Bible Strands
Judges 8:14
There he captured a young man of Succoth and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven leaders and elders of Succoth.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Gideon, returning from battle along the Ascent of Heres, captures a young man from the men of Succoth and interrogates him prior to confronting the city's leadership.
The words — The text records וַ/יִּלְכָּד־ (va/i.yil.kod-) as "and he captured" and וַ/יִּכְתֹּ֨ב (va/i.yikh.To) as "and he wrote down," structuring the narrative around seizure followed by documentation.
The thread — The tactic of detaining a local individual to extract location or personnel data recurs in Judges 1:24 and 1 Samuel 30:11, where captured or found persons are pressed for information.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to note that ancient warfare depended on coercive intelligence gathering, where one civilian's testimony supplied the exact names of a city's governing class.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and enquired of him: and he described unto him the princes of Succoth, and the elders thereof, even threescore and seventeen men.
Cross-references
- Judges 1:24 and when the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, “Please show us how to get into the city, and we will treat you kindly.”
- 1 Samuel 30:11 Now his men found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. They gave the man water to drink and food to eat—