Judges 6:11

11 The angel of the LORD came. He sat down under an oak tree in Ophrah. The tree belonged to Joash. He was from the family line of Abiezer. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress at Ophrah. He was the son of Joash. Gideon was threshing in a winepress to hide the wheat from the Midianites.

Judges 6:11 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 6:11

And there came an angel of the Lord
This was not the prophet before mentioned, as Ben Gersom thinks, but an angel of God, as expressed, and not a created one, but the Angel of Jehovah's presence, the Word and Son of God, and who is expressly called Jehovah himself, ( Judges 6:14 Judges 6:23 Judges 6:24 )

and sat under an oak;
or stayed there a while, as Kimchi interprets it, seeing, according to his observation, angels are not said to sit, but stand:

which was in Ophrah, that pertaineth to Joash the Abiezrite;
which shows that this Ophrah is different from a city of this name in the tribe of Benjamin, ( Joshua 18:23 ) for the oak that was in it, under which the angel sat, belonged to Joash an Abiezrite, a descendant of Abiezer, son of the sister of Gilead, who was the son of Machir the son of Manasseh, ( Joshua 17:2 ) ( 1 Chronicles 7:17 1 Chronicles 7:18 1 Chronicles 7:14 ) , it is called by Josephus ^F8 Ephra, and by Jerom ^F9 Ephrata:

and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from
the Midianites;
lest they should take it away, and bereave his father's family of their sustenance, as they were wont to do, wherever they could find it; and all circumstances attending this affair were on this account; he threshed it himself, this he chose to do, and not trust his servants, lest it should be discovered; and he beat the wheat out with a staff, that it might be more silently done, and not with oxen, which was the usual way of treading out corn, who, bellowing ^F11, would discover it; and this was done not on a threshing floor, but where a winepress stood, where there could be no suspicion of such work being doing.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 5, 7.
F9 De loc. Heb. fol. 90. K.
F11 Vid. Homer. Iliad. 20. ver. 495, 496, 497.

Judges 6:11 In-Context

9 I saved you from the power of Egypt. I saved you from all those who were beating you down. I drove the people of Canaan out to make room for you. I gave you their land.

10 " 'I said to you, "I am the LORD your God. You are now living in the land of the Amorites. Do not worship their gods." But you have not listened to me.' "

11 The angel of the LORD came. He sat down under an oak tree in Ophrah. The tree belonged to Joash. He was from the family line of Abiezer. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress at Ophrah. He was the son of Joash. Gideon was threshing in a winepress to hide the wheat from the Midianites.

12 The angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon. He said, "Mighty warrior, the LORD is with you."

13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "you say the LORD is with us. Then why has all of this happened to us? Where are all of the wonderful things he has done? Our parents told us about them. They said, 'Didn't the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has deserted us. He has handed us over to Midian."