Dixeruntque ad eum viri Ephraim: Quid est hoc quod facere voluisti, ut nos non vocares, cum ad pugnam pergeres contra Madian? jurgantes fortiter, et prope vim inferentes.

What means it, they asked, that thou didst not summon us to thy aid when thou wert setting out to do battle with Madian? And they were loud in their complaints, these men of Ephraim, almost ready to come to blows with him.

And the men of Ephraim said to him: What is this that thou meanest to do, that thou wouldst not call us when thou wentest to fight against Madian? and they chid him sharply and almost offered violence.

Quibus ille respondit: Quod enim tale facere potui, quale vos fecistis? nonne melior est racemus Ephraim, vindemiis Abiezer?

Nay, answered he, what has my task been in comparison with yours? Abiezer’s whole vintage cannot match the gleanings Ephraim has gathered up.

And he answered them: What could I have done like to that which you have done? Is not one bunch of grapes of Ephraim better than the vintages of Abiezer?

In manus vestras Dominus tradidit principes Madian, Oreb et Zeb: quid tale facere potui, quale vos fecistis? Quod cum locutus esset, requievit spiritus eorum, quo tumebant contra eum.

See how the Lord would have Oreb and Zeb fall into your hands, not mine; what is my achievement beside yours? With such words he calmed the restless spirits that assailed him.

The Lord hath delivered into your hands the princes of Madian, Oreb and Zeb: what could I have done like to what you have done? And when he had said this, their spirit was appeased, with which they swelled against him.

Cumque venisset Gedeon ad Jordanem, transivit eum cum trecentis viris, qui secum erant: et præ lassitudine, fugientes persequi non poterant.

Gedeon had now reached and crossed the Jordan, with his three hundred followers. They were too weary to keep up with the fugitives,

And when Gedeon was come to the Jordan, he passed over it with the three hundred men, that were with him: who were so weary that they could not pursue after them that fled.

Dixitque ad viros Soccoth: Date, obsecro, panes populo qui mecum est, quia valde defecerunt: ut possimus persequi Zebee et Salmana reges Madian.

so he had recourse to the people of Socoth. I beseech you, he said, to provide food for these companions of mine, who are faint with hunger; we must needs overtake the Madianite kings, Zebee and Salmana.

And he said to the men of Soccoth: Give, I beseech you, bread to the people that is with me, for they are faint: that we may pursue Zebee, and Salmana the kings of Madian.

Responderunt principes Soccoth: Forsitan palmæ manuum Zebee et Salmana in manu tua sunt, et idcirco postulas ut demus exercitui tuo panes.

Why, answered the chieftains of Socoth, you would think he came to us carrying the severed hands of Zebee and Salmana with him, to hear the way he talks of providing food for this army of his.

The princes of Soccoth answered: Peradventure the palms of the hands of Zebee and Salmana are in thy hand, and therefore thou demandest that we should give bread to thy army.

Quibus ille ait: Cum ergo tradiderit Dominus Zebee et Salmana in manus meas, conteram carnes vestras cum spinis tribulisque deserti.

So be it, said Gedeon; when the Lord has given me the mastery of Zebee and Salmana, I will come back and flay you with every thorn and brier that grows in the desert.

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.

Et inde conscendens, venit in Phanuel: locutusque est ad viros loci illius similia. Cui et illi responderunt, sicut responderant viri Soccoth.

Then he went on to Phanuel, and made the same request there, and received there the same answer as at Socoth.

And going up from thence, he came to Phanuel: and he spoke the like things to the men of that place. And they also answered him, as the men of Soccoth had answered.

Dixit itaque et eis: Cum reversus fuero victor in pace, destruam turrim hanc.

And he had a threat for these too: When I come back, safe and a conqueror, I will throw this tower of yours to the ground.

He said therefore to them also: When I shall return a conqueror in peace, I will destroy this tower.

Zebee autem et Salmana requiescebant cum omni exercitu suo. Quindecim enim millia viri remanserant ex omnibus turmis orientalium populorum, cæsis centum viginti millibus bellatorum educentium gladium.

Zebee and Salmana had halted their men for a rest; only fifteen thousand of them were left, out of all those hordes from the east; the rest had perished, a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men.

But Zebee and Salmana were resting with all their army. For fifteen thousand men were left of all the troops of the eastern people, and one hundred and twenty thousand warriors that drew the sword, were slain.

Ascendensque Gedeon per viam eorum, qui in tabernaculis morabantur, ad orientalem partem Nobe et Jegbaa, percussit castra hostium, qui securi erant, et nihil adversi suspicabantur.

Gedeon came up along the track used by the wandering tribes east of Nobe and Jegbaa; he caught them off their guard, when they were not expecting an attack, and fell upon the camp;

And Gedeon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents, on the east of Nobe and Jegbaa, and smote the camp of the enemies, who were secure, and suspected no hurt.

Fugeruntque Zebee et Salmana, quos persequens Gedeon comprehendit, turbato omni exercitu eorum.

whereupon the whole army was thrown into confusion, and Zebee and Salmana were overtaken by Gedeon in their flight.

And Zebee and Salmana fled, and Gedeon pursued and took them, all their host being put in confusion.

Revertensque de bello ante solis ortum,

And now, coming back from his campaigning before the sun was up,

And returning from the battle before the sun rising,

apprehendit puerum de viris Soccoth: interrogavitque eum nomina principum et seniorum Soccoth, et descripsit septuaginta septem viros.

he captured a young man that came from Socoth, and asked him the names of all the chief men and elders in the place; of these he made a list, seventy-seven of them in all.

He took a boy of the men of Soccoth: and he asked him the names of the princes and ancients of Soccoth, and he described unto him seventy-seven men.

Venitque ad Soccoth, et dixit eis: En Zebee et Salmana, super quibus exprobrastis mihi, dicentes: Forsitan manus Zebee et Salmana in manibus tuis sunt, et idcirco postulas ut demus viris, qui lassi sunt et defecerunt, panes.

And when he reached Socoth, he told them, Here are Zebee and Salmana, the kings whose severed hands you would have had me bring you, before you provided food to faint and weary men.

And he came to Soccoth and said to them: Behold Zebee and Salmana, concerning whom you upbraided me, saying: Peradventure the hands of Zebee and Salmana, are in thy hands, and therefore thou demandest that we should give bread to the men that are weary and faint.

Tulit ergo seniores civitatis et spinas deserti ac tribulos, et contrivit cum eis atque comminuit viros Soccoth.

So he had the chief men of Socoth brought out, and thorns and briers brought in from the desert to flay them with, and went a-threshing with the men of Socoth.

So he took the ancients of the city and thorns and briers of the desert, and tore them with the same, and cut in pieces the men of Soccoth.

Turrim quoque Phanuel subvertit, occisis habitatoribus civitatis.

Then he threw the tower of Phanuel to the ground, and killed all who dwelt in it.

And he demolished the tower of Phanuel, and slew the men of the city.

Dixitque ad Zebee et Salmana: Quales fuerunt viri, quos occidistis in Thabor? Qui responderunt: Similes tui, et unus ex eis quasi filius regis.

After this, he asked Zebee and Salmana about the men they had killed on mount Thabor; What was the look of them? he said. None other, they answered, than thy own; not one of them but might have had such a royal father as thyself.

And he said to Zebee and Salmana: What manner of men were they whom you slew in Thabor? They answered: They were like thee, and one of them as the son of a king.

Quibus ille respondit: Fratres mei fuerunt, filii matris meæ. Vivit Dominus, quia si servassetis eos, non vos occiderem.

Why, said he, these were my own brothers, sons of my own mother. As the Lord is a living God, if you had spared these, I would grant you your lives.

He answered them: They were my brethren, the sons of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if you had saved them, I would not kill you.

Dixitque Jether primogenito suo: Surge, et interfice eos. Qui non eduxit gladium: timebat enim, quia adhuc puer erat.

Then he said to his eldest son, Jether, Up with thee, and put them to the sword; but Jether would not draw on them; he was a boy still, and had no heart for it.

And he said to Jether his eldest son: Arise, and slay them. But he drew not his sword: for he was afraid, being but yet a boy.

Dixeruntque Zebee et Salmana: Tu surge, et irrue in nos: quia juxta ætatem robur est hominis. Surrexit Gedeon, et interfecit Zebee et Salmana: et tulit ornamenta ac bullas quibus colla regalium camelorum decorari solent.

So Zebee and Salmana said, Up, and deal the blow thyself; a man has but the strength that matches his age. So Gedeon rose up and slew them both. And for spoil, he carried off the embossed trappings that kings’ camels wear about their necks.

And Zebee and Salmana said: Do thou rise, and run upon us: because the strength of a man is according to his age: Gedeon rose up and slew Zebee and Salmana: and he took the ornaments and bosses, with which the necks of the camels of kings are wont to be adorned.

Dixeruntque omnes viri Israël ad Gedeon: Dominare nostri tu, et filius tuus, et filius filii tui: quia liberasti nos de manu Madian.

And now all the Israelites would have Gedeon, the man who delivered them from Madian, become their ruler, and his descendants after him.

And all the men of Israel said to Gedeon: Rule thou over us, and thy son, and thy son’s son: because thou hast delivered us from the hand of Madian.

Quibus ille ait: Non dominabor vestri, nec dominabitur in vos filius meus, sed dominabitur vobis Dominus.

Neither I, he said, nor any son of mine shall bear rule over you; the Lord shall be your ruler.

And he said to them: I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but the Lord shall rule over you.

Dixitque ad eos: Unam petitionem postulo a vobis: date mihi inaures ex præda vestra. Inaures enim aureas Ismaëlitæ habere consueverant.

This is all the reward I ask for, that you should give me all the ear-rings you have taken as spoil. (Among the desert tribes, it was the custom to wear ear-rings.)

And he said to them: I desire one request of you: Give me the earlets of your spoils. For the Ismaelites were accustomed to wear golden earlets.

Qui responderunt: Libentissime dabimus. Expandentesque super terram pallium, projecerunt in eo inaures de præda:

They consented willingly enough, spreading a cloak out on the ground and throwing all their spoil of ear-rings down on it;

They answered: We will give them most willingly. And spreading a mantle on the ground, they cast upon it the earlets of the spoils.

et fuit pondus postulatarum inaurium, mille septingenti auri sicli, absque ornamentis, et monilibus, et veste purpurea, quibus reges Madian uti soliti erant, et præter torques aureas camelorum.

and these ear-rings they gave him, all of gold, weighed seventeen hundred sicles. (There was much besides; collars and necklaces, and purple robes such as the kings of Madian wore, and the gold trappings of their camels.)

And the weight of the earlets that he requested, was a thousand seven hundred sicles of gold, besides the ornaments, and jewels, and purple raiment which the kings of Madian were wont to use, and besides the golden chains that were about the camels’ necks.

Fecitque ex eo Gedeon ephod, et posuit illud in civitate sua Ephra. Fornicatusque est omnis Israël in eo, et factum est Gedeoni et omni domui ejus in ruinam.

Gedeon made of this a golden mantle, which he set up in the city of Ephra; and faithless Israel fell to worshipping it, to the ruin of Gedeon and his race.

And Gedeon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city Ephra. And all Israel committed fornication with it, and it became a ruin to Gedeon and to all his house.

Humiliatus est autem Madian coram filiis Israël, nec potuerunt ultra cervices elevare: sed quievit terra per quadraginta annos, quibus Gedeon præfuit.

As for the Madianites, they were bowed to the dust before Israel, and could raise their heads no longer; for a full generation, while Gedeon was there to protect it, the land was at peace.

But Madian was humbled before the children of Israel, neither could they any more lift up their heads: but the land rested for forty years, while Gedeon presided.

Abiit itaque Jerobaal filius Joas, et habitavit in domo sua:

So this Jerobaal, son of Joas, went back to his home and lived on there.

So Jerobaal the son of Joas went, and dwelt in his own house.

habuitque septuaginta filios, qui egressi sunt de femore ejus: eo quod plures haberet uxores.

By his many wives, he had seventy sons, all begotten of his own body,

And he had seventy sons, who came out of his thigh, for he had many wives.

Concubina autem illius, quam habebat in Sichem, genuit ei filium nomine Abimelech.

and in Sichem there was a concubine of his, that bore him a son, Abimelech.

And his concubine, that he had in Sichem, bore him a son, whose name was Abimelech.

Mortuusque est Gedeon filius Joas in senectute bona, et sepultus est in sepulchro Joas patris sui in Ephra de familia Ezri.

So Gedeon the son of Joas died, content in late old age, and was buried in the tomb of his father Joas, in Ephra, that belongs to the clan of Abiezer.

And Gedeon the son of Joas died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father in Ephra of the family of Ezri.

Postquam autem mortuus est Gedeon, aversi sunt filii Israël, et fornicati sunt cum Baalim. Percusseruntque cum Baal fœdus, ut esset eis in deum:

It was only after the death of Gedeon that the Israelites went back to their old ways, and played the wanton with gods of the country-side. They had a covenant now with Baal, that he should be their god,

But after Gedeon was dead, the children of Israel turned again, and committed fornication with Baalim. And they made a covenant with Baal, that he should be their god:

nec recordati sunt Domini Dei sui, qui eruit eos de manibus inimicorum suorum omnium per circuitum:

and thought no more of the Lord, their own God, that had rescued them from the power of the enemies who lived round about them.

And they remembered not the Lord their God, who delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies round about:

nec fecerunt misericordiam cum domo Jerobaal Gedeon, juxta omnia bona quæ fecerat Israëli.

And it was little gratitude they shewed to the race of Gedeon, surnamed Jerobaal, that had fought so well for Israel.

Neither did they shew mercy to the house of Jerobaal Gedeon, according to all the good things he had done to Israel.