Resolving the Crux of Judges 7:5B-7: A Critique of Two Traditional Approaches and the Reproposal of a Third

The article summarizes and critiques the two dominant approaches to the exegetical crux of Judges 7:5b-7, namely the harmonizing approach and the text-critical approach, arguing that neither satisfactorily resolves the issues. It then reproposes an all but totally ignored reading known among the medieval rabbis, further supporting it with the recognition of a known syntactical feature of Hebrew grammar. The reading proposed in the article is superior to the dominant approaches because it avoids forced harmonization, on the one hand, and unwarranted textual emendation, on the other.