Rashi
Jewish
1040–1105
“But the boy would not draw his sword to execute them, for he was afraid of them.”
The interpretation timeline
Judg 8:20
How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.
From the early Church Fathers to now.
1 Jewish · 1 Reformed
Judg 8:20 · Douay-Rheims
“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.”
Scholastic
c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
766 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation
c. 1650 – 1900
1871
A.D.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Reformed
1871
“he said unto Jether his first-born, Up, and slay them--The nearest of kin was the blood-avenger; but a magistrate might order any one to do the work of the executioner; and the person selected was always of a rank equal or proportioned to that of the party doomed to suffer (Kg1 2:29). Gideon intended, then, by the order to Jether, to put an honor on his son, by employing him to slay two enemies of his country; and on the youth declining, he performed the bloody deed himself.”
Modern · 1953 →
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.