Judges 6:23 (WEB)

Passage

Yahweh said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.”

Nearby Context

Judges 6:21 Then Yahweh’s angel stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then Yahweh’s angel departed out of his sight.

Judges 6:22 Gideon saw that he was Yahweh’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen Yahweh’s angel face to face!”

Judges 6:23 Yahweh said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.”

Judges 6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it “Yahweh is Peace.” To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Judges 6:25 That same night, Yahweh said to him, “Take your father’s bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "yahweh", "said", "peace", "afraid", and "shall". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "yahweh" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "Gideon saw that he was Yahweh s..." into verse 24's "Then Gideon built an altar there to...", so "yahweh" and "said" belong inside that flow. In Judges context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "yahweh" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.