John Gill Commentary Judges 9:17

"(for my father fought for you, and adventured his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian:" — Judges 9:17 (ASV)

For my father fought for you
In the valley of Jezreel, and at Karkor, where with three hundred men he routed and destroyed an army of 135,000:

and adventured his life far :
which, according to our version, may seem to have respect to his going over Jordan, and following the Midianites, fleeing into their country, and fighting them at Karkor, at a great distance from his native place; but the phrase in the original text is, "he cast away his life afar" ^F5 , made no account of it, exposed it to the greatest danger; or, as the Targum, ``he delivered his life as it were to destruction:''

and delivered you out of the hand of Midian ;
from the oppression and bondage of the Midianites, under which they had laboured seven years.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F5: (dgnm wvpn ta Klvyw) "et projecit animam suam a louge", Pagninus; "vel eminus", Montanus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.