Judges 6:25

the same night Not the night after the events related in 11 24, for the reasons just given. Moore suggests the night after the prophet delivered his message, 7 10. It is safer to say that the original connexion is lost.

thy father's bullock and the second bullock of seven years old The text is unintelligible and corrupt. The -bullock" (lit. -the steer of the ox") and -the second bullock" are probably doublets; -the second bullock" in Judges 6:26; Judges 6:28must be derived from the corrupt form here. The LXX, cod. A and Luc, reads -the fatted calf" instead of -the steer of the ox"; but no satisfactory emendation has been proposed. Probably the text originally contained a direction to take a young bullock for the purpose of a sacrifice.

the altar of Baal that thy father hath To mark the resemblance to the previous clause, render thy father's altar of Baal: this means that Joash was not merely the custodian but the proprietor of the altar, contrast Judges 6:11. But the altar appears to belong to the village; the inhabitants are furious when they find it destroyed. Hence thy father's(lit. -which belongs to thy father") is probably a corrupt repetition of the same words in the sentence before. So Lagrange.

the Asherah that is by it The sacred pole which stood beside the altar of Baal; see on Judges 3:7.