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Judges 8:25

in Judges 8

“We will give them gladly,” they replied. So they spread out a garment, and each man threw an earring from his plunder onto it.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the ear-rings of his spoil.

KJV

And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.

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This verse in Judges 8

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
And they answered, we will willingly give them,.... Or, "in giving we will give" (d); give them with all their hearts, most freely and cheerfully: and they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey; every man one, which would amount to no more than three hundred; though perhaps those who joined in the pursuit might take many more, or otherwise the weight of them would not amount to what in the next verse they are said to weigh. (d) נתון נתן "dando dabimus", Pagninus, Montanus.

This site's exposition

Let me make a request of you

on Judges 8:24-26

The request follows the refusal in the same breath, and it asks for gold. The verse calls the enemy Ishmaelites where the chapter says Midianites, as Genesis 37:25-28 does of the traders who carried Joseph off. Israel "spread out a garment" and gave gladly, as for the tabernacle at Exodus 35:22 and the calf at Exodus 32:2-3, and 1,700 shekels come near fifty pounds weight.

This site's exposition

We will give them gladly

John Gill renders the Hebrew in giving we will give, a doubled verb that marks a free and hearty gift. He also reckons that one earring from each of three hundred men could never reach the weight of verse 26, so he supposes the men who joined the pursuit carried far more. The spoil of the war becomes Gideon's gold.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you--This was the contribution of an earring (singular). As the ancient Arabians (Ishmaelites and Midianites being synonymous terms, Ge 37:25, 28) were gorgeously adorned with barbaric pearl and gold, an immense amount of such valuable booty had fallen into the hands of the Israelitish soldiers.
They spread ... - The Septuagint reads “He spread his garment.”

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּאמְר֖וּand they said

    vaiyomeruH559 →5305 times

  • נָת֣וֹןcertainly <to give>

    natonH5414 →2011 times

  • נִתֵּ֑ןwe will give [them]

    nitenH5414 →2011 times

  • וַֽיִּפְרְשׂוּ֙and they spread out

    vaiyifresuH6566 →

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַשִּׂמְלָ֔הthe garment

    hasimlahH8071 →

  • וַיַּשְׁלִ֣יכוּand they threw

    vaiyashlikhuH7993 →125 times

  • שָׁ֔מָּהthere towards

    shamahH8033 →834 times

  • אִ֖ישׁeveryone

    ʾishH376 →1663 times

  • נֶ֥זֶם<the> earring of

    nezemH5141 →17 times

  • שְׁלָלֽוֹ׃plunder his

    shelaloH7998 →73 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

About Judges

Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Judges: the study guide →Read Judges 8 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament.

Read on in Judges 8 →