nearness, near, with, by, at, among

the thorns
קוֹצֵ֥י (qō·w·ṣê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 6975: A thorn, thornbush

and briers
הַֽבַּרְקֳנִֽים׃ (hab·bar·qo·nîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1303: A thorn

of the wilderness!”
הַמִּדְבָּ֖ר (ham·miḏ·bār)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4057: A pasture, a desert, speech


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OT History: Judges 8:7 Gideon said Therefore when Yahweh has delivered (Jd Judg. Jdg)
Judges 8:6
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