Text -- Judges 6:1-40 (NET)

Oppression and Confrontation

6:1 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord turned them over to Midian for seven years. 6:2 The Midianites overwhelmed Israel. Because of Midian the Israelites made shelters for themselves in the hills, as well as caves and strongholds. 6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east would attack them. 6:4 They invaded the land and devoured its crops all the way to Gaza. They left nothing for the Israelites to eat, and they took away the sheep, oxen, and donkeys. 6:5 When they invaded with their cattle and tents, they were as thick as locusts. Neither they nor their camels could be counted. They came to devour the land. 6:6 Israel was so severely weakened by Midian that the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help. 6:7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help because of Midian, 6:8 he sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and took you out of that place of slavery. 6:9 I rescued you from Egypt’s power and from the power of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave their land to you. 6:10 I said to you, “I am the Lord your God! Do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living!” But you have disobeyed me.’”

Gideon Meets Some Visitors

6:11 The Lord’s angelic messenger came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress so he could hide it from the Midianites. 6:12 The Lord’s messenger appeared and said to him, “The Lord is with you, courageous warrior!” 6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” 6:14 Then the Lord himself turned to him and said, “You have the strength. Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! Have I not sent you?” 6:15 Gideon said to him, “But Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” 6:16 The Lord said to him, “Ah, but I will be with you! You will strike down the whole Midianite army.” 6:17 Gideon said to him, “If you really are pleased with me, then give me a sign as proof that it is really you speaking with me. 6:18 Do not leave this place until I come back with a gift and present it to you.” The Lord said, “I will stay here until you come back.” 6:19 Gideon went and prepared a young goat, along with unleavened bread made from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought the food to him under the oak tree and presented it to him. 6:20 God’s messenger said to him, “Put the meat and unleavened bread on this rock, and pour out the broth.” Gideon did as instructed. 6:21 The Lord’s messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord’s messenger then disappeared. 6:22 When Gideon realized that it was the Lord’s messenger, he said, “Oh no! Master, Lord! I have seen the Lord’s messenger face to face!” 6:23 The Lord said to him, “You are safe! Do not be afraid! You are not going to die!” 6:24 Gideon built an altar for the Lord there, and named it “The Lord is on friendly terms with me.” To this day it is still there in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Gideon Destroys the Altar

6:25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole. 6:26 Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.” 6:27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did just as the Lord had told him. He was too afraid of his father’s family and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime. 6:28 When the men of the city got up the next morning, they saw the Baal altar pulled down, the nearby Asherah pole cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar. 6:29 They said to one another, “Who did this?” They investigated the matter thoroughly and concluded that Gideon son of Joash had done it. 6:30 The men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so we can execute him! He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.” 6:31 But Joash said to all those who confronted him, “Must you fight Baal’s battles? Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning! If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” 6:32 That very day Gideon’s father named him Jerub-Baal, because he had said, “Let Baal fight with him, for it was his altar that was pulled down.”

Gideon Summons an Army and Seeks Confirmation

6:33 All the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east assembled. They crossed the Jordan River and camped in the Jezreel Valley. 6:34 The Lord’s spirit took control of Gideon. He blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 6:35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh and summoned them to follow him as well. He also sent messengers throughout Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet him. 6:36 Gideon said to God, “If you really intend to use me to deliver Israel, as you promised, then give me a sign as proof. 6:37 Look, I am putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and the ground around it is dry, then I will be sure that you will use me to deliver Israel, as you promised.” 6:38 The Lord did as he asked. When he got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece, and enough dew dripped from it to fill a bowl. 6:39 Gideon said to God, “Please do not get angry at me, when I ask for just one more sign. Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make only the fleece dry, while the ground around it is covered with dew.” 6:40 That night God did as he asked. Only the fleece was dry and the ground around it was covered with dew.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Jdg 6:1

For although the generality of the Midianites had been cut off by Moses about two hundred years ago, yet many of them doubtless fled into the neighbouring countries, whence afterwards they returned into their own land, and in that time might easily grow to be a very great number; especially, when God furthered their increase, that they might be a scourge for Israel when they transgressed. Let all that sin, expect to suffer: let all that turn to folly, expect to return to misery.

Wesley: Jdg 6:3

That is, the Arabians, who are commonly called the children of the east. Not all the Arabians; but the eastern part of them.

Wesley: Jdg 6:4

That is, from the east, on which side they entered, to the well, where Gaza was, near the sea: so they destroyed the whole land.

Wesley: Jdg 6:5

That is, so many that it was not easy to number them. And not in a regular army to engage, but in a confused swarm, to plunder the country. Yet Israel, being forsaken of God, had not spirit to make head against them; God fighting against them with those very terrors, with which otherwise he would have fought for them.

Wesley: Jdg 6:8

We have reason to hope, God is designing mercy for us, if we find he is by his grace preparing us for it.

Wesley: Jdg 6:10

He intends to bring them to repentance. And our repentance is then genuine, when he sinfulness of sin, as disobedience to God, is that in it which we chiefly lament.

Wesley: Jdg 6:11

In Manasseh: there was another Ophrah in Benjamin, Jos 18:23.

Wesley: Jdg 6:11

ezrite - Of the posterity of Abiezer.

Wesley: Jdg 6:11

Not with oxen, as the manner was, Deu 25:4, but with a staff to prevent discovery.

Wesley: Jdg 6:11

press - In the place where the wine - press stood, not in the common floor.

Wesley: Jdg 6:12

That is, will assist thee against thine enemies.

Wesley: Jdg 6:12

To whom I have given strength and courage for this end.

Wesley: Jdg 6:13

The angel had said, Peace be with Thee: but he expostulates for All: herding himself with all Israel, and admitting no comfort, but what they might be sharers in.

Wesley: Jdg 6:14

With a settled and pleasant countenance, as a testimony of his favour, and readiness to help him.

Wesley: Jdg 6:14

Or, go now, in thy might: in the strength which thou hast already received, and dost now farther receive from me.

Wesley: Jdg 6:14

I do hereby give thee command and commission for this work. God's fitting men for his work, is a sure evidence of his calling them to it.

Wesley: Jdg 6:15

Heb. my thousand: for the tribes were distributed into several thousands, whereof each thousand had his peculiar governor.

Wesley: Jdg 6:15

That is, weak and contemptible.

Wesley: Jdg 6:15

Either for age, or fitness for so great a work.

Wesley: Jdg 6:16

As easily, as if they were all but one man.

Wesley: Jdg 6:17

That it is thou, an angel or messenger sent from God, that appears to me, and discourseth with me. Or, a sign of that which thou talkest with me; that is, that thou wilt by me smite the Midianites.

Wesley: Jdg 6:18

A repast for the angel, whom he thought to be a man.

Wesley: Jdg 6:18

That thou mayest eat and refresh thyself.

Wesley: Jdg 6:19

The choicest part of a whole ephah; as also he brought to him the best part of a kid dressed; for a whole ephah, and a whole kid had been superfluous, and improper to provide for one man.

Wesley: Jdg 6:21

By which, he shewed himself to be no man that needed such provisions, but the Son of God; and by this instance of his omnipotency, gave him assurance, that he both could, and would consume the Midianites.

Wesley: Jdg 6:22

I am an undone man: I must die, and that speedily; for that he feared, Jdg 6:23, according to the common opinion in that case.

Wesley: Jdg 6:23

Perhaps by an audible voice.

Wesley: Jdg 6:23

Thou shalt receive no hurt by this vision; but only peace, that is, all the blessings needful for thy own happiness, and for the present work.

Wesley: Jdg 6:24

On the top of the rock, as is evident from Jdg 6:26, where that which is here expressed only in general, is more particularly described.

Wesley: Jdg 6:24

shalom - That is, the Lord's peace; the sign or witness of God's speaking peace to me, and to his people: or the place where he spake peace to me, when I expected nothing but destruction.

Wesley: Jdg 6:25

He was to offer one for himself, the other for the sins of the people, whom he was to deliver. 'Till sin be pardoned thro' the great sacrifice, no good is to be expected.

Wesley: Jdg 6:25

Which thy father built in his own ground, tho' for the common use of the city.

Wesley: Jdg 6:25

Planted by the altar for idolatrous uses, as the manner of idolaters was. This action might seem injurious to his father's authority; but God's command was a sufficient warrant, and Gideon was now called to be the supreme magistrate, whereby he was made his father's superior, and was authorized to root out all idolatry, and the instruments thereof.

Wesley: Jdg 6:26

Heb. of this strong hold: for in that calamitous time the Israelites retreated to such rocks, and hid and fortified themselves in them.

Wesley: Jdg 6:26

That is, in a plain and smooth part of the rock, where an altar may be conveniently built.

Wesley: Jdg 6:26

Gideon was no priest, nor was this the appointed place of sacrifice; but God can dispense with his own institutions, though we may not; and his call gave Gideon sufficient authority.

Wesley: Jdg 6:27

Whom doubtless he had acquainted with his design, and the assurance of success in it, whereby they were easily induced to assist him.

Wesley: Jdg 6:27

Not so much, lest he should suffer for it, as lest he should be prevented from doing it.

Wesley: Jdg 6:28

Not upon Baal's altar, for which it was designed; but upon an altar erected in contempt of Baal.

Wesley: Jdg 6:30

Probably some of the persons employed in it.

Wesley: Jdg 6:31

Why are you so zealous in pleading for that Baal, for the worship whereof you suffer such grievous calamities at this day? It is plain, that Joash had been a worshipper of Baal: but probably he was now convinced by Gideon.

Wesley: Jdg 6:31

He that shall farther plead for such a god as this, deserves to die for his folly and impiety. It is not probable, that this was all which he said for his son: but it is usual in scripture to give only short hints of things which were more largely discoursed.

Wesley: Jdg 6:31

That is, instantly, without delay.

Wesley: Jdg 6:31

As the God of Israel hath often done when any indignity or injury hath been done him. But Baal hath now shewed, that he is neither able to help you, nor himself; and therefore is not worthy to be served any longer. This resolute answer was necessary to stop the torrent of the peoples fury; and it was drawn from him, by the sense of his son's extreme danger; and by the confidence he had, that God would plead his son's cause, and use him for the rescue of his people.

Wesley: Jdg 6:32

Joash called Gideon so, Jdg 8:29, in remembrance of this noble exploit, and to put a brand upon Baal.

Wesley: Jdg 6:32

baal - That is, Let Baal plead. It is a probable conjecture, that that Jerombalus, whom Sanchoniathon, (one of the most ancient of all the Heathen writers) speaks of as a priest of Jao, (a corruption of Jehovah) and to whom he was indebted for a great deal of knowledge, was this Jerub - baal.

Wesley: Jdg 6:33

Not Jezreel in Judah, but another in the borders of Manasseh and Issachar, which was not far distant from Ophrah, where Gideon dwelt.

Wesley: Jdg 6:34

Inspiring him with extraordinary wisdom, and courage, and zeal to vindicate God's honour, and his country's liberty. The Hebrew is, The Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon; clothed him as a robe, to put honour upon him; clothed him as a coat of mail to put a defence upon him. Those are well clad that are thus clothed.

Wesley: Jdg 6:34

That is, the Abiezrites, his kindred, and their servants, and others; who finding no harm coming to him for destroying Baal, but rather a blessing from God, in giving him strength and courage for so great an attempt, changed their minds, and followed him as the person by whose hands God would deliver them.

Wesley: Jdg 6:35

On Both sides of Jordan.

Wesley: Jdg 6:35

Because these tribes were nearest, and so could soonest join with him; and were nearest the enemy also, Jdg 6:33, and therefore were most sensible of the calamity, and would in all reason be most forward to rescue themselves from it.

Wesley: Jdg 6:36

In a way of humble supplication, for the strengthening his own faith, and for the greater encouragement of his soldiers in this great attempt.

Wesley: Jdg 6:37

That is, upon all that spot of ground which encompasses the fleece.

Wesley: Jdg 6:39

Which was more preternatural than the former instance, because if there be any moisture, such bodies as fleeces of wool are likely to drink it up.

Wesley: Jdg 6:40

See how tender God is, even of the weak; and how ready to condescend to their infirmities! These signs were very expressive. They are going to engage the Midianites. Could God distinguish between a small fleece of Israel, and the vast floor of Midian? Yes, by this token it appears that he can. Is Gideon desirous, that the dew of divine grace might descend on himself in particular? He sees the fleece wet with dew, to assure him of it. Does he desire, that God will be as the dew to all Israel? Behold all the ground is wet!

JFB: Jdg 6:1

Untaught by their former experiences, the Israelites again apostatized, and new sins were followed by fresh judgments. Midian had sustained a severe blow in the time of Moses (Num. 31:1-18); and the memory of that disaster, no doubt, inflamed their resentment against the Israelites. They were wandering herdsmen, called "children of the East," from their occupying the territory east of the Red Sea, contiguous to Moab. The destructive ravages they are described as at this time committing in the land of Israel are similar to those of the Bedouin Arabs, who harass the peaceful cultivators of the soil. Unless composition is made with them, they return annually at a certain season, when they carry off the grain, seize the cattle and other property; and even life itself is in jeopardy from the attacks of those prowling marauders. The vast horde of Midianites that overran Canaan made them the greatest scourge which had ever afflicted the Israelites.

JFB: Jdg 6:2

Not, of course, excavating them, for they were already, but making them fit for habitation.

JFB: Jdg 6:8

The curse of the national calamity is authoritatively traced to their infidelity as the cause.

JFB: Jdg 6:11

He appeared in the character and equipments of a traveller (Jdg 6:21), who sat down in the shade to enjoy a little refreshment and repose. Entering into conversation on the engrossing topic of the times, the grievous oppression of the Midianites, he began urging Gideon to exert his well-known prowess on behalf of his country. Gideon, in replying, addresses him at first in a style equivalent (in Hebrew) to "sir," but afterwards gives to him the name usually applied to God.

JFB: Jdg 6:11

Hebrew, "the oak"--as famous in after-times.

JFB: Jdg 6:11

A city in the tribe of Manasseh, about sixteen miles north of Jericho, in the district belonging to the family of Abiezer (Jos 17:2).

JFB: Jdg 6:11

This incident tells emphatically the tale of public distress. The small quantity of grain he was threshing, indicated by his using a flail instead of the customary treading of cattle--the unusual place, near a wine-press, under a tree, and on the bare ground, not a wooden floor, for the prevention of noise--all these circumstances reveal the extreme dread in which the people were living.

JFB: Jdg 6:13

Gideon's language betrays want of reflection, for the very chastisements God had brought on His people showed His presence with, and His interest in, them.

JFB: Jdg 6:14-16

The command and the promise made Gideon aware of the real character of his visitor; and yet like Moses, from a sense of humility, or a shrinking at the magnitude of the undertaking, he excused himself from entering on the enterprise. And even though assured that, with the divine aid, he would overcome the Midianites as easily as if they were but one man, he still hesitates and wishes to be better assured that the mission was really from God. He resembles Moses also in the desire for a sign; and in both cases it was the rarity of revelations in such periods of general corruption that made them so desirous of having the fullest conviction of being addressed by a heavenly messenger. The request was reasonable, and it was graciously granted [Jdg 6:18].

JFB: Jdg 6:18

Hebrew, my mincha, or "meat offering"; and his idea probably was to prove, by his visitor's partaking of the entertainment, whether or not he was more than man.

JFB: Jdg 6:19-23

(See on Gen 18:7). The flesh seems to have been roasted, which is done by cutting it into kobab, that is, into small pieces, fixed on a skewer, and put before the fire. The broth was for immediate use; the other, brought in a hand-basket was intended to be a future supply to the traveller. The miraculous fire that consumed it and the vanishing of the stranger, not by walking, but as a spirit in the fire, filled Gideon with awe. A consciousness of demerit fills the heart of every fallen man at the thought of God, with fear of His wrath; and this feeling was increased by a belief prevalent in ancient times, that whoever saw an angel would forthwith die. The acceptance of Gideon's sacrifice betokened the acceptance of his person; but it required an express assurance of the divine blessing, given in some unknown manner, to restore his comfort and peace of mind.

JFB: Jdg 6:24-32

The transaction in which Gideon is here described as engaged was not entered on till the night after the vision.

JFB: Jdg 6:25

The Midianites had probably reduced the family herd; or, as Gideon's father was addicted to idolatry, the best may have been fattened for the service of Baal; so that the second was the only remaining one fit for sacrifice to God.

JFB: Jdg 6:25

Standing upon his ground, though kept for the common use of the townsmen.

JFB: Jdg 6:25

Dedicated to Ashtaroth. With the aid of ten confidential servants he demolished the one altar and raised on the appointed spot the altar of the Lord; but, for fear of opposition, the work had to be done under cover of night. A violent commotion was excited next day, and vengeance vowed against Gideon as the perpetrator. "Joash, his father, quieted the mob in a manner similar to that of the town clerk of Ephesus. It was not for them to take the matter into their own hands. The one, however, made an appeal to the magistrate; the other to the idolatrous god himself" [CHALMERS].

JFB: Jdg 6:33

The confederated troops of Midian, Amalek, and their neighbors, crossing the Jordan to make a fresh inroad on Canaan, encamped in the plains of Esdraelon (anciently Jezreel). The southern part of the Ghor lies in a very low level, so that there is a steep and difficult descent into Canaan by the southern wadies. Keeping this in view, we see the reason why the Midianite army, from the east of Jordan, entered Canaan by the northern wadies of the Ghor, opposite Jezreel.

JFB: Jdg 6:34

Called in this sudden emergency into the public service of his country, he was supernaturally endowed with wisdom and energy commensurate with the magnitude of the danger and the difficulties of his position. His summons to war was enthusiastically obeyed by all the neighboring tribes. On the eve of a perilous enterprise, he sought to fortify his mind with a fresh assurance of a divine call to the responsible office. The miracle of the fleece was a very remarkable one--especially, considering the copious dews that fall in his country. The divine patience and condescension were wonderfully manifested in reversing the form of the miracle. Gideon himself seems to have been conscious of incurring the displeasure of God by his hesitancy and doubts; but He bears with the infirmities of His people.

Clarke: Jdg 6:1

Delivered them unto the hand of Midian - The Midianites were among the most ancient and inveterate of the enemies of Israel. They joined with the Moabites to seduce them to idolatry, and were nearly extirpated by them; Num 31:1-12. The Midianites dwelt on the eastern borders of the Dead Sea, and their capital was Arnon.

Clarke: Jdg 6:2

Made them the dens which are in the mountains - Nothing can give a more distressing description of the state of the Israelites than what is here related. They durst not reside in the plain country, but were obliged to betake themselves to dens and caves of the mountains, and live like wild beasts, and were hunted like them by their adversaries.

Clarke: Jdg 6:3

Children of the East - Probably those who inhabited Arabia Deserta, Ishmaelites.

Clarke: Jdg 6:4

Encamped against them - Wandering hordes of Midianites, Amalekites, and Ishmaelites came, in the times of harvest and autumn, and carried away their crops, their fruit, and their cattle. And they appear to have come early, encamped in the plains, and watched the crops till they were ready to be carried off. This is frequently the case even to the present day

Clarke: Jdg 6:4

Till thou come unto Gaza - That is, the whole breadth of the land, from Jordan to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Thus the whole land was ravaged, and the inhabitants deprived of the necessaries of life.

Clarke: Jdg 6:5

They came up with their cattle and their tents - All this proves that they were different tribes of wanderers who had no fixed residence; but, like their descendants the Bedouins or wandering Arabs, removed from place to place to get prey for themselves and forage for their cattle.

Clarke: Jdg 6:8

The Lord sent a prophet - The Jews say that this was Phinehas; but it is more likely that it was some prophet or teacher raised up by the Lord to warn and instruct them. Such were his witnesses, and they were raised up from time to time to declare the counsel of God to his rebellious people.

Clarke: Jdg 6:11

There came an angel of the Lord - The prophet came to teach and exhort, the angel comes to confirm the word of the prophet, to call and commission him who was intended to be their deliverer, and to work miracles, in order to inspire him with supernatural courage and a confidence of success

Clarke: Jdg 6:11

Ophrah - Or Ephra, was a city, or village rather, in the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan

Clarke: Jdg 6:11

His son Gideon threshed wheat - This is not the only instance in which a man taken from agricultural employments was made general of an army, and the deliverer of his country. Shamgar was evidently a ploughman, and with his ox-goad he slew many Philistines, and became one of the deliverers of Israel. Cincinnatus was taken from the plough, and was made dictator and commander-in-chief of the Roman armies. There is a great similarity between his case and that of Gideon

Clarke: Jdg 6:11

Threshed wheat by the winepress - This was a place of privacy; he could not make a threshing-floor in open day as the custom was, and bring either the wheel over the grain, or tread it out with the feet of the oxen, for fear of the Midianites, who were accustomed to come and take it away as soon as threshed. He got a few sheaves from the field, and brought them home to have them privately threshed for the support of the family. As there could be no vintage among the Israelites in their present distressed circumstances, the winepress would never be suspected by the Midianites to be the place of threshing corn.

Clarke: Jdg 6:12

The Lord is with thee - "The Word of the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor."- Targum. It appears that Gideon had proved himself, on former occasions, to be a man of courage and personal prowess; and this would naturally excite the confidence of his countrymen. God chooses for his work those instruments which, in the course of his operations in nature and providence, he has qualified for his purpose. The instruments thus chosen are generally unlikely, but they will be ever found the best qualified for the Divine employment.

Clarke: Jdg 6:13

And Gideon said unto him - This speech is remarkable for its energy and simplicity; it shows indeed a measure of despondency, but not more than the circumstances of the case justified.

Clarke: Jdg 6:14

Go in this thy might - What does the angel mean? He had just stated that Jehovah was with him; and he now says, Go in This thy might, i.e., in the might of Jehovah, who is with thee.

Clarke: Jdg 6:15

Wherewith shall I save Israel? - I have neither men nor money

Clarke: Jdg 6:15

Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh - הנה אלפי הדל, Behold, my thousand is impoverished. Tribes were anciently divided into tens, and fifties, and hundreds, and thousands; the thousands therefore marked grand divisions, and consequently numerous families; Gideon here intimates that the families of which he made a part were very much diminished. But if we take אלפי alpey for the contracted form of the plural, which is frequently in Hebrew nouns joined with a verb in the singular, then the translation will be, "The thousands in Manasseh are thinned;"i.e., this tribe is greatly reduced, and can do little against their enemies.

Clarke: Jdg 6:16

Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man - Thou shalt as surely conquer all their host as if thou hadst but one man to contend with; or, Thou shalt destroy them to a man.

Clarke: Jdg 6:17

Show me a sign - Work a miracle, that I may know that thou hast wisdom and power sufficient to authorize and quality me for the work.

Clarke: Jdg 6:18

And bring forth my present - My minchah ; generally an offering of bread, wine, oil, flour, and such like. It seems from this that Gideon supposed the person to whom he spoke to be a Divine person. Nevertheless, what he prepared and brought out appears to be intended simply as an entertainment to refresh a respectable stranger.

Clarke: Jdg 6:19

Made ready a kid - the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot - The manner in which the Arabs entertain strangers will cast light on this verse. Dr. Shaw observes: "Besides a bowl of milk, and a basket of figs, raisins, or dates, which upon our arrival were presented to us to stay our appetite, the master of the tent fetched us from his flock according to the number of our company, a kid or a goat, a lamb or a sheep; half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and served up with cucasoe; the rest was made kab-ab, i.e., cut to pieces and roasted, which we reserved for our breakfast or dinner next day."May we not suppose, says Mr. Harmer, that Gideon, presenting some slight refreshment to the supposed prophet, according to the present Arab mode, desired him to stay till he could provide something more substantial; that he immediately killed a kid, seethed part of it, and, when ready, brought out the stewed meat in a pot, with unleavened cakes of bread which he had baked; and the other part, the kab-ab, in a basket, for him to carry with him for some after-repast in his journey. See Shaw’ s and Pococke’ s Travels, and Harmer’ s Observations

Clarke: Jdg 6:19

Brought it out unto him under the oak - Probably where he had a tent, which, with the shade of the oak, sheltered them from the heat of the sun, and yet afforded the privilege of the refreshing breeze. Under a shade in the open air the Arabs, to the present day, are accustomed to receive their guests.

Clarke: Jdg 6:20

Take the flesh, etc. - The angel intended to make the flesh and bread an offering to God, and the broth a libation.

Clarke: Jdg 6:21

The angel - put forth the end of the staff - He appeared like a traveler with a staff in his hand; this he put forth, and having touched the flesh, fire rose out of the rock and consumed it. Here was the most evident proof of supernatural agency

Clarke: Jdg 6:21

Then the angel - departed out of his sight - Though the angel vanished out of his sight, yet God continued to converse with him either by secret inspiration in his own heart, or by an audible voice.

Clarke: Jdg 6:22

Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen - This is an elliptical sentence, a natural expression of the distressed state of Gideon’ s mind: as if he had said, Have mercy on me, O Lord God! else I shall die; because I have seen an angel of Jehovah face to face. We have frequently seen that it was a prevalent sentiment, as well before as under the law, that if any man saw God, or his representative angel he must surely die. On this account Gideon is alarmed, and prays for his life. This notion prevailed among the heathens, and we find an instance of it in the fable of Jupiter and Semele. She wished to see his glory; she saw it, and was struck dead by the effulgence. See the notes on Exo 33:20. We find that a similar opinion prevailed very anciently among the Greeks. In the hymn of Callimachus, Εις Λουτρα της Παλλαδος, ver. 100, are these words: -

Κρονιοι δ ’ ὡδε λεγοντι νομοι·

Ὁς κε τιν ’ αθανατων, ὁκα μη θεος αυτος ἑληται,

Αθρησῃ, μισθῳ τουτον ιδειν μεγαλῳ.

"The laws of Saturn enact, that if any man see any of the immortal gods, unless that god himself shall choose it, he shall pay dearly for that sight."

Clarke: Jdg 6:23

Fear not: thou shalt not die - Here the discovery is made by God himself: Gideon is not curiously prying into forbidden mysteries, therefore he shall not die.

Clarke: Jdg 6:24

Gideon built an altar - and called it Jehovah-shalom - The words יהוה שלום Yehovah shalom signify The Lord is my peace, or The peace of Jehovah; and this name he gave the altar, in reference to what God had said, Jdg 6:23, Peace be unto thee, שלום לך shalom lecha , "Peace to thee;"which implied, not only a wish, but a prediction of the prosperous issue of the enterprise in which he was about to engage. It is likely that this is the altar which is mentioned in Jdg 6:26, and is spoken of here merely by anticipation.

Clarke: Jdg 6:25

Take thy father’ s young bullock, even the second bullock - There is some difficulty in this verse, for, according to the Hebrew text, two bullocks are mentioned here; but there is only one mentioned in Jdg 6:26, Jdg 6:28. But what was this second bullock? Some think that it was a bullock that was fattened in order to be offered in sacrifice to Baal. This is very probable, as the second bullock is so particularly distinguished from another which belonged to Gideon’ s father. As the altar was built upon the ground of Joash, yet appears to have been public property, (see Jdg 6:29, Jdg 6:30), so this second ox was probably reared and fattened at the expense of the men of that village, else why should they so particularly resent its being offered to Jehovah?

Clarke: Jdg 6:26

With the wood of the grove - It is probable that אשרה Asherah here signifies Astarte; and that there was a wooden image of this goddess on the altar of Baal. Baal-peor was the same as Priapus, Astarte as Venus; these two impure idols were proper enough for the same altar. In early times, and among rude people, the images of the gods were made of wood. This is the case still with the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, with the Indians of America, and with the inhabitants of Ceylon: many of the images of Budhoo are of wood. The Scandinavians also had wooden gods.

Clarke: Jdg 6:27

He feared his father’ s household - So it appears that his father was an idolater: but as Gideon had ten men of his own servants whom he could trust in this matter, it is probable that he had preserved the true faith, and had not bowed his knee to the image of Baal.

Clarke: Jdg 6:28

The second bullock was offered - It appears that the second bullock was offered because it was just seven years old, Jdg 6:25, being calved about the time that the Midianitish oppression began; and it was now to be slain to indicate that their slavery should end with its life. The young bullock, Jdg 6:25, is supposed to have been offered for a peace-offering; the bullock of seven years old, for a burnt-offering.

Clarke: Jdg 6:29

Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing - They fixed on him the more readily because they knew he had not joined with them in their idolatrous worship.

Clarke: Jdg 6:30

The men of the city said - They all felt an interest in the continuance of rites in which they had often many sensual gratifications. Baal and Ashtaroth would have more worshippers than the true God, because their rites were more adapted to the fallen nature of man.

Clarke: Jdg 6:31

Will ye plead for Baal? - The words are very emphatic "Will ye plead in earnest תריבן for Baal? Will ye תושיען really save him? If he be God, אלהים Elohim, let him contend for himself, seeing his altar is thrown down."The paragogic letters in the words plead and save greatly increase the sense. Joash could not slay his son; but he was satisfied he had insulted Baal: if Baal were the true God, he would avenge his own injured honor. This was a sentiment among the heathens. Thus Tacitus, lib. i., c. 73, A.U.C. 768, mentioning the letter of Tiberius to the consuls in behalf of Cassius and Rubrius, two Roman knights, one of whom was accused of having sold a statue of Augustus in the auction of his gardens; and the other, of having sworn falsely by the name of Augustus, who had been deified by the senate; among other things makes him say: Non ideo decretum patri suo coelum, ut in perniciem civium is honor verteretur. Nec contra religiones fieri quod effigies ejus, utalia nu minum simulachra, venditionibus hortorum et domuum accedant. Jusjurandum perinde aestimandum quam si Jovem fefellisset: deorum injuriae diis curae - "That Divine honors were not decreed to his father (Augustus) to lay snares for the citizens; and if his statue, in common with the images of the gods in general, was put up to sale with the houses and gardens, it could not be considered an injury to religion. That any false oath must be considered as an attempt to deceive Jupiter himself; but the gods themselves must take cognizance of the injuries done unto them."Livy has a similar sentiment, Hist. lib. x., c. 6, where, speaking of some attempts made to increase the number of the augurs out of the commons, with which the senators were displeased, he says: Simulabant ad deos id magis, quam ad se pertinere; ipsos visuros, ne sacra sua polluantur . - "They pretended that these things belonged more to the gods than themselves; and that they would take care that their sacred rites were not polluted."

Clarke: Jdg 6:32

He called him Jerubbaal - That is, Let Baal contend; changed, 2Sa 11:21, into Jerubbesheth, he shall contend against confusion or shame; thus changing baal , lord, into bosheth , confusion or ignominy. Some think that Jerubbaal was the same with Jerombalus, who, according to Sanchoniatho and Porphyry, was a priest of Jevo. But the history of Sanchoniatho is probably a forgery of Porphyry himself, and worthy of no credit.

Clarke: Jdg 6:33

Then all the Midianites - Hearing of what Gideon had done, and apprehending that this might be a forerunner of attempts to regain their liberty, they formed a general association against Israel.

Clarke: Jdg 6:34

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon - He was endued with preternatural courage and wisdom.

Clarke: Jdg 6:36

If thou wilt save Israel - Gideon was very bold, and God was very condescending. But probably the request itself was suggested by the Divine Spirit. On the miracle of the fleece, dew, and dry ground, Origen, in his eighth homily on the book of Judges, has many curious and interesting thoughts, I shall insert the substance of the whole: - The fleece is the Jewish nation. The fleece covered with dew, while all around is dry, the Jewish nation favored with the law and the prophets. The fleece dry, the Jewish nation cast off for rejecting the Gospel. All around watered, the Gospel preached to the Gentiles. and they converted to God. The fleece on the threshing-floor, the Jewish people in the land of Judea, winnowed, purged, and fanned by the Gospel. The dew wrung out into the bowl, the doctrines of Christianity, extracted from the Jewish writings, shadowed forth by Christ’ s pouring water into a basin, and washing the disciples’ feet. The pious father concludes that he has now wrung this water out of the fleece of the book of Judges, as he hopes by and by to do out of the fleece of the book of Kings, and out of the fleece of the book of Isaiah or Jeremiah; and he has received it into the basin of his heart, and there conceived its true sense; and is desirous to wash the feet of his brethren, that they may be able to walk in the way of the preparation of the Gospel of peace. - Origen, Op. vol. ii., p. 475, edit. Benedict. All this to some will doubtless appear trifling; but it is not too much to say that scarcely any pious mind can consider the homily of this excellent man without drinking into a measure of the same spirit, so much sincerity, deep piety, and unction, appear throughout the whole: yet as I do not follow such practices, I cannot recommend them. Of dealers in such small wares, we have many that imitate Benjamin Keach, but few that come nigh to Origen.

Defender: Jdg 6:22

This passage shows clearly that this "angel of the Lord" is none other than the Lord Himself. This is a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ."

Defender: Jdg 6:40

Jdg 6:36-40 provide the source of the well-known expression, "putting out a fleece," as a method of determining God's will. The first miracle - dew on the fleece with the ground dry around it - involved a providential acceleration of the natural tendency of fleece to assimilate moisture from the atmosphere. The second - the fleece dry with dew all around - was a more certain sign, involving a reversal of the natural process. This provided clear proof to Gideon that God was, indeed, leading him and was well able to fulfill His promise. This was a very special case, however, warranting special supernatural intervention by God in His natural processes. God normally reveals His will to those who desire to know and follow it, through His word and by providential circumstances. (Note the promise of guidance in such passages as Rom 12:1, Rom 12:2; 1Jo 5:14, 1Jo 5:15; Pro 3:5, Pro 3:6.)"

TSK: Jdg 6:1

did evil : Jdg 2:13, Jdg 2:14, Jdg 2:19, Jdg 2:20; Lev. 26:14-46; Deut. 28:15-68; Neh 9:26-29; Psa 106:34-42

delivered : When God judges, he will overcome; and sinners shall be made either to bend or break before him. See the ensuing history.

Midian : Gen 25:2; Num 25:17, Num 25:18; Hab 3:7

TSK: Jdg 6:2

the hand : Lev 26:17; Deu 28:47, Deu 28:48

prevailed : Heb. was strong

dens : Dr. Shaw says, that a great way on each side Joppa, on the sea coast, there is a range of mountains and precipices; and in these high situations are generally found the dens, holes, or caves, which are so frequently mentioned in Scripture; and which were formerly the lonesome retreats of the distressed Israelites. 1Sa 13:6, 1Sa 14:11; Heb 11:38; Rev 6:15

TSK: Jdg 6:3

when Israel : Lev 26:16; Deu 28:30-33, Deu 28:51; Job 31:8; Isa 65:21, Isa 65:22; Mic 6:15

Amalekites : Jdg 3:13

children : Jdg 6:33, Jdg 7:12, Jdg 8:10; Gen 29:1; 1Ki 4:30; Job 1:3

TSK: Jdg 6:4

destroyed : Lev 26:16; Deu 28:30, Deu 28:33, Deu 28:51; Mic 6:15

till thou come : The Midianites dwelt beyond the eastern borders of the land of Canaan, east of the Dead Sea, and Gaza was on the Mediterranean, on the west, so that these invaders ravaged the whole breadth of the land. Gen 10:19, Gen 13:10

left no : Pro 28:3; Jer 49:9, Jer 49:10; Oba 1:5

sheep : or, goat

TSK: Jdg 6:5

tents : Son 1:5; Isa 13:20

as grasshoppers : Jdg 7:12, Jdg 8:10; Jer 46:23

their camels : Jdg 8:21; 1Sa 30:17; Isa 60:6; Jer 49:29, Jer 49:32

to destroy : Psa 83:4-12

TSK: Jdg 6:6

impoverished : Psa 106:43 *marg. Jer 5:17; Mal 1:4

cried : Jdg 3:9, Jdg 3:15; Psa 50:15, Psa 78:34, Psa 106:44; Isa 26:16; Hos 5:15

TSK: Jdg 6:8

am 2759, bc 1245, An, Ex, Is, 246

a prophet : Heb. a man

a prophet : Thus saith, Jdg 2:1-3; Neh 9:9-12; Psa 136:10-16; Isa 63:9-14; Ezek. 20:5-32

TSK: Jdg 6:9

drave them : Psa 44:2, Psa 44:3

TSK: Jdg 6:10

I am the : Exo 20:2, Exo 20:3

fear not : 2Ki 17:33, 2Ki 17:35-39; Jer 10:2

ye have : Jdg 2:2; Pro 5:13; Jer 3:13, Jer 3:25, Jer 9:13, Jer 42:21, Jer 43:4, Jer 43:7; Zep 3:2; Rom 10:16; Heb 5:9

TSK: Jdg 6:11

an angel : Jdg 6:14-16, Jdg 2:1-5, Jdg 5:23, Jdg 13:3, Jdg 13:18-20; Gen 48:16; Jos 18:23; Isa 63:9

Abiezrite : Jdg 8:2; Jos 17:2

Gideon : Heb 11:32, Gedeon, hide it , Heb. cause it to flee

TSK: Jdg 6:12

the angel : Jdg 13:3; Luk 1:11, Luk 1:28

The Lord : Jdg 2:18; Exo 3:12; Jos 1:5, Jos 1:9; Rth 2:4; Mat 1:23, Mat 28:20; Luk 1:28; Act 18:9, Act 18:10

TSK: Jdg 6:13

if the Lord : Gen 25:22; Exo 33:14-16; Num 14:14, Num 14:15; Rom 8:31

why then : Deu 29:24, Deu 30:17, Deu 30:18; Psa 77:7-9, Psa 89:49; Isa 59:1, Isa 59:2, Isa 63:15

our fathers : Psa 44:1, Psa 78:3, Psa 78:4

forsaken us : Deu 31:17; 2Ch 15:2; Psa 27:9; Isa 41:17; Jer 23:33

TSK: Jdg 6:14

the Lord : Jdg 6:11

Go in : Jdg 4:6; Jos 1:5-9; 1Sa 12:11; 1Ch 14:9, 1Ch 14:10; Heb 11:32, Heb 11:34

TSK: Jdg 6:15

wherewith : Exo 3:11, Exo 4:10; Jer 1:6; Luk 1:34

my family is poor : Heb. my thousand is the meanest, Exo 18:21-25; 1Sa 9:21, 1Sa 18:23; Mic 5:2

the least : Gen 32:10; Jer 50:45; 1Co 15:9; Eph 3:8

TSK: Jdg 6:16

Jdg 6:12; Exo 3:12; Jos 1:5; Isa 41:10, Isa 41:14-16; Mat 28:20; Mar 16:20; Act 11:21

TSK: Jdg 6:17

If now : Exo 33:13, Exo 33:16

show : Jdg 6:36-40; Gen 15:8-17; Exo 4:1-9; 2Ki 20:8-11; Psa 86:17; Isa 7:11

TSK: Jdg 6:18

bring : Jdg 13:15; Gen 18:3, Gen 18:5, Gen 19:3

present : or, meat offering

TSK: Jdg 6:19

and made : Dr. Shaw observes, ""Besides a bowl of milk, and a basket of figs, raisins, or dates, which upon our arrival were presented to us, to stay our appetite, the master of the tent fetched us from his flock, according to the number of our company, a kid or a goat, a lamb or a sheep; half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and served up with cucasoe ; the rest was made kaḃab , i.e., cut to pieces and roasted, which we reserved for our breakfast or dinner next day.""May we not suppose, says Mr. Harmer, that Gideon presented some slight refreshment to the supposed prophet, according to the present Arab mode, and desired him to stay till he could provide something more substantial; that he immediately killed a kid, seethed a part of it, and when ready brought the stewed meat in a pot, with unleavened cakes of bread, which he had baked; and the other part, the kaḃab , in a basket for him to carry with him, for some after repast in his journey? Jdg 13:15-19; Gen 18:6-8

a kid : Heb. a kid of the goats

unleavened cakes : Lev 2:4

TSK: Jdg 6:20

lay them : Jdg 13:19

pour out : 1Ki 18:33, 1Ki 18:34

TSK: Jdg 6:21

rose up : Jdg 13:20; Lev 9:24; 1Ki 18:38; 1Ch 21:26; 2Ch 7:1

TSK: Jdg 6:22

perceived : Jdg 13:21

because : Jdg 13:22, Jdg 13:23; Gen 16:13, Gen 32:30; Exo 33:20; Deu 5:5, Deu 5:24, Deu 5:26; Isa 6:5-8; Joh 1:18, Joh 12:41

TSK: Jdg 6:23

Peace be : Gen 32:30, Gen 43:23; Psa 85:8; Dan 10:19; Joh 14:27, Joh 20:19, Joh 20:26; Rom 1:7

TSK: Jdg 6:24

built : Jdg 21:4; Gen 33:20; Jos 22:10, Jos 22:26-28

Jehovahshalom : that is, The Lord send peace, Gen 22:14; Exo 17:15; Jer 23:6, Jer 33:16; Eze 48:35

Ophrah : Jdg 8:32

TSK: Jdg 6:25

Take thy father’ s : Gen 35:2; Job 22:23; Psa 101:2

even : or, and, throw, 1Ki 18:21; Mat 6:24; 2Co 6:15-17

thy father : Mat 10:37; Act 4:19, Act 5:29

cut down : Jdg 3:7; Exo 34:13; Deu 7:5

TSK: Jdg 6:26

build : 2Sa 24:18

rock : Heb. strong place

the ordered place : or, an orderly manner, 1Co 14:33, 1Co 14:40

TSK: Jdg 6:27

and did : Deu 4:1; Mat 16:24; Joh 2:5, Joh 15:14; Gal 1:16; 1Th 2:4

he did it : Psa 112:5; Joh 3:2

TSK: Jdg 6:30

Bring : Jer 26:11, Jer 50:38; Joh 16:2; Act 26:9; Phi 3:6

TSK: Jdg 6:31

Will ye plead : The words are very emphatic: ""Will ye plead in earnest (tereevoon ) for Baal? Will ye really save (tosheeoon ) him? If he be God (Elohim ,) let him contend for himself, seeing his altar is thrown down.""Exo 23:2; Num 14:6; Eph 5:11

let him be : Deu 13:5-18, Deu 17:2-7; 1Ki 18:40

if he be : 1Ki 18:27, 1Ki 18:29; Psa 115:4-7; Isa 41:23, Isa 46:1, Isa 46:7; Jer 10:5, Jer 10:11; 1Co 8:4

TSK: Jdg 6:32

Jerubbaal : that is, Let Baal plead, 1Sa 12:11; 2Sa 11:21, Jerubbesheth, that is, Let the shameful thing plead, Jer 11:13; Hos 9:10

TSK: Jdg 6:33

Then all : Psa 3:1, Psa 27:2, Psa 27:3, Psa 118:10-12; Isa 8:9, Isa 8:10; Rom 8:35-39

children : Jdg 6:3, Jdg 8:10, Jdg 8:11; 1Ch 5:19; Job 1:3

went over : Jdg 7:24; Jos 3:16

the valley : Jos 17:16, Jos 19:18; 1Ki 18:45, 1Ki 21:1

TSK: Jdg 6:34

the Spirit : Jdg 3:10, Jdg 13:25, Jdg 14:19, Jdg 15:14; 1Sa 10:6, 1Sa 11:6, 1Sa 16:14; 1Ch 12:18; 2Ch 24:20; Psa 51:11; 1Co 12:8-11

came upon : Heb. clothed, Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27

blew : Jdg 3:27; Num 10:3

Abiezer : Jdg 6:11, Jdg 8:2; Jos 17:2

was gathered : Heb. was called

TSK: Jdg 6:35

messengers : 2Ch 30:6-12

TSK: Jdg 6:36

If thou wilt : Jdg 6:14, Jdg 6:17-20; Exo 4:1-9; 2Ki 20:9; Psa 103:13, Psa 103:14; Mat 16:1

TSK: Jdg 6:37

Behold : Deu 32:2; Psa 72:6; Hos 6:3, Hos 6:4, Hos 14:5

only : Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20; Mat 10:5, Mat 10:6, Mat 15:24

TSK: Jdg 6:38

a bowl : Isa 35:7

TSK: Jdg 6:39

Let not thine : Gen 18:32

dry : Psa 107:33-35; Isa 35:6, Isa 35:7, Isa 43:19, Isa 43:20, Isa 50:2; Mat 8:12, Mat 21:43; Act 13:46, Act 22:21, Act 28:28; Rom 11:12-22

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Jdg 6:1

Midian - See Gen 25:2 note. They were remarkable not only for the vast number of their cattle Jdg 6:5; Num 31:32-39, but also for their great wealth in gold and other metal ornaments, showing their connection with a gold country. (Compare Num 31:22, Num 31:50-54, with Jdg 8:24 :26.) At this time they were allies of the Amalekites and of the Arabian tribes called collectively "the children of the East"Jdg 6:3. They seem to have extended their settlements to the east of Jordan, and to have belonged to the larger section of Arabs called Ishmaelites Jdg 8:24.

Barnes: Jdg 6:2

The word rendered "dens"is only found in this passage. It is best explained of ravines hollowed out by torrents, which the Israelites made into hiding-places.

Barnes: Jdg 6:4

Gaza indicates the extreme point south to which they spread their devastations, crossing the Jordan near Bethshan (Scythopolls), and entering by the valley of Jezreel, and sweeping along the whole of the maritime plain or Shephelah.

Barnes: Jdg 6:5

Grasshoppers - Rather locusts (compare Exo 10:4-6, Exo 10:14-15; Joel 1; 2; Psa 78:46)

Barnes: Jdg 6:8

A prophet - His name is not given. (Compare 1 Kings 13.) This message is somewhat similar to that of the Angel, Jdg 2:1-3. The reference to Exo 20:2 is plain, and supposes the people to whom the prophet addresses these words to be familiar with the facts recorded in that text.

Barnes: Jdg 6:10

A similar use of the name Amorite, instead of the more usual name Canaanite, occurs in Jos 24:15, Jos 24:18. Perhaps a special reason may be found for the use of Amorite, if the prophet was addressing those who dwelt in the mountains, where the Amorites chiefly dwelt. The idolatries of the Amorites seem, too, to have been preeminently abominable (see 2Ki 21:11; 1Ki 21:26). It should be observed that the prophet’ s language, as it traces the misery of Israel to their sins, so also intimates the necessity of repentance and of breaking off their sins - especially the sin of idolatry - as preliminary to any deliverance. In exact accordance with this view, Gideon commences his work by throwing down the altar of Baal, and building up the altar of Yahweh Jdg 6:24-25.

Barnes: Jdg 6:11

An oak - " The oak,"indicating it as a well-known tree, still standing in the writer’ s days.

There was another Ophrah in Benjamin Jos 18:23. This Ophrah was in Manasseh, and was the village of Joash, the head, apparently, of the family of Abiezer, which was one of the families of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh Num 26:30.

Barnes: Jdg 6:12

Thou mighty man of valor - Known to God to be such, though as yet not known to be such either by himself or his countrymen (compare Luk 1:28, Luk 1:30).

Barnes: Jdg 6:13

The extreme bitterness of the national sufferings under the Midianite occupation breaks out in Gideon’ s language. The Angel’ s words, suitable to times of prosperity, seemed to be a mockery, when it was evident the Lord was not with them. (Compare Deu 31:17.)

Barnes: Jdg 6:14

The Lord looked upon him - That gracious look conferred immediate strength (compare Eph 6:10; 2Co 12:9; Joh 20:22; Act 3:6) The change of phrase from "the angel of the Lord"to "the Lord"is remarkable. When messages are delivered by the Angel of the Lord, the form of the message is as if God Himself were speaking (compare Jdg 2:1).

The sending implied a valid commission and sufficient powers. Compare Exo 3:10; Isa 44:26; Eze 2:3; Zec 2:11; Mal 3:1; Luk 10:3; Joh 20:21; and the term APOSTLE, as applied to our Lord Heb 3:1 and to the Twelve.

Barnes: Jdg 6:15

Gideon now perceived that the Lord was speaking to him by His angel. He saw, however, no qualifications in himself, or in his family or tribe, for the office of saviour to his people. He therefore desires some assurance that the message he had just received was indeed from God, and not a mere dream or delusion. He asks as a sign Jdg 6:18 that his mysterious visitor should tarry under the oak until he should return to Him with his gifts and offerings.

Barnes: Jdg 6:17

A sign - If the Angel ate of Gideon’ s present it would be a conclusive proof of the reality of the vision. (Compare Joh 21:9-13; Luk 24:37-43; Act 10:41.) It would also be a token of God’ s goodwill to Gideon. Compare Gen 18:3.

Barnes: Jdg 6:18

My present - My Minchah: the word used regularly, though not exclusively, for the meat and drink offering (Lev 2:1 note). Its double sense of an offering to God, and of a gift to man, suits the doubt in Gideon’ s mind as to who his visitor might be.

Barnes: Jdg 6:19

Unleavened cakes - As being much more quickly baked (compare Gen 19:3) (and as connected with the meat offering). An ephah, containing 3 measures, was the quantity of flour commonly used at one baking Gen 18:6; Exo 16:16.

Presented it - A word especially, though not exclusively, proper for offerings to God. See Amo 5:25, where the same word is rendered offered.

Barnes: Jdg 6:20

Pour out the broth - Libations were a very ancient form of offering (compare Gen 35:14). The drink offerings of wine under the Levitical law were poured upon the altar Exo 30:9. The pouring of the broth upon the rock was evidently of the nature of a libation. It might also, like the water poured by Elijah upon his sacrifice, make the miracle of the fire that consumed the sacrifice more apparent. (Compare 1Ki 18:33.)

Barnes: Jdg 6:22

Alas, O Lord GOD! - Compare Jos 7:7. "because I have seen an angel of the Lord"Compare the marginal references, in which the notion that it was death for mortal man to see God appears clearly. The same notion prevailed among the pagan.

Barnes: Jdg 6:24

Gideon’ s naming the altar which he built, in commemoration of the words of peace spoken by the Angel, is very similar to what we read of Abraham Gen 22:14, and of Moses (Exo 17:15, when he named the altar Jehovah-nissi).

Barnes: Jdg 6:25

Even - Rather, as in the margin, and. Two bullocks are spoken of. The labor of both would be required for pulling down and removing the altar of Baal, and for bringing the materials for building the altar of Yahweh.

The grove by it - Rather, "the idol upon it,"the Asherah, the wooden image of Astarte Jdg 3:7.

Barnes: Jdg 6:26

In the ordered place - See the margin. "Build an altar, etc., with the materials,""the wood laid in order"(compare Gen 22:9), that, namely, which he would find ready to hand in the altar of Baal which he was to throw down.

The wood of the grove - " The (blocks of) wood of the idol,"i. e. the image of Astarte. The command from God Himself to build an altar, and sacrifice upon it, is analogous to Elijah’ s sacrifice 1 Kings 18, and was doubtless caused by the extraordinary circumstance of the defection of the Israelites from the worship of the true God. Possibly, too, the Midianite invasion had made the worship at Shiloh impossible at this time.

Barnes: Jdg 6:27

The mention of the "men of the city"by the side of Gideon’ s "father’ s household"suggests the probability of their being a remnant of the Canaanite population, and the special patrons of Baal-worship.

Barnes: Jdg 6:31

From the boldness of Joash in defending his son, it is likely that the majority of the Abi-ezrites sided with him against "the men of the city,"and already felt drawn toward Gideon as their national and religious leader Jdg 6:34. Joash appears as the chief magistrate of Ophrah.

Will ye plead ...? will ye save? - The emphasis is upon ye, as much as to say, What business is it of yours?

Barnes: Jdg 6:32

He called him - i. e. "He was called"Jerubbaal, as being the person against whom it was popularly said that Baal might strive. See margin.

Barnes: Jdg 6:33

A fresh invasion, and the last, of Midianites Amalekites, and Arabs (see Jdg 6:3). But the Israelites, instead of hiding in dens and caves, and tamely leaving all their substance as pIunder to the invaders, now rally around their leader.

Barnes: Jdg 6:34

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon - See the margin. The word contains a striking thought. It is different from that used in the case of Othniel Jdg 3:10, Jephthah Jdg 11:29, and Samson Jdg 13:25; Jdg 14:6, Jdg 14:19.

Barnes: Jdg 6:35

His own tribe, Manasseh, and the three northern tribes of Asher, Zebulon, and Naphtali hastened to join him. Issachar was probably unable to do so, because the Midianites were encamped in the heart of their country. Asher no longer "abode in his breaches,"as in the time of Jabin Jdg 6:17, perhaps ashamed of their former backwardness, and stung by the rebuke of Deborah; perhaps, too, from feeling the Midianite yoke much more galling than that of Jabin.

Barnes: Jdg 6:36

The caution of Gideon, desirous of being assured that he really had a promise from God, does not imply doubts as to God’ s faithfulness or power to fulfill His promise. Of such doubts there is not a trace in Gideon’ s character. He is a worthy example of faith Heb 11:32.

Barnes: Jdg 6:37

The threshing floors were and still are under the open air, and usually circular. The second sign Jdg 6:40, would be more convincing than the former, because it is the nature of fleeces to attract and retain moisture.

Poole: Jdg 6:2

In which they might secure their persons and provisions from the hands of the Midianites.

Poole: Jdg 6:3

The children of the east i.e. the Arabians, who are commonly called the children of the east , as Gen 29:1 Jud 8:10,11 Job 1:3 Eze 25:4 . Not all the Arabians, for in that were many and divers people; but in the eastern part of Arabia.

Poole: Jdg 6:4

Till thou come unto Gaza i.e. from the east, on which side they entered, to the west, where Gaza was near the sea; so they destroyed the whole land.

Poole: Jdg 6:5

Without number i.e. so many that it was not easy to number them. It is an hyperbole .

Poole: Jdg 6:10

Fear not i.e. do not serve or worship them.

Poole: Jdg 6:11

In Ophrah to wit, in Manasseh; for there was another Ophrah in Benjamin, Jos 18:23 . The Abi-ezrite ; of the posterity of Abi-ezer; of whom see Jos 17:2 1Ch 7:18 . See Jud 8:27,32 .

Threshed wheat not with oxen, as the manner was, Deu 25:4 ; but with a staff, to prevent discovery.

By the wine-press in the place where the wine-press stood, not in the common floor.

Poole: Jdg 6:12

i.e. Will assist thee against thine and mine enemies.

Thou mighty man of valour to whom I have given strength and courage for this end.

Poole: Jdg 6:14

The Lord looked upon him with a settled and pleasant countenance, as a testimony of his favour to him, and of his readiness to help him.

Go in this thy might or, go now , or at this time, in thy might ; the strength which thou hast already received, and dost now further receive from me, is sufficient with my help.

Have not I sent thee? I do hereby give thee command and commission for this work, and therefore am obliged in honour to assist thee in it.

Poole: Jdg 6:15

My family Heb. my thousand ; for the tribes were distributed into several thousands, whereof each thousand had his peculiar governor.

Poor i.e. weak and contemptible.

I am the least either for age, or for wisdom, and fitness for so great a work.

Poole: Jdg 6:16

As easily as if they were all but one man; or, thou shalt destroy them to a man, as he did, Jud 8 .

Poole: Jdg 6:17

That it is thou , to wit, an angel or messenger sent from God, that appears to me, and discourseth with me; and not a fancy or delusion; that thou art in truth what thou seemest and pretendest to be, Jud 7:12 . Or,

a sign of that which thou talkest with me i.e. that thou wilt by me smite the Midianites.

Poole: Jdg 6:18

My present not a sacrifice, because neither was Gideon a priest, nor was this the place of sacrifice, nor was any altar here, nor was there any such sacrifice as here follows appointed by God; but a repast, or some food for the angel, which he thought to be a man, as appears by Jud 6:22 . Compare Jud 13:15 Gen 18:5 .

Set it before thee that thou mayst eat and refresh thyself.

Poole: Jdg 6:19

Of an ephah of flour to wit, out of the choicest part of a whole ephah; as also he brought to him the best part of a kid dressed; for a whole ephah and a whole kid had been very superfluous, and improper to provide for and set before one man.

Poole: Jdg 6:21

By these things he showed himself to be no man that needed such provisions, but a true angel of God, or the Son of God; and by this instance of his omnipotency, gave the assurance that he both could and would consume the Midianites.

Poole: Jdg 6:22

I am an undone man; I must die, and that speedily; for that he feared, Jud 6:23 , according to the common opinion in that case; of which see Gen 16:13 32:30 Exo 33:20 Deu 5:25,26 .

For because or, for therefore , &c., i.e. therefore God hath showed me this sight as a presage of my death.

Poole: Jdg 6:23

The Lord spake by inward suggestion, rather than in a visible apparition.

Peace be unto thee thou shalt receive no hurt by this vision, as thou fearest; but only peace , i. e. all the blessings needful for thy own happiness, and for the present work; for this is a very comprehensive phrase among the Hebrews.

Poole: Jdg 6:24

There to wit, on the top of the rock, as is evident from Jud 6:20 , and especially from Jud 6:26 , where that which is here expressed only in general, and by anticipation, is more particularly described, according to the usage of the Scripture.

Jehovah-shalom , i.e. the Lord’ s peace ; the sign or witness of God’ s speaking peace to me, and to his people; or the place where he spake peace to me, when I expected nothing but destruction.

Poole: Jdg 6:25

Even the second bullock: thus there was but one bullock, which was young, to wit, comparatively, but not simply, for it was seven years old; and of such this Hebrew word is used, Job 21:10 ; for these creatures are fruitful above seven years. Or thus,

thy father’ s young bullock, and the second bullock : so there were two bullocks. But because there is but one of them mentioned both in the next verse, and in the execution of this command, Jud 6:28 , it is probable it was but one; and the Hebrew particle vau , and, is put exegetically for even, or, to wit, as is very usual. And this he calls his father’ s young bullock , both because his father was the owner of it, and because his father kept and fed it for a sacrifice to Baal. But because it is likely his father kept divers of these cattle of differing ages and statures for that use, either at his own or at the people’ s charge, therefore he adds, by way of limitation, that he should not take the eldest and the greatest, but the second, to wit, in age, or stature, or goodliness, or in the order of sacrifice, that which was to have been sacrificed to Baal in the second place. And this he singled out because of its age; for being

seven years old it began with the Midianitish calamity, and being now to be sacrificed, did fitly signify, that the period of that misery was now come.

That thy father hath which thy father built in his own ground, though for the common use of the whole city, Jud 6:28-30 .

The grove that is by it planted by the altar for idolatrous or impure uses, as the manner of idolaters was. See Jud 3:7 . This action might seem injurious to his father’ s rights and authority; but God’ s command was sufficient warrant, and Gideon was now called to be the supreme magistrate, whereby he was made his father’ s superior, and was empowered, and authorized, and enjoined to root out all idolatry and superstition, and the instruments thereof.

Poole: Jdg 6:26

Upon the top of this rock of which Jud 6:20,21 . Heb. of this strong hold ; for in that calamitous time the Israelites retreated to such rocks, and hid and fortified themselves in them.

In the ordered place i.e. in a plain and smooth part of the rock, where an altar may be conveniently built. Or,

in order i.e. in such manner as I have appointed; for God had given rules about the building of altars.

Offer a burnt-sacrifice: Gideon was no priest, nor was this the appointed place of sacrifice; but God can dispense with his own institutions, though we may not; and his call gave Gideon sufficient authority.

Poole: Jdg 6:27

Doubtless he had acquainted the ten men with his design, and the assurance of success in it, whereby they were easily induced to assist him, if not sincerely, yet for the expectation of advantage to themselves by it.

Because he feared not so much lest he should suffer for it, for he knew very well the doing it by night with so many hands could not hinder the discovery, and consequently the punishment of it; but lest he should be prevented from doing it.

Poole: Jdg 6:28

Not upon Baal’ s altar, for which it was designed; but upon an altar erected in contempt of Baal.

Poole: Jdg 6:29

Which they might easily conjecture, partly by his known aversion from the worship of Baal, and partly because no other person durst presume to do such a thing; but they might more certainly learn it from some of the persons employed in it, who through fear or favour might inform them.

Poole: Jdg 6:31

Will ye plead for Baal? Why are you so zealous in pleading for that Baal, for the worship whereof you suffer such grievous calamities at this day, and from whom you have no help? It is plain that Joash had been a worshipper of Baal; either therefore he was now convinced by Gideon’ s information and action, or he makes use of this pretence to preserve his son, being indeed indifferent in matters of religion; and therefore as he did worship Baal to comply with his neighbours, so now he deserts him to rescue his son.

He that will plead for him, let him be put to death he that shall further plead for such a god as this, deserves to die for his folly and impiety. It is not probable that this was all that he said for his son’ s defence; or that he would neglect to mention the call his son had from God to it, the apparition of an angel, the promise of deliverance; but it is usual in Scripture to give only some short hints of those things which were more largely discoursed.

Whilst it is yet morning i.e. instantly, without delay; for it was now morning time, as appears from Jud 6:28 , &c.

Let him plead for himself as the God of Israel hath often done when any indignity or injury hath been done to him. But Baal hath now showed that he is neither able to help you nor himself, and therefore is not worthy to be served any longer. This courageous and resolute answer was necessary to stop the torrent of the people’ s fury; and it was drawn from him, partly by the sense of his son’ s extreme danger, and partly by the confidence he had that God would plead his son’ s cause, and use him for the rescue of his people.

Poole: Jdg 6:32

He called him i.e. Joash called Gideon so, Jud 7:1 , in remembrance of this noble exploit, and to put a brand upon Baal.

Poole: Jdg 6:33

Not that Jezreel in Judah , of which Jos 15:56 ; but another in the borders of Manasseh and Issachar, Jos 17:16 19:18 , which is not far distant from Ophrah, where Gideon dwelt, and now was.

Poole: Jdg 6:34

Came upon Gideon inspiring him with extraordinary wisdom, and courage, and zeal, to vindicate God’ s honour and his country’ s liberty. Compare 1Ch 12:18 2Ch 24:20 .

Abi-ezer , i.e. the Abi-ezrites, his kindred, And their servants, and others; who finding no harm coming to him for the destroying of Baal, but rather a blessing from God, in giving him strength and courage for so great and dangerous an attempt, changed their minds, and followed him as the person by whose hands God would deliver them.

Poole: Jdg 6:35

Throughout all Manasseh on both sides of Jordan.

Unto Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali ; because these tribes were nearest to him, and so could soonest join with him; and were nearest the enemy also, Jud 6:33 , and therefore were most sensible of the calamity, and would in all reason be most forward to rescue themselves from it.

Poole: Jdg 6:36

Gideon said this in way of humble supplication, partly for the strengthening of his own faith, and partly for the greater encouragement of his soldiers in this great and strange attempt.

Poole: Jdg 6:37

Upon all the earth beside i.e. upon all that spot of ground which adjoineth to and encompasseth the fleece.

Poole: Jdg 6:39

Which was more difficult and preternatural than the former instance, because if there be any moisture, such bodies as fleeces of wool are most likely to drink it up.

Haydock: Jdg 6:1

Altar. Protestants, "Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar." Septuagint (Alexandrian) says that he then styled it ( auto, the altar,) "the judgment-seat of Baal," Dikasterion Baal. But the Vatican copy leaves Terobaal; and this title rather belonged to Gedeon. (Haydock) ---

David, out of horror for the name of Baal, calls him Jeruboseth, 2 Kings xi. 21. "Let confusion plead," &c. For the same reason, Esbaal and Meribaal are called Isboseth and Miphiboseth in Scripture. We read that Sanconiathon consulted "Jerombaal, priest of the god Jao," concerning the antiquities of Phœnicia, which has led some to conclude that he had seen Jerobaal. The work, however, of that author is generally supposed to be a fabrication of Porphyrius, and was unknown to Josephus. It contains a multitude of fabulous accounts, intermixed with some truths, which might be taken from the Bible. Gedeon was no priest, and we may suppose little concerned about the Phœnician affairs or antiquities. (Calmet)

Haydock: Jdg 6:1

Madian. This nation had formerly been almost extirpated by Moses, Numbers xxxi. 7, &c. (Haydock) ---

But they had re-established themselves, and dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Moabites, whom they had assisted. They new made a league with Amalec, and other eastern nations, (Calmet) in order to revenge themselves upon the Israelites. (Haydock) ---

Madian was a descendant of Abraham by Cetura, Genesis xxv. 2. The shortness of the servitude, which the Israelites had to suffer from them, was compensated by its severity. (Menochius)

Haydock: Jdg 6:2

Resist is not expressed in Hebrew; neither did Israel dare to encounter the enemy. They retreated into the strongest holds, to rescue their goods and persons from the depredations of the Madianites. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:3

Amalec was formerly widely dispersed through Arabia. Some dwelt to the south of the promised land, Exodus xvii., Numbers xiii. 3., 1 Kings xv. 6., and xxxi. 1. But these inhabited the eastern countries, concerning whom Balaam spoke, Numbers xxiv. 20. The Amalecites were scattered from Hevila upon the Euphrates, as far as the Red Sea and Sur, which is near Egypt, 1 Kings xv. 7., and xxvii. 8. The other eastern nations denote those who inhabited the desert Arabia, the Moabites, Ammonites, Idumeans, Cedarenians, &c., Isaias xi. 14., Jeremias xlix. 28., and Ezechiel viii. 7.

Haydock: Jdg 6:4

Blade. Hebrew, "the increase of the earth." They waited till the corn was almost ripe, and what they could not carry off they destroyed. (Calmet) ---

It seems they had allowed Gedeon time to gather in some corn, (ver. 11.) and other Israelites would seize their opportunity, and perhaps cut the corn before it was perfectly ripe, which the Vulgate may insinuate by mentioning the blade. ---

Gaza. They ravaged the whole country from east to west. (Haydock) ---

This method of warfare is, in effect, more cruel than any other. ---

Asses. They left no cattle, nor animals that they could take, wherewith the Isrealites might cultivate the earth. (Calmet) ---

In the extremity of famine, the flesh of asses would have been used to sustain life, as the text insinuates. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:5

Locusts. This comparison shews the rapacity and devastation of the enemy. Locusts in those countries often obscure the air with their numbers, and presently eat up every green thing. They proceed in regular order like a great battalion, and it is reported that they send some before to explore the country. (St. Jerome in Joel ii.; Bochart; Calmet) (Genesis x. 4.)

Haydock: Jdg 6:8

A prophet. The people no sooner repent, than God shews them mercy. (Haydock) ---

The name of this prophet is unknown. The Jews say it was Phinees; others think it was an angel in human shape: but he might be one divinely commissioned on this occasion, to make an exhortation to the people, assembled on some of the great festivals, (see chap. ii. 1.; Calmet) though he might continue to exercise his authority afterwards. (Menochius) ---

St. Augustine (q. 31,) thinks that the angel (ver. 11,) is here called a prophet, because he appeared in human form. (Worthington)

Haydock: Jdg 6:10

Fear not. Idols can do you no hurt, if you continue faithful to me. (Haydock) ---

Shew them no respect or worship. The fear of Isaac means the God (Calmet) whom Isaac worshipped, Genesis xxxi. 42. Idolatry owed its rise to a groundless fear: primos in orbe deos fecit timor. (Lucretius) The pagans offered sacrifice to Paventia, to fear and paleness, &c., that they might be secure from them. (Lactantius) (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:11

Angel; Michael. (Menochius) ---

Some think it was the prophet who had addressed the people, or Phinees, according to the Rabbins. See St. Augustine, q. 31. Others believe it was the Son of God, who takes the name of Jehovah. (Broughton and other Protestants) ---

But the most natural opinion is, that a real angel was sent, in the name of God, like that which appeared to Moses, and assumed the incommunicable name, as the ambassador of God. Gedeon took him for a man, and presented him a noble feast, without designing to offer sacrifice to him. Maimonides and Grotius seem to suppose that all this passed in a dream; but the sequal refutes this opinion. ---

Ephra, a city of the half tribe of Manasses, on the west side of the Jordan, of which Joas was the richest citizen. He was of the family of Ezri, and a descendant of Abiezer, 1 Paralipomenon viii. 18. Hebrew might be rendered, "Joas, the Abiezerite," chap. viii. 32., and xiii. 2. ---

Madian. Not having the convenience of cleansing the wheat in the open field, Gedeon was doing it privately, with a design to carry it off, at the approach of the enemy, and to support himself and family in some cavern. Hebrew takes no notice of cleaning: "Gedeon threshed wheat, by the wine press, to hide it, or to flee," &c. He probably used a flail, or some smaller sticks, such as were employed to beat out olives, Isaias xxviii. 27., and Ruth ii. 17. (Calmet) ---

The wheat harvest was about Pentecost, that of barley was at Easter. It seems the Madianites had been later than usual this year, in making their incursions, ver. 33. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:12

Is. We should naturally translate, be with thee, if the answer of Gedeon did not shew (Calmet) that it is to be taken as an assertion, that the Lord was already reconciled to Israel, and had made choice of this valiant man to rescue his people from slavery, though he was not of the first nobility, ver. 15.

Haydock: Jdg 6:13

My lord. This he says out of respect, supposing that he was addressing a prophet, (Haydock) or some virtuous person, of whom he desires to know what reasons could be given for the assurance of divine favour, which he held out. He speaks not out of distrust. (Menochius)

Haydock: Jdg 6:14

Lord, Jehova. (Haydock) ---

The Chaldean and Septuagint have, "the angel of the Lord," as the best interpreters understand it. (Calmet) ---

Upon him, with benevolence and an air of authority, that he might know that he was speaking to some one more than man. (Haydock) ---

Strength, with which I have endued thee. (Menochius) ---

Though Gedeon was naturally brave, he was no more disposed to attack the Madianites than the rest of his dispirited countrymen; and, even after he was strengthened from above, he was so conscious of his own inability to effect so great a deliverance, that he stood in need of the most convincing miracles, to make him act as the judge of Israel. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:15

The meanest in Manasses, &c. Mark how the Lord chooses the humble (who are mean and little in their own eyes) for the greatest enterprises. (Challoner) ---

Hebrew and Septuagint literally, "My millenary is poor, or lowly," &c. This term means a great family, from which many others spring, or a city inhabited by such. Bethlehem was of this description in Juda, Micheas v. 2. Ephra and the family of Abiezer were not the first in Manasses. Grotius observes, that Gedeon and Cincinnatus were called to the highest offices, when they least expected it.

Haydock: Jdg 6:17

Thou, the Lord, or his angel, capable of fulfilling these great promises; or be pleased, by some sign, to manifest thyself to me. (Calmet) ---

He began to perceive that he was talking with some person of authority: (Haydock) yet still he did not suspect that it was a spirit, otherwise he would not have offered food, nor would he have been so such surprised and afraid, only when the angel disappeared so suddenly, ver. 22.

Haydock: Jdg 6:18

A sacrifice, or some provisions to present unto thee. Hebrew mincha, is taken for a present, particularly of flour and wine. It is used to denote those presents which were made by Jacob to Esau, and Joseph, and by Aod to the king of Moab, chap. iii. 15., and Genesis xliii. 14. (Calmet) ---

To sacrifice, often means to kill things for a feast, Matthew xxii. 4. What Gedeon brought, was afterwards turned into a sacrifice by the angel, ver. 21. (Menochius) ---

Gedeon was not a priest, nor was there any altar prepared for a sacrifice. If Gedeon had intended to offer one, he would not have boiled nor baked the food, which he presented before his guest. (Calmet)

Haydock: Jdg 6:19

Measure. Hebrew, "epha," containing ten gomors, each of which was sufficient for the daily maintenance of a man; so that Gedeon brought as much as would have sufficed for ten men. Abraham presented no more before the three angels, Genesis xviiii. 6. The magnificence of the ancients consisted rather in producing great abundance, than in multiplying dishes. ---

Broth. Syriac and Arabic translate, "a good (old) wine."

Haydock: Jdg 6:20

Thereon. Thus he would shew Gedeon that he had no need of food. He would exercise his obedience, and manifest a greater miracle, as the flesh and bread would be less apt to take fire, when the angel touched them, even though some might imagine that he caused a spark to come from the rock. For the like purpose, Elias ordered thrice four buckets of water to be poured on the bullock, which fire from heaven would miraculously consume, 3 Kings xviii. 34. (Haydock) ---

This broth might serve to anoint the altar, (Exodus xl. 10.; Menochius) or answer instead of the usual libations. (A. Montan.)

Haydock: Jdg 6:22

Alas. He makes this exclamation, concluding that he should soon die, Exodus xxxiii. 20. Callimachus says that "it was a law of Saturn, that the man who saw an immortal, unless the god himself chose to shew him that favour, should pay dearly for it." (Grotius) ---

This opinion was groundless; and it is wonderful that it should prevail among the Israelites, (Haydock) since so many had seen angels without receiving any harm. (Menochius)

Haydock: Jdg 6:23

Said to him, as he was ascending into heaven, (Menochius) or the following night. (Calmet) ---

It seems that Gedeon heard the angel's proclamation of peace, and shewed his gratitude by forming the rock, or stone, into a kind of rough altar, which he entitled Yehova shalom, "God's peace," (Haydock) for doing which he received an order, ver. 26. (Menochius) ---

Others erect altars, in various places; but they must be authorized by God. (Calmet) ---

Ezri. Protestants, "unto this day it is yet in Ophra, of the Abiezrites." Septuagint is ambiguous. "He, or it, being yet in Ephra," &c. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:25

And another, or "the second." Only one seems to have been sacrificed; (ver. 28.; Cajetan) though others think that the second bullock was designed for a peace-offering. (Bonfrere) Some infer that it had been fattened for Baal. Septuagint observe, that the first bullock or "calf was fattened:" but it does not appear for what purpose. (Calmet) ---

Seven years, in memory of the duration of the slavery. (Menochius) ---

Before that age, bulls were not deemed so fit for yoking. Hesiod would have them to be nine years old. ---

Altar. We may render the Hebrew, "Cut down the idol which is upon the altar; or, Break in pieces the ashera, " &c. This is the title of the idol of the grove, Astare or Asteroth. (Syriac and Arabic) The Septuagint is favourable to this explanation. (Calmet) ---

But the groves themselves were to be cut down, where an altar of God was to be erected. It seems this altar and the grove belonged to Joas, who is hence supposed to have joined in the worship of Baal. If he did formerly, his eyes were now opened, and he boldly approved of the conduct of his son, (ver. 31.; Haydock) who had probably never been infected. (Menochius)

Haydock: Jdg 6:26

Top. Hebrew, "on the to of this fortress, ( Mawz. Daniel xi. 38.; Septuagint) on the platform, (Calmet) or place appointed." (Haydock) ---

Offer. Though Gedeon was not a priest, he was authorized to offer sacrifice. (Menochius) ---

God can dispense with his own laws. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:27

House, his relations and fellow-citizens, (Calmet) who were addicted to idolatry. Prudence dictated that he should do this privately, lest he might be prevented by them. They would soon perceive the weakness of their idols. Yet some of the servants, or others who had been on the watch, disclosed to the idolaters that Gedeon had done the daring deed, unless perhaps they accused him on suspicion, as his enmity to that worship could not be concealed. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:30

Bring. Parents took cognizance of the evil actions done in their family. The citizens require Joas to punish his son, or to deliver him up to them. On the same principle, the Israelites insisted that the tribes of Benjamin should not neglect to punish the citizens of Gabaa; and the Philistines demand Samson, chap. xv. 12., and xx. 13. Cato advised that Cæsar should be given up to the Germans, whom he had unjustly invaded; and the Gauls would not be satisfied, unless the Fabii should be abandoned unto them. (Grotius, Jur. ii. 21, 4.[24?]) (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:31

His, Baal's, or rather my son's adversary; (Calmet) let him die before this morning be spent, as the Hebrew insinuates. Joas represents to the men of the city, who looked upon him with a degree of respect, (Haydock) as the first in power and riches among them, (Calmet) how ill it became the Israelites to vindicate an idol. If Baal were truly so powerful, as they seemed to imagine, (Haydock) and so eager to revenge himself, he could never be restrained from bringing his adversary to condign punishment. "Let the gods punish those who injure them," said Tacitus, Ann. i. "They would take care that their sacred things were not abused." (Livy x.) This argumentation would suit the idolaters, who supposed that their gods were animated with the same sentiments and eagerness for revenge as themselves. But the true God, who can feel no such impressions, bears for a long time with the impiety of men, though he requires that those who are in power should punish notorious offenders. The magistrate is the instrument of God's justice, and must stop, as much as possible, the growth of vice and irreligion. (Calmet) ---

It seems the citizens of Ephra acquiesced to the reason or authority of Joas, and even enlisted under the banners of Gedeon. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:33

Jezrael. The crossed the Jordan, probably at Bethsan, expecting to find rich booty in this most fertile vale, where it is reported that grass, or the plants, grow to such a size, that a man on horseback can scarcely be seen! They met with a defeat near Endor and Mount Thabor, chap. viii. 18., and Psalm lxxxii. 11. (Calmet)

Haydock: Jdg 6:34

Him. He first calls his relations, and then the neighbouring tribes, to march against the enemy. He had before declared God's orders, and was recognized as judge and deliverer of Israel; so that no one objects to his exercising this act of sovereignty.

Haydock: Jdg 6:35

Him. Hebrew, "them." (Menochius) ---

The people readily obey the summons, though many of them had not got the better of their fears, chap. vii. 3. (Haydock)

Haydock: Jdg 6:38

So. Gedeon besought the Lord to confirm his mission, in order to raise the drooping spirits of his soldiers. If he had not believed that he was chosen for the purpose of rescuing Israel, he would never have exposed himself, by destroying the idol and grove of Baal, and by calling the people to arms. Yet he might fear at present, lest he might be destitute of some of the necessary qualifications, and might entertain some apprehensions, lest the promises of God might by only conditional. The readiness with which God grants his requests, shews that he was inspired to act as he did, and his faith is greatly commended, Hebrews xi. 32. Other great saints have asked for a miraculous confirmation of what was promised, Exodus iv. 1., Josue v. 13., and Luke i. 34. (Calmet) ---

Vessels. Hebrew sephel, Septuagint lecane, "a dish." Syriac, "a basin." The dew in Chanaan is very copious, resembling a shower of rain, insomuch that the roads are rendered extremely slippery. (Roger. i. 2.) (Calmet)

Haydock: Jdg 6:40

Ground. In these two miracles the Fathers observe, that the fleece represented the Jewish nation, favoured with so many graces, while the rest of the world was dry and barren; and that, when the latter was watered with dew from heaven, by the coming of Jesus Christ, the Synagogue was deprived of those favours. (Origen, hom. viii.; Theodoret, q. 14.; St. Jerome, ad Paulin.; St. Augustine; &c.) ---

In the first miracle we may also contemplate, the incarnation of our Saviour in the womb of the most pure Virgin, Psalm lxxi. 6. (St. Bernard, serm.; St. Jerome, epist. Paul.) (Calmet)

Gill: Jdg 6:1

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... After the death of Deborah and Barak, during whose life they kept to the pure worship of God, and who, perhaps, lived pretty near the close of the forty years' rest, or of the twenty years from their victory over Jabin; but they dying, the children of Israel fell into idolatry, for that that was the evil they did appears from Jdg 6:10, even worshipping the gods of the Amorites:

and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years: this was not the Midian where Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, lived, which lay more southward, but that which joined to Moab, and was more eastward. This people had been destroyed by the Israelites in the times of Moses, in their way to the land of Canaan, Num 31:1 wherefore they might bear them a grudge, and now took the opportunity to revenge themselves on them, God permitting them so to do for their sins; and though the destruction of this people by Israel was very general, yet as some of them might make their escape, and afterwards return to their own land, and this being about two hundred years ago, might, with others joining them, repeople their country by this time, and become strong and powerful.

Gill: Jdg 6:2

And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel,.... They were too strong for them, and overcame them, and brought them into subjection to them, and no wonder, when the Lord delivered them into their hand:

and because of the Midianites; because of their usage of them, their manner of coming upon them yearly, and pillaging and plundering their substance, as after related:

the children of Israel made them dens which are in the mountains; the word for "dens" has the signification of light in it, and are so called either by an antiphrasis, because they were dark, or, as Kimchi thinks, because they had a window at the top of them, which let in the light ^a but Ben Gersom conjectures they were torches, which gave a great light, and when they that held them saw from the mountains the Midianites, by these torches they made a signal to the Israelites to take care and hide themselves and their substance:

and caves, and strong holds; the caves were for the poorer sort, and the strong holds for the richer to retire to with their goods; though, according to Jarchi, the latter were no other than fences they made in woods, by cutting down trees, and setting them round about them, perhaps much the same as the thickets, 1Sa 13:6.

Gill: Jdg 6:3

And so it was, when Israel had sown,.... Their land, and it was grown up, and near being ripe, or quite; for the Midianites gave them no disturbance in the winter, and during seedtime, when they came out of their lurking holes, and manured their land, and sowed it:

that the Midianites came up; into the land of Canaan, from the other side Jordan, where their country lay, and which it seems lay lower than the land of Israel:

and the Amalekites, and the children of the east: the former were implacable enemies of Israel, and on every occasion would join other nations in oppressing them; and the children of the east were Arabians, as Josephus ^b expressly affirms:

even they came up against them; all these three sorts of people in a confederacy.

Gill: Jdg 6:4

And they encamped against them,.... Formed a camp, from whence they sent out parties to plunder the people; or"they were fixing their tents among them,''as the Vulgate Latin version; and so the Targum,"they dwelt by them,''or fixed their habitations by them; for they seem not to have come as a regular army, but as a sort of banditti to pillage, and plunder, and destroy the fruits of the earth; and the Midianites and Arabians dwelt in tents chiefly:

and destroyed the increase of the earth; the corn and grass before they were well ripe, and fit to cut down; this they did, and gave it to their cattle, and the rest they carried off:

till thou come unto Gaza; a principality of the Philistines, which lay in the western part of Canaan, on the shore of the Mediterranean sea; so that as these people came out of the east, and entered the eastern part, they went through the whole land from east to west, cutting down all the fruits of the earth for forage for their cattle:

and left no sustenance for Israel; nothing to support life with, cutting down their corn and their grass, their vines and olives, so that they had nothing to live upon:

neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass; not anything for those creatures to live upon, nor did not leave any of them, but carried them all away.

Gill: Jdg 6:5

For they came up with their cattle, and their tents,.... Brought their flocks and their herds with them, to eat up the increase of the earth, and their tents, which they pitched and removed from place to place, for the convenience of feeding their cattle, and while they cut down the fruit of the earth everywhere, which serves to confirm the sense of the Targum and Vulgate Latin version of Jdg 6:5.

and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; or "as locusts" ^c, they were like them for their number, and for devouring all they came to:

and their camels were without number; which they brought with them, to load and carry off their plunder they could not eat. Midian was a place famous for camels and dromedaries, Isa 60:6 and so Arabia, the people of which joined the Midianites in this expedition; of whom Leo Africanus says ^d, that they reckon of their riches and possessions by their camels; wherefore if anyone speaks of the riches of such a prince or nobleman, he says that he is possessed of so many camels, and not of so many thousands of pieces of gold, see Job 1:3.

and they entered into the city to destroy it; this was their sole view. In suchlike manner as this did Alyattes king of the Lydians make war with the Milesinns, as Herodotus ^e relates; which passage Grotius has quoted at large.

Gill: Jdg 6:6

And Israel was greatly impoverished, because of the Midianites,.... Were reduced very low, brought into famishing circumstances through the Midianites thus destroying the fruits of the earth year after year:

and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord; which they should have done at first, instead of going into dens and caves; however, better late than not at all; they cried, not to the idols they had served, being sensible they could not help them, though so as to worship them; but to Jehovah the God of the whole earth, and who was in a special sense their God, though they had forsaken him.

Gill: Jdg 6:7

And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because of the Midianites. Because of their oppressions and ill usage of them, and not because of their sins, which had brought those evils on them, of which, at present, they seemed not to be sensible; and yet such was the goodness and compassion of God to them, that having a mind to deliver them, he immediately, on their crying to him, sends them a messenger to bring them to a sense of their sins, and prepare them for the deliverance he designed to work for them, as follows.

Gill: Jdg 6:8

And the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel,.... "A man, a prophet" ^f, as in the Hebrew text, not an angel, but a man; and this not Phinehas, as say some Jewish writers ^g; for it is not probable he should live so long as more than two hundred years; and had he been living, it is very much he should not have been heard of in the times of the preceding judges, and that he was not made use of before now to reprove the people for their sins; but who the prophet was we have no account now nor hereafter, here or elsewhere. Abarbinel supposes he was raised up for a short time:

which said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel; he came in the name of the Lord, and using the form and manner of speech the prophets of Israel did, putting them in mind of the true God they had forgot, and who yet was their Lord and God:

I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; reminding them of the benefits they received from God, and the obligations they lay under to serve him, who, when they were bond slaves in Egypt, he appeared for them, and brought them out of their miserable condition.

Gill: Jdg 6:9

And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,.... Even after they were brought out of Egypt, when the Egyptians pursued after them, and overtook them at the Red sea; where they were in the utmost distress, and the Lord wrought salvation for them, gave them a passage through it, and destroyed the Egyptians in it:

and out of the hand of all that oppressed you: the Amalekites who made war with them at Rephidim, Sihon, and Og, kings of the Amorites, who came out to fight with them, and oppose their passage through their land into Canaan, and the kings of the Canaanites also, who combined against them:

and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land: not only the land of Sihon and Og, but the whole land of Canaan, out of which more properly the inhabitants of it may be said to be driven.

Gill: Jdg 6:10

And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, The covenant God of them and their fathers, and they ought not to have owned and acknowledged any other besides him:

fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; meaning not a fear of being hurt by them, but such a fear and reverence of them as to worship them, which was only to be given to the Lord. The Amorites are here put for all the Canaanites, they being a principal people among them:

but ye have not obeyed my voice; to cleave to him, fear and worship him; they had been guilty of idolatry, and this is the sin the prophet was sent to reprove them for, and bring them to a sense of.

Gill: Jdg 6:11

And there came an angel of the Lord,.... This was not the prophet before mentioned, as Ben Gersom thinks, but an angel of God, as expressed, and not a created one, but the Angel of Jehovah's presence, the Word and Son of God, and who is expressly called Jehovah himself, Jdg 6:14.

and sat under an oak; or stayed there a while, as Kimchi interprets it, seeing, according to his observation, angels are not said to sit, but stand:

which was in Ophrah, that pertaineth to Joash the Abiezrite; which shows that this Ophrah is different from a city of this name in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:23 for the oak that was in it, under which the angel sat, belonged to Joash an Abiezrite, a descendant of Abiezer, son of the sister of Gilead, who was the son of Machir the son of Manasseh, Jos 17:2, it is called by Josephus ^h Ephra, and by Jerom ⁱ Ephrata:

and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites; lest they should take it away, and bereave his father's family of their sustenance, as they were wont to do, wherever they could find it; and all circumstances attending this affair were on this account; he threshed it himself, this he chose to do, and not trust his servants, lest it should be discovered; and he beat the wheat out with a staff, that it might be more silently done, and not with oxen, which was the usual way of treading out corn, who, bellowing ^k, would discover it; and this was done not on a threshing floor, but where a winepress stood, where there could be no suspicion of such work being doing.

Gill: Jdg 6:12

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him,.... He stayed some time under the oak, and Gideon being busy in threshing, took no notice of him wherefore he came and stood before him, in his sight:

and said unto him, the Lord is with thee; the gracious presence of God was with Gideon while he was threshing, who very probably was sending up ejaculations to heaven, on account of the distressed case of Israel, and was deep in meditation about the affairs of the people of God, and contriving how to deliver them; or the angel might mean himself, who was no other than Jehovah, the eternal Word of God, who was present with him, and spake unto him; and so the Targum,"my Word is thy help:"

thou mighty man of valour; who very probably was a stout man in body, and of a courageous mind naturally, and might at this instant have an increase both of bodily strength and greatness of soul; or, however, this was said to animate and encourage him to do what he was about to be sent to do.

Gill: Jdg 6:13

And Gideon said to him, oh my Lord,.... Taking him not to be an angel, but some illustrious and eminent person:

if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? all these troubles and calamities through the oppression of the Midianites; for he understood what was said to him in the salutation, respecting not himself personally and privately, but the people of Israel; and he could not tell how to reconcile the Lord's being with them, and yet suffering such sad things to befall them they groaned under:

where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? when God was with his people, and brought them out of Egypt, he wrought miracles for them, whereby they were delivered out of their bondage; of this their fathers had assured them, but nothing of this kind was wrought for them now, and therefore there was no appearance of the Lord being with them, but all the contrary, as follows:

but now the Lord has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites; and there was good reason for it, because they had forsaken the Lord, and worshipped the gods of the Amorites.

Gill: Jdg 6:14

And the Lord looked upon him,.... The same before called the angel of the Lord, and who was no other than Jehovah himself; who looked upon him with great earnestness, and with great delight and pleasure smiled upon him, and thereby showing he had a kindness for him, and meant well to him: and

said unto him, go in this thy might; both of body and mind, which had been before given unto him, and was now increased, and which no doubt Gideon was sensible of:

and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites; as he did, and therefore justly reckoned among the saviours and judges of Israel:

have not I sent thee? to do this great work, save the people of Israel, from whence Gideon might perceive who it was that talked with him, and having a command and commission from God, had authority enough to go about this service.

Gill: Jdg 6:15

And he said unto him, oh my Lord,.... Whether he had yet suspected who he was, or took him still for some eminent person, is not certain; it is very probable he began to think he was some extraordinary person sent of God, and speaking in his name, and therefore expostulates with him about the work he put him upon:

wherewith shall I save Israel? in what way is it possible for me to do it, who had neither men nor money sufficient for such an undertaking?

behold, my family is poor in Manasseh; of which tribe he was, and the "thousand" in it, as the word ^l here used signifies, was the meanest of all the thousands in that tribe; some render it, "my father" ^m:

and I am the least in my father's house; perhaps the youngest son; though some take him, and others his father, to be the Chiliarch, or head of the thousand; but by these words of his it does not seem as if either was true; not but that he was of some wealth and substance, power and authority, by having such a number of servants as to take "ten" of them with him, Jdg 6:27 however, this he says in great humility and modesty, having no high thoughts of himself and family, nor any dependence on his own strength, and on an arm of flesh.

Gill: Jdg 6:16

And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee,.... The Targum is,"my Word shall be thy help,''which was sufficient to answer all objections taken from his meanness, unworthiness, and weakness:

and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man; all together, and as easily as if thou hadst but one man to deal with, and the destruction be so entire and general that none shall be left.

Gill: Jdg 6:17

And he said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, &c. Or seeing he had, as appeared by his salutation of him as a man of might, by the work he gave him a commission to do, and by the promise of assistance and success:

then show me a sign that thou talkest with me; in the name of God, as a messenger sent by him, whether an angel or a man; for who he was as yet Gideon was not clear in it, and that what he had said was truth, and would be certainly fulfilled; and which Gideon might desire, not so much, or at least not only for his own sake, and the confirmation of his faith, for which he is renowned, as that he might be able to satisfy others that he had a commission from God, by a messenger of his, to attempt the deliverance of Israel.

Gill: Jdg 6:18

Intending to go to his own, or his father's house, to fetch some food to entertain him with, and therefore entreats he would not quit the place where he was until he returned:

and bring forth my present, and set it before thee; to treat him with, as a stranger and a messenger of God; and perhaps he thought, by this means, the better to discover who he was, whether an angel or a man: the word for the "present" is "minchah", often used for a meat offering, therefore some have thought of a sacrifice; but it appears by what follows that it was not of the nature of a sacrifice; and, besides, Gideon was no priest, nor was this a place for sacrifice, nor was there here any altar; and, besides, as Gideon did not yet know that it was the Lord himself, he could never think of offering a sacrifice to him:

and he said, I will tarry until thou come again; which was a wonderful instance of divine condescension, it being some time he waited ere Gideon could prepare what he brought, as follows.

Gill: Jdg 6:19

And Gideon went in,.... Into his own house, or his father's:

and made ready a kid; boiled it, as appears by the broth he brought, at least part of it was so dressed; and perhaps it was only some part of one that he brought, since a whole one was too much to be set before one person, and if even he himself intended to eat with him:

and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour; that is, probably those were made out of an ephah of flour; not that the whole ephah was made into cakes; since an omer, the tenth part of an ephah, was sufficient for one man a whole day; and, according to the computation of Waserus ⁿ an ephah was enough for forty five men for a whole day; unless it can be thought that this was done to show his great hospitality to a stranger, and the great respect he had for him as a messenger of God: the rather unleavened cakes were brought, because of dispatch, being soon made. Jarchi says, from hence it may be learned that it was now the time of the passover, and of waving the sheaf; but this is no sufficient proof of it; besides, if this was new wheat Gideon had been threshing, it shows it to be about the wheat harvest, which was not till Pentecost; it was the barley harvest that began at the passover:

the flesh he put in a basket; the flesh of the kid which was boiled, or if any part of it was dressed another way, it was put by itself in a basket for more easy and commodious carriage:

and he put the broth in a pot; a brazen pot, as Kimchi interprets it, in which the kid was boiled; and this, as he says, was the water it was boiled in:

and brought it out unto him under the oak; where he appeared, and was now waiting the return of Gideon there:

and presented it; set it before him, perhaps upon a table, which might be brought by his servants, or on a seat, which was placed under the oak to sit upon under its shade for pleasure.

Gill: Jdg 6:20

And the angel of God said unto him,.... Instead of sitting down and partaking of the entertainment made for him, he bid him do as follows:

take the flesh, and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock; not as a table to eat it from, but as an altar to offer it upon; and which rock and altar might be typical of Christ, who sanctities every gift, present, and offering of his people: this rock was undoubtedly in sight, and very probably the oak, under which they were, grew upon it, or at the bottom of it, where it was no unusual thing for oaks to grow, Gen 35:8, but it was upon the top of the rock that these were to be laid, where afterwards an altar was built, Jdg 6:26.

and pour out the broth; upon the flesh and cakes, and upon the rock also, which by bringing from his house must have been cool and it became cooler by being poured out, and cooler still by being poured upon a cold rock:

and he did so; he readily obeyed his orders; though he had reason to wonder he should have so ordered the food he brought for his entertainment to be thus made use of; perhaps he might expect that he intended to give him a sign, as he desired, and therefore the more readily, without any objection, complied with his order.

Gill: Jdg 6:21

Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand,.... With which he walked, appearing as a traveller, and which was one reason of Gideon's providing for his refreshment, before he proceeded on in his journey:

and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; did not strike the rock with it, as Moses did with his rod, to fetch out water for the Israelites, but touched the provisions brought him; not using it instead of a knife to separate any part of them, but for the working of a miracle, as follows:

and there rose up fire out of the rock; had he struck the rock with his staff, the miracle would not have appeared so great, because it might be thought there was an iron ferrule at the end of it, which striking on a flinty rock might cause fire; but it was the flesh and cakes only that were touched, and these also as having broth poured on them, and the rock likewise:

and consumed the flesh, and the unleavened cakes; though they had the broth poured on them, and were sodden with it; so that the miracle was similar to that wrought by Elijah on Mount Carmel, 1Ki 18:33, and those who think that this angel was the man, the prophet before mentioned, and he Phinehas, and Phinehas Elijah, are confirmed in their opinion by this likeness; though there is no sufficient ground for it:

then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight: not went on his journey, as he might seem, but vanished immediately; which circumstance plainly showed, and fully convinced Gideon, that he was not a man, but an angelic spirit, as well as the miracle wrought proved him to be more than a man; and so Gideon had what he desired, a sign that he might know who talked with him, and that what he talked of would certainly come to pass.

Gill: Jdg 6:22

And when Gideon perceived he was an angel of the Lord,.... By the miracle wrought, and the manner of his departure:

Gideon said, alas! O Lord God; woe to me, what will become of me, or befall me, I shall surely die:

for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face; and whom he had reason to believe was the Lord himself, a divine Person, by the miracle wrought; and it was a commonly received notion even among good men, in those times, that the Lord was not to be seen by them and live, as appears from Jacob, Manoah, and others; at least the appearance of a divine Person, and even of any messenger from heaven, was startling, surprising, and frightful to them; which arose from a sense they had of the divine Being, and of their own sinfulness and frailty.

Gill: Jdg 6:23

And the Lord said unto him,.... Either by a secret impulse upon his spirit, or by a voice from heaven; and even, as Kimchi observes, the angel, after he ascended, might cause this voice to be heard, seeing him in great fear, because he knew he was an angel; and which is another proof of this angel being Jehovah himself, the eternal Word:

peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shall not die; let not thy mind be ruffled and disturbed, but serene and calm; fear not that any evil shall befall thee, and particularly death; thou shall be safe from any danger whatever, and especially from death, which he expected in his flight would immediately follow.

Gill: Jdg 6:24

Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord,.... On the top of the rock where he had laid his provisions, and which had been consumed by fire issuing out of it, as a token of divine acceptance, and as an assurance of his destroying the Midianites as easily and quickly as the fire had consumed them, and therefore had great encouragement to erect an altar here for God:

and called it Jehovahshalom; the Lord is peace, the author and giver of peace, temporal, spiritual, and eternal; so Jarchi,"the Lord is our peace,''a fit name for the angel that appeared to him, who was no other than the man of peace; who is our peace, the author of peace between God and man. This name he gave the altar, with respect to the words of comfort said to him in his fright:

peace be to thee; and by way of prophecy, that peace would be wrought for Israel by the Lord, and prosperity given them; or by way of prayer, the Lord grant or send peace:

unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites; that is, the altar Gideon built remained to the times of Samuel, the writer of this book, and was then to be seen in the city of Ophrah, which belonged to the family of the Abiezrites, who were of the tribe of Manasseh.

Gill: Jdg 6:25

And it came to pass the same night,.... The night which followed the day in which the angel appeared to Gideon as he was threshing:

that the Lord said unto him; perhaps in a dream, since it was in the night: take thy father's young bullock: or "the bullock, the ox" ^p; a bullock which was a large grown ox, and was not only his father's property, but what his father designed and set apart for the service of Baal; and though it was his father's, yet having a divine warrant for it, it was sufficient for him to take it without his leave, and especially as it was designed for such an ill use:

even the second bullock of seven years old; which, according to Hesiod ^q is in its prime and full strength at nine years old, and lives much longer. In Homer ^r, one of five years old is said to be sacrificed: this further describes what he was to take, the second that stood in the stall of the bullocks, or that drew in the second row at plough, or the second in age and value, or the second that was set apart for the service of Baal; though the words may be rendered, "and the second bullock" ^s; besides that of his father's, he was to take another, which perhaps belonged to the people, and was the second in birth or age with respect to the former, being seven years old; or, as the Targum is, that had been fatted seven years, and had been so long preparing for the sacrifice of Baal; which was as long as the tyranny of the Midianites over them, and was occasioned by the idolatry of the people of Israel; and such a bullock was ordered to be taken with respect to that, and to show that it would end with the sacrifice of this creature:

and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath; upon his ground, in some part of his possessions, and perhaps built at his own expense, though for public use:

and cut down the grove that is by it; or "about it", as the Vulgate Latin version; it being usual with the Heathens to plant groves near or around their altars and temples where religious worship was performed; partly to make them more pleasant and venerable, and partly for the commission of deeds which would not bear the light; or "over it", for they were commonly tall trees which grew over the altar they erected. Some render it, "upon it" ^t, and understand by it an idol placed on it: so the Arabic version is,"cut down the female idol Asira (perhaps the same with Astarte), which is upon the same altar;''and so the Syriac version to the same purpose, which calls it the idol Estere, set upon the altar.

Gill: Jdg 6:26

And build an altar to the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock,.... Where the provisions were laid, and out of which came forth fire that consumed them; and where the altar, called by the name of Jehovahshalom, had been built by him, near it very probably; and there might be room enough for both upon the top of the rock; for this seems to be a distinct altar from that that was erected as a monumental altar, in memory of the miracle there wrought, and in gratitude by Gideon for the preservation of his life, and the peace and prosperity there and then promised, and which altar was to continue, and did; but this was for sacrifice, and only for the present time; for the proper place for sacrifice was the tabernacle: and this was to be built in the ordered place; either in the place where Gideon was ordered to put the flesh and the unleavened cakes; or in an orderly way and manner, according as was commanded in the law, as that it should be of earth and unhewn stones, and so framed as that it might be fit to have the wood and sacrifice laid in order on it; or in a plain place, as Kimchi, upon the top of the rock, where he might lay in order the stones of the altar:

and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shall cut down; mention being made only of one bullock that was to be offered, has made some think that only one was ordered to be taken, namely, this second, which agrees with our version of Jdg 6:25 for if two were taken, what became of the first, since only the second was ordered to be sacrificed? to which Kimchi makes answer, that he was ordered to take it away, that his father might not offer it to an idol, as he intended, and therefore this was done to prevent idolatry; and as this second bullock was to be a burnt sacrifice, and to be burned with the wood of the grove just cut down, it seems to confirm the sense of such versions and interpreters who understand it of an idol on the altar of Baal; since wood just cut down would not be fit to burn, whereas an idol of wood, that had been of some standing, would be very proper: everything ordered and done were different from the laws and usages directed to by Moses, and practised by the Jews. Gideon was no priest, and yet bid to offer sacrifice, and that on an altar of his own erecting, and not the altar of God; and upon the top of a rock, and not at the tabernacle; and the wood of a grove or idol was to be made use of, which in other cases was not allowed; and all this done in the night, which was not the time of sacrificing; but the divine warrant was sufficient for Gideon. The Jews say ^u, there were eight things that were made free or allowed now, which were not at another time: and it was necessary, before Gideon acted the part of a deliverer, that he should become a reformer, and it was proper to begin at his own family.

Gill: Jdg 6:27

Then Gideon took ten men of his servants,.... Not only whom he could command, but could confide in, and whom he knew would cheerfully engage in this work, being like himself, who had not bowed the knee to Baal; and as there was much work to do, and it required dispatch, such a number was necessary; since he had not only the altar of Baal to throw down, and his grove or idol to cut down, but an altar to build, and a sacrifice to be taken and offered:

and did as the Lord had said unto him; all the above things, he set about them at once, and dispatched them all in one night; so ready and cheerful was he in obedience to the divine command:

and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night; for both his father's family, and the inhabitants of the city of Ophrah, were all idolaters, worshippers of Baal; and this fear of them was not a fear of being reproached or punished for what he did, or of any harm coming to him for the fact, which as he might expect would be known, so the risk was the same, be it done when it would; but it was a fear of being restrained and hindered from doing it, and therefore in point of prudence, and consulting the honour of God and religion, and not his own safety, he took the time of the night to do it in.

Gill: Jdg 6:28

And when the men of the city arose early in the morning,.... And came to the place where the altar of Baal, his grove and image, were, to pay their morning devotions to him: behold:

the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built; upon the new altar that Gideon built, and which very probably was burning when they came: and it is very likely that the place, where the altar of Baal had stood, was not far from the rock where this new altar was erected.

Gill: Jdg 6:29

And they said one to another, who hath done this thing?.... They were struck with amazement, and could not devise who could be so daring and wicked as to do such an action:

and when they inquired and asked; one and another, everyone present, or they could think of as proper to inquire of; they were very diligent and industrious to find it out; and perhaps they inquired of the family and servants of Joash and Gideon, in whose ground the altar stood:

they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing; when they had inquired of everybody they could, and thought of one person and another, there was none appeared to them more likely to have done it, than Gideon; partly because they knew he was no friend of Baal, and partly because he was a man of spirit and courage, and they concluded none but such an one would have ventured to have done it; and besides, they considered he was the son of Joash, who perhaps was their chief magistrate, and that he might presume on his father's protection, as they might surprise; and being near the premises, he was the most likely person they could think of; and it is not improbable, that upon inquiry they got it out of the servants concerned, or that had knowledge of it from them, or from some that saw him that morning at the sacrifice, or returning from it, and therefore peremptorily assert he was the man that did it.

Gill: Jdg 6:30

Then the men of the city said unto Joash,.... The principal inhabitants of the place met together, and in a body went to Joash their chief magistrate, to have justice done in this case:

bring out thy son, that he may die; they do not ask to have the cause tried by him, to hear what proof they had of the fact, or what Gideon had to say in his own defence; nor do they wait for the sentence of Joash, but determine it themselves, and require the delinquent to be given up to them, that they might put him to death; a strange request of Israelites, whose law judged no man before it heard him; and besides, according to that, the worshippers of Baal, and not the destroyers of him, and his altars, were to be put to death, which shows how strangely mad and infatuated these people were:

because he hath cut down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it; they take no notice of the bullock which he had taken and offered, it being his father's property; and which seems to confirm the sense of our version, that there was but one, Jdg 6:25 for had the second been a different one, and the people's property, they would have accused him of theft as well as sacrilege respecting that.

Gill: Jdg 6:31

And Joash said unto all that stood against him,.... Against his son; that were his accusers and adversaries, and required him to be given up to them, that they might put him to death:

will ye plead for Baal? what, Israelites, and plead for Baal! or what need is there for this, cannot he plead for himself?

will ye save him? what, take upon you to save your god! cannot he save himself? he ought to save both himself and you, if he is a god, and not you save him:

he that will plead for him, let him be put to death, while it is yet morning; immediately, before noon, for it was now morning when they came to him; this he said to terrify them, and to express the hatred he now had of idolatry, and the just sense of its being punishable with death by the law of God. This he may be supposed to say, to save his son from their present wrath and fury, hoping by that time to find out some ways and means for his safety:

if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar; if he is a god, he knows who has done it, and is able to avenge himself on him, and put him to death himself that has done it, and therefore leave it with him to plead his own cause, and avenge his own injuries; this he said, deriding the deity; for though Joash had been a worshipper of Baal, yet he might be now convinced by his son of the sinfulness of it, and of the necessity of a reformation, in order to a deliverance from the Midianites, for which he had a commission, and had perhaps informed his father of it; or however he was not so attached to Baal, but that he preferred the life of his son to the worship of him.

Gill: Jdg 6:32

Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal,.... That is, Joash called his son Gideon by that name; who, some think, is the same with Jerombalus, the priest of the god Jevo, or Jehovah; from whom Sanchoniatho, an ancient Phoenician writer, as Philo Byblius says ^w, received the principal things in his history respecting the Jews:

saying, let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar; giving this as the reason of the name of Jerubbaal he called him by, which signifies, "let Baal plead"; let Baal plead his own cause, and avenge himself on Gideon for what he has done to him, and put him to death if he can.

Gill: Jdg 6:33

Then all the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east,.... The Arabians, Jdg 6:3 were gathered together; not as being alarmed with this fact of Gideon in destroying the altar of Baal, and so came to avenge it; but it was their usual time of gathering together to come into Canaan, being harvest time, as appears by Gideon being employed in threshing, to fetch away the increase of the earth, as they had done for some years past:

and went over; the river Jordan, which lay between the Midianites and the Israelites:

and pitched in the valley of Jezreel; a very large, delightful, and fruitful plain; of which See Gill on Hos 1:5; a very proper place for such a large number to pitch on, and from whence they might receive much; and a suitable place to bring the increase of the land to, from the several parts of it, which was the business they came upon; and as this lay on the borders of Issachar and Manasseh, it was not far from Gideon, and this gave him an opportunity of exerting himself, and executing his commission.

Gill: Jdg 6:34

But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon,.... Not the spirit of prophecy, as Maimonides ^x, who calls this spirit the first degree of prophecy, but a spirit of fortitude and courage, as the Targum; the Spirit of God filled him, or, as in the Hebrew text, "clothed" ^y him with zeal, strength, and might, moved and animated him to engage with this great body of people come into the land, to ravage and waste it, and to attempt the deliverance of Israel from their bondage:

and he blew a trumpet; as an alarm of war, and as a token to as many as heard to resort to him, and join with him in the common cause against the enemy:

and Abiezer was gathered after him; the Abiezrites, one of the families of the tribe of Manasseh, of which Gideon and his father's house were; and even it is probable the inhabitants of Ophrah, who were Abiezrites, being now convinced of their idolatry, and having entertained a good opinion of Gideon as a man of valour, and who, in the present emergence, they looked upon as an hopeful instrument of their deliverance, and therefore joined him.

Gill: Jdg 6:35

And he sent messengers through all Manasseh,.... Of which tribe he was; not only he called by the trumpet that part of the tribe, the Abiezrites, who were within the sound of it, but the rest of the tribe at a greater distance from him he sent messengers to, acquainting them with his design, and inviting them to his assistance. Some think this refers both to the half tribe of Manasseh within Jordan, and the other half tribe on the other side Jordan; but that is not very probable, only the half tribe within it is meant:

who also was gathered after him; obeying the summons and invitation he gave them by the messengers:

and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; which three tribes lay nearest to him on the north; but he sent not to the inhabitants of the tribe of Ephraim, which lay to the south, and which afterwards occasioned a quarrel, Jdg 8:1.

and they came up to meet them; that is, the inhabitants of the above three tribes, at least many of them, came up from the places of their habitations to meet Gideon, and those that were associated with him, at their place of rendezvous.

Gill: Jdg 6:36

And Gideon said unto God,.... Not to a prophet of God who was there, of whom he asked the following signs to be done, as Ben Gersom, but to God in prayer, as Abarbinel:

if thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said; not that he doubted of it, but was willing to have a confirmation of his faith; and perhaps his view was more for the encouragement of those that were with him than himself, that he desired the following signs; and though he had had one before, that was to show that he was truly an angel that spoke to him, and not to ascertain the salvation that should be wrought by him; though that might be concluded from his being an angel that spoke to him, and assured him of it.

Gill: Jdg 6:37

Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor,.... On the floor where he was threshing, where the angel first appeared to him, and which lay exposed to the open air, so that the dew might easily fall upon it:

and if the dew be on the fleece only; the dew that falls from heaven in the night, when he proposed it should lie on the floor till morning:

and it be dry upon all the earth beside; meaning not upon all the world, nor even upon all the land of Israel, but upon all the floor about the fleece: then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said; for the dew being a token of divine favour, see Hos 14:5 it would show that Gideon would partake of it, while his enemies would be dry and desolate, and ruin and destruction would be their portion.

Gill: Jdg 6:38

And it was so,.... The Lord condescended to work this miracle for the confirmation of his faith, and for the encouragement of those that were with him; the fleece was wet with the dew of heaven, and all the ground about it dry:

for he rose up early in the morning; being eagerly desirous of knowing whether his request would be granted, and how it would be with the fleece:

and thrust the fleece together; to satisfy himself whether the dew had fallen on it, and there was any moisture in it, which by being squeezed together he would more easily perceive:

and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water; so that it appeared it had not only fallen on it, but it had taken in a large quantity of it; the word here used is the same as in Jdg 5:25; see Gill on Jdg 5:25; the Targum calls it a flagon.

Gill: Jdg 6:39

And Gideon said unto God,.... In the same way as before, and on the morning when he had been favoured with the sight of the above miracle:

let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once; he was conscious to himself that it showed great presumption and boldness in him to repeat his request, and that it had the appearance of great diffidence and distrust in him, after he had been indulged with such a sign to confirm his faith; but as it was not so much on his own account as others, and promising to ask no more favours of this kind, he hoped his boldness would not be resented:

let me prove, l pray thee, but this once with the fleece one time more with it, and that not to try the power of God, of which he had no doubt, but the will of God, whether it was the good pleasure of God to save Israel by his hand, and whether now was the time, or another:

let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew; which might seem to be a greater, at least a plainer miracle than the former, and less liable to cavil and objection; for it might be urged, that a fleece of wool naturally draws in and drinks up moisture about it; wherefore that to be dry, and the ground all around it wet, would be a sure sign and evidence of the wonderful interposition of the power and providence of God, in directing the fall of the dew on the one, and not on the other.

Gill: Jdg 6:40

And God did so that night,.... The night following, the night being the season in which the dew falls:

for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground; and this might signify, that not Gideon only, as before, should partake of the divine favour, but all the Israelites, who would share in the salvation wrought by him. Many interpreters observe, that all this is an emblem of the different case and state of the Jews and Gentiles under the different dispensations; that whereas under the former dispensation the Jews partook of the divine favour only, and of the blessings of grace, and enjoyed the words and ordinances with which they were watered, when the Gentiles all around them were like a barren wilderness; so, under the Gospel dispensation, the Gentiles share the above benefits to a greater degree, while the Jews are entirely destitute of them.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jdg 6:1

¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

² tn Heb “gave them into the hand of.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:2

¹ tn Heb “the hand of Midian.”

² tn Heb “The hand of Midian was strong against Israel.”

³ tn Or possibly “secret storage places.” The Hebrew word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:3

¹ tn Heb “Whenever Israel sowed seed.”

² tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east would go up, they would go up against him.” The translation assumes that וְעָלוּ (vÿ’alu) is dittographic (note the following עָלָיו, ’alayv).

NET Notes: Jdg 6:4

¹ tn Heb “They encamped against them.”

² tn Heb “destroyed.”

³ tn Heb “the crops of the land.”

⁴ tn Heb “They left no sustenance in Israel.”

⁵ tn The words “they took away” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:5

¹ tn Heb “came up.”

² tn Heb “numerous.”

³ tn Heb “To them and to their camels there was no number.”

⁴ tn Heb “destroy.” The translation “devour” carries through the imagery of a locust plague earlier in this verse.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:8

¹ tn Heb “the Lord”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn Heb “a man, a prophet.” Hebrew idiom sometimes puts a generic term before a more specific designation.

³ tc Some ancient witnesses read “from the land of Egypt.” מֵאֶרֶץ (me’erets, “from the land [of]”) could have been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton (note the following מִמִּצְרַיִם [mimmitsrayim, “from Egypt”]).

⁴ tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:9

¹ tn Heb “hand” (also a second time later in this verse).

NET Notes: Jdg 6:10

¹ tn Heb “Do not fear.”

² tn Heb “you have not listened to my voice.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:11

¹ tn The adjective “angelic” is interpretive.

sn The Lord’s angelic messenger is also mentioned in Judg 2:1.

² tn Heb “Now Gideon his son…” The Hebrew circumstantial clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + predicate) breaks the narrative sequence and indicates that the angel’s arrival coincided with Gideon’s threshing.

³ tn Heb “beating out.”

⁴ sn Threshing wheat in a winepress. One would normally thresh wheat at the threshing floor outside the city. Animals and a threshing sledge would be employed. Because of the Midianite threat, Gideon was forced to thresh with a stick in a winepress inside the city. For further discussion see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.

⁵ tn Heb “Midian.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:13

¹ tn Heb “But my lord.”

² tn Heb “all this.”

³ tn Heb “saying.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:14

¹ sn Some interpreters equate the Lord and the messenger in this story, but they are more likely distinct. In vv. 22-23 the Lord and Gideon continue to carry on a conversation after the messenger has vanished (v. 21).

² tn Heb “Go in this strength of yours.”

³ tn Heb “the hand of Midian.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:15

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Note the switch to אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”). Gideon seems aware that he is speaking to someone other than, and superior to, the messenger, whom he addressed as אֲדֹנִי (’adoniy, “my lord”) in v. 13.

³ tn Heb “with what.”

⁴ tn Heb “in my father’s house.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:16

¹ tn Or “certainly.”

² tn Heb “You will strike down Midian as one man.” The idiom “as one man” emphasizes the collective unity of a group (see Judg 20:8, 11). Here it may carry the force, “as if they were just one man.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:17

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “If I have found favor in your eyes.”

³ tn Heb “perform for me.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:18

¹ tn The Hebrew text adds “to you,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn Heb “and I will bring out my gift.” The precise nuance of the Hebrew word מִנְחָה (minkhah, “gift”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a gift offered as a sign of goodwill or submission. In some cases it is used of a gift offered to appease someone whom the offerer has offended. The word can also carry a sacrificial connotation.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:19

¹ tn Heb “a kid from among the goats.”

² tn The words “the food” are not in the Hebrew text (an implied direct object). They are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:20

¹ tn Heb “Take the meat…and put [it] on this rock.”

² tn Heb “and he did so.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:21

¹ tn Heb “extended the tip of the staff which was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread.”

² tn Heb “went from his eyes.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:22

¹ tn Heb “saw.”

² tn Heb “Gideon.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Or “Ah!”

⁴ tn The Hebrew text reads אֲדֹנַי יְהוִה (’adonay yÿhvih, “Lord [the same title used in v. 15], Lord”).

NET Notes: Jdg 6:23

¹ tn Heb “Peace to you.” For a similar use of this idiom to introduce a reassuring word, see Gen 43:23.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:24

¹ tn Heb “The Lord is peace.” Gideon’s name for the altar plays on the Lord’s reassuring words to him, “Peace to you.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:25

¹ tn Or “Take a bull from your father’s herd, the second one, the one seven years old.” Apparently Gideon would need the bulls to pull down the altar.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:26

¹ tn Possibly “in a row” or “in a layer,” perhaps referring to the arrangement of the stones used in the altar’s construction.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:27

¹ tn Heb “men from among his servants.”

² tn Heb “house.”

³ tn Heb “so he did it at night.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:28

¹ tn Heb “look!” The narrator uses this word to invite his audience/readers to view the scene through the eyes of the men.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:29

¹ tn Heb “each one to his neighbor.”

² tn Heb “this thing.”

³ tn Heb “they inquired and searched.” The synonyms are joined to emphasize the care with which they conducted their inquiry.

⁴ tn Heb “and said.” Perhaps the plural subject is indefinite. If so, it could be translated, “they were told.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:30

¹ tn Heb “and let him die.” The jussive form with vav after the imperative is best translated as a purpose clause.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:31

¹ tn Heb “to all who stood against him.”

² tn Heb “Do you fight for Baal?”

³ tn Heb “fights for him.”

⁴ sn Whoever takes up his cause will die by morning. This may be a warning to the crowd that Joash intends to defend his son and to kill anyone who tries to execute Gideon. Then again, it may be a sarcastic statement about Baal’s apparent inability to defend his own honor. Anyone who takes up Baal’s cause may end up dead, perhaps by the same hand that pulled down the pagan god’s altar.

⁵ tn Heb “fight for himself.”

⁶ tn Heb “for he pulled down his altar.” The subject of the verb, if not Gideon, is indefinite (in which case a passive translation is permissible).

NET Notes: Jdg 6:32

¹ tn Heb “He called him on that day Jerub-Baal.” The name means, at least by popular etymology, “Let Baal fight!”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:33

¹ tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east.”

² tn The words “the Jordan River” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:34

¹ tn Heb “clothed.”

² tn That is, “mustered an army.”

³ tn Heb “Abiezer was summoned after him.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:35

¹ tn Heb “and he also was summoned after him.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:36

¹ tn More literally, “you are about to deliver Israel by my hand.”

² tn The words “then give me a sign as proof” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

NET Notes: Jdg 6:37

¹ tn Heb “all the ground.”

² tn Or “know.”

³ tn Heb “you will deliver Israel by my hand.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:38

¹ tn Heb “And it was so.”

² tn Heb “dew dripped from the fleece – a bowl full of water.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:39

¹ tn Heb “Let your anger not rage at me, so that I might speak only this once.”

² tn Heb “let the fleece alone be dry, while dew is on all the ground.”

NET Notes: Jdg 6:40

¹ tn Heb “God did so that night.”

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:2

And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: ^{( a )} [and] because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which [are] in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.

^{( a )} For fear of the Midianites, they fled into the dens of the mountains.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:4

And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto ^{( b )} Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.

^{( b )} Even almost the whole country.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:6

And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the ^{( c )} children of Israel cried unto the LORD.

^{( c )} This is the purpose of God's punishments, to call his to repentance, that they may seek help from him.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:13

And Gideon said unto him, ^{( d )} Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where [be] all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

^{( d )} This came not from distrust, but from weakness of faith, which is in the most perfect: for no man in this life can have a perfect faith: yet the children of God have a true faith, by which they are justified.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:14

And the ^{( e )} LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy ^{( f )} might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

^{( e )} That is, Christ appearing in visible form.

^{( f )} Which I have given to you.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:17

And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me ^{( g )} a sign that thou talkest with me.

^{( g )} So that we see how the flesh is the enemy of God's calling, which cannot be persuaded without signs.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:19

And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ^{( h )} ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought [it] out unto him under the oak, and presented [it].

^{( h )} Of Ephah, read (Exo 16:36).

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:21

Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that [was] in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire ^{( i )} out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

^{( i )} By the power of God only, as in the sacrifice of Elijah, (1Ki 18:38).

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:25

And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock ^{( k )} of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that [is] by it:

^{( k )} That is, as the Chaldea text writes, fed seven years.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:26

And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the ^{( l )} grove which thou shalt cut down.

^{( l )} Which grew about Baal's altar.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:28

And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that [was] by it, and the ^{( m )} second bullock was offered upon the altar [that was] built.

^{( m )} Meaning, the fat bull, which was kept to be offered to Baal.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:31

And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? ^{( n )} he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst [it is yet] morning: if he [be] a god, let him plead for himself, because [one] hath cast down his altar.

^{( n )} Thus we ought to justify those who are zealous of God's cause, though all the multitude are against us.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:34

But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and ^{( o )} Abiezer was gathered after him.

^{( o )} The family of Abiezer, of which he was.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:36

And Gideon said unto God, ^{( p )} If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,

^{( p )} This request proceeds not from infidelity, but that he might be confirmed in his calling.

Geneva Bible: Jdg 6:40

And God did so that night: for it was ^{( q )} dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

^{( q )} By which he was assured that it was a miracle of God.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Jdg 6:1-40

1 The Israelites for their sin are oppressed by Midian.

8 A prophet rebukes them.

11 An angel sends Gideon for their deliverance.

17 Gideon's present is consumed with fire.

24 Gideon destroys Baal's altar, and offers a sacrifice upon the altar Jehovah-shalom.

28 Joash defends his son, and calls shim Jerubbaal.

33 Gideon's army.

36 Gideon's signs.

Maclaren: Jdg 6:24

Judges 6:24

I need not tell over again, less vividly, the picturesque story in this chapter, of the simple husbandman up in the hills, engaged furtively in threshing out a little wheat in some hollow in the rock where he might hide it from the keen eyes of the oppressors; and of how the angel of the Lord, unrecognized at first, appeared to him; and gradually there dawned upon his mind the suspicion of who He was who spoke. Then follow the offering, the discovery by fire, the shrinking of the man from contact with the divine, the wonderfully tranquilizing and condescending assurance, cast into the form of the ordinary salutation of domestic life: And the Lord said unto him Peace be unto thee! '--as any man might have said to any other--fear not! thou shalt not die.' Then Gideon piles up the unhewn stones on the hillside into a rude altar, apparently not for the purpose of offering sacrifice, but for a monument, to which is given this strange name, strange upon such warrior lips, and strange in contemplation of the fierce conflict into which he was immediately to plunge, the Lord is peace.'

Now I think that this name, imposed for such a reason and under such circumstances, may teach us a good many things.

I. The Great Discovery Which This Man Had Made.

The first thing that it seems to me to suggest is the great discovery which this man had made, and in the rapture of which he named his altar,--that the sight of God is not death, but life and peace.

Gideon was a plain, rude man, with no very deep religious experience. Apparently up to the moment of this vision he had been contentedly tolerating the idolatrous practices which had spread over all the country. He had heard of' Jehovah.' It was a name, a tradition, which his fathers had told him. That was all that he knew of the God of Israel. Into this hearsay religion, as in a flash, while Gideon is busy about his threshing floor, thinking of his wheat or of the misery of his nation, there comes, all at once, this crushing conviction,--the hearsay God is beside you, speaking to you! You have personal relations to Him, He is nearer you than any human being is, He is no mere Name, here He stands!'

And whenever the lightning edge of a conviction like that cuts its way through the formalisms and traditionalism's and hearsay repetitions of conventional religion, then there comes what came to Gideon, the swift thought, And if this be true, if I really do touch, and am touched by, that living Person whose name is Jehovah, what is to become of me? Shall I not shrivel up when His fiery finger is laid upon me? I have seen Him face to face, and I must die.'

I believe that, in the case of the vast majority of men, the first living, real apprehension of a real, living God is accompanied with a shock, and has mingled with it something of awe, and even of terror. Were there no sin there would be no fear, and pure hearts would open in silent blessedness and yield their sweetest fragrance of love and adoration, when shone on by Him, as flowers do to the kiss of the sunbeams. But, taking into account the sad and universal fact of sin, it is inevitable that men should shrink from the Light which reveals their evil, and that the consciousness of God's presence should strike a chill. It is sad that it should be so. But it is sadder still when it is not so, but when, as is sometimes the case, the sight of God produces no Sense of sin, and no consciousness of discord, or foreboding of judgment. For, only through that valley of the shadow of death lies the path to the happy confidence of peace with God, and unless there has been trembling at the beginning, there will be no firm and reasonable trust afterwards.

For Gideon's terror opened the way for the gracious proclamation, which would have been needless but for it--Peace be unto thee; fear not, thou shalt not die.'

The sight of God passes from being a fear to a joy, from being a fountain of death to a spring of life. Terror is turned to tranquil trust. The narrow and rough path of conscious unworthiness leads to the large place of happy peace. The divine word fits Gideon's condition, and corresponds to his then deepest necessity; and so he drinks it in as the thirsty ground drinks in the water; and in the rapture of the discovery that the Name, that had come down from his fathers to him, was the Name of a real Person, with whom he stood in real relationships, and those of simple friendship and pure amity, he piles up the rough stones of the place, and makes the name of his altar the echo of the divine voice. It is as if he had said with rapture of surprise, Then Jehovah ia peace; which I never dreamed of before.'

Dear friends, do you know anything of such an experience? Can you build your altar, and give it this same name? Can you write upon the memorial of your experiences, The Lord is my peace'? Have you passed from hearsay into personal contact? Can you say,' I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee'? Do you know the further experience expressed in the subsequent words of the same quotation: Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes'? And have you passed out of that stormy ocean of terror and self-condemnation into the quiet haven of trust in Him in whom we have peace with God, where your little boat lies quiet, moored for ever to the Rock of Ages, to Jehovah, who is Peace'?

In connection with this rapturous discovery, and to Gideon strange new thought, we may gather the lesson that peace with God will give peace in all the soul. The peace with God' will pass into a wider thing, the peace of God.' There is tranquillity in trust. There is rest in submission. There is repose in satisfied desires. When we live near Him, and have ceased from our own works, and let Him take control of us and direct us in all our ways, then the storms abate. The things that disturb us are by no means so much external as inward; and there is a charm and a fascination in the thought, the Lord is peace,' which stills the inward tempest, and makes us quiet, waiting upon His will and drawing in His grace. The secret of rest is to cease from self, from self as guide, from self as aim, from self as safety. And when self-will is cast out, and self-dependence is overcome, and self-reliance is sublimed into hanging upon God's hand, and when He, not mine own inclination, is my Director, and the Arbiter of my fate, then all the fever of unrest is swept wholly out of my heart, and there is nothing left in it on which the gnawing tooth of anxiety or of care can prey. God being my peace, and I yielding myself to Him, in quietness and confidence' is my strength.' Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.'

II. The Thought That God's Peace Is The Best Preparation.

We may look upon this inscription from another point of view, as suggesting the thought that God's peace is the best preparation for, and may be experienced in the midst of, the intensest conflict.

Remember what the purpose of this vision was,--to raise up a man to fight an almost desperate fight, no metaphorical war, but one with real sharp swords, against real strong enemies. The first blow in the campaign was to be struck that night. Gideon was being summoned by the vision, to long years of hardship and bitter warfare, and his preparation for the conflict consisted largely in the revelation to his inmost spirit that Jehovah is peace.' We might rather have looked for a manifestation of the divine nature as ready to go forth to battle with the raw levies of timid peasants. We should have expected the thought which inspired their captain to have been The Lord is a man of war,' rather than The Lord is peace.' But it is not so--and therein lies the deep truth that the peace of God is the best preparation for strife. It gives courage, it leaves the heart at leisure to fling all its power into the conflict, it inspires with the consciousness of a divine ally. As Paul puts it, in his picture of the fully-armed Christian soldier, the feet are shod with the preparedness of alacrity which is produced by the gospel of peace.' That will make us ready, aye ready' for the roughest march, and enable us to stand firm against the most violent charges of the enemy. There is no such preparation for the conflict of life, whether it be waged against our own inward evil, or against opposing forces without, as to have deep within the soul the settled and substantial peace of God. If we are to come out of the battle with victory sitting on our helmets, we must go into it with the Dove of God brooding in our hearts. As the Lord said to Gideon, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel, have not I sent thee?'

But, besides this thought that the knowledge of Jehovah as peace fits us for strife, that hastily-reared altar with its seemingly inappropriate name, may remind us that it is possible, in the midst of the deadliest hand-to-hand grip with evil, and whilst fighting the good fight of faith' with the most entire self-surrender to the divine will, to bear within us, deeper than all the surface strife, that inward tranquillity which knows no disturbance, though the outward life is agitated by fierce storms. Deep in the center of the ocean the waters lie quiet, though the wildest tempests are raging above, and the fiercest currents running. Over the tortured and plunging waters of the cataract there lies unmoving, though its particles are in perpetual flux, the bow of promise and of peace. So over all the rush and thunder of life there may stretch, radiant and many-colored, and dyed with beauty by the very sun himself, the abiding bow of beauty, the emblem and the reality of the divine tranquillity. The Christian life is continual warfare, but in it all, the peace of God which passeth understanding' may garrison our hearts and minds.' In the inmost keep of the castle, though the storm of war may be breaking against the walls, there will be a quiet chamber where no noise of the archers can penetrate, and the shouts of the fight are never heard. Let us seek to live in the secret place of the Host High'; and in still communion with Him, keep our inmost souls in quiet, while we bravely front difficulties and enemies. You are to be God's warriors; see to it that on every battlefield there stands the altar Jehovah Shalom.'

III. Lastly, We May Draw Yet Another Lesson,

And say that that altar, with its significant inscription, expressed the aim of the conflict and the hope which sustains in the fight.

Gideon was fighting for peace, and what he desired was that victory should bring tranquillity. The hope which beckoned him on, when he flung himself into his else desperate enterprise, was that God would so prosper his work that the swords might be beaten into ploughshares, and the spears into pruning hooks. Which things may stand as an allegory, and suggest to us that the Christian warfare, whilst it rests upon, and is prompted by, the revelation of God who is peace, aims in all its blows, at the conquering of that sure and settled peace which shall be broken by no rebellious outbursts of self-will, nor by any risings of passions and desires. The aim of our warfare should ever be that the peace of God may be throned in our hearts, and sit there a gentle queen. The true tranquillity of the blessed life is the prize of conflict. David, the man of war from his youth,' prepares the throne for Solomon, in whose reign no alarms of war are heard. If you would enter into peace, you must fight your way to it, and every step of the road must be a battle. The land of peace is won by the good fight of faith.

But Gideon's altar not only expressed his purpose in his taking up arms, but his confidence of accomplishing it, based upon the assurance that the Lord would give peace. It was a trophy erected before the fight, and built, not by arrogant presumption or frivolous underestimate of the enemy's strength, but by humble reliance on the power of that Lord who had promised His presence, and had assured triumph. So the hope that named this altar was the hope that war meant victory, and that victory would bring peace. That hope should animate every Christian soldier. Across the dust of the conflict, the fair vision of unbroken and eternal peace should gleam before each of us, and we should renew fainting strength and revive drooping courage by many a wistful gaze.

We may realize that hope in large measure here. But its fulfillment is reserved for the land of peace which we enter by the last conflict with the last enemy.

Every Christian man's gravestone is an altar on which is written Our God is peace'; in token that the warrior has passed into the land where violence shall no more be heard, wasting, nor destruction within its borders,' but all shall be deep repose, and the unarmed, because unattacked, peace of tranquil communion with, and likeness to, Jehovah our Peace.'

So, dear brethren, let us pass from tradition and hearsay into personal intercourse with God, and from shrinking and doubt into the sunshine of the conviction that He is our peace. And then, with His tranquillity in our hearts let us go out, the elect apostles of the peace of God, and fight for Him, after the pattern of the Captain of our salvation, who had to conquer peace through conflict; and was first of all King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Peace.'

Maclaren: Jdg 6:37

Judges 6:37

The decisive moment had come when Gideon, with his hastily gathered raw levies, was about to plunge down to the plain to face immensely superior forces trained to warfare. No wonder that the equally untrained leader's heart beat faster. Many a soldier, who will be steadfastly brave in the actual shock of battle, has tremors and throbbing on its eve. Gideon's hand shook a little as he drew his sword.

I. Gideon's Request.

His petition for a sign was not the voice of unbelief or of doubt or of presumption, but in it spoke real, though struggling faith, seeking to be confirmed. Therefore it was not regarded by God as a sin. When a wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign,' no sign was given it, but when faith asks for one to help it to grasp God's hand, and to go on His warfare in His strength and as His instrument, it does not ask in vain.

Gideon's prayer was wrapped, as it were, in an enfolding promise, for it is preceded and followed by the quotation of words of the Angel of the Lord who had' looked on him,' and said,' Go in this thy might and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent thee?' Prayers that begin and end with as Thou hast spoken' are not likely to be repulsed.

II. God's Answer.

God wonderfully allows Gideon to dictate the nature of the sign. He stoops to work it both ways, backwards and forwards, as it were. First the fleece is to be wet and the ground to be dry, then the fleece is to be dry and the ground wet. Miracle was a necessary accompaniment of revelation in those early days, as picture-books are of childhood. But, though we are far enough from being men' in Christ, yet we have not the same need for childish things' as Gideon and his contemporaries had. We have Christ and the Spirit, and so have a word made more sure' than to require signs. But still it is true that the same gracious willingness to help a tremulous faith, which carries its tremulousness to God in prayer, moves the Father's heart to-day, and that to such petitions the answer is given oven before they are offered: Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' No sign that eyes can see is given, but inward whispers speak assurance and communicate the assurance which they speak.

III. The Meaning Of The Sign.

Many explanations have been offered. The main point is that the fleece is to be made different from the soil around it. It is to be a proof of God's power to endow with characteristics not derived from, and resulting in qualities unlike, the surroundings.

Gideon had no thought of any significance beyond that. But we may allowably let the Scripture usage of the symbol of dew influence our reading into the symbol a deeper meaning than it bore to him.

God makes the fleece wet with dew, while all the threshing-floor is dry. Dew is the symbol of divine grace, of the silently formed moisture which, coming from no apparent source, freshens by night the wilted plants, and hangs in myriad drops, that twinkle into green and gold as the early sunshine strikes them, on the humblest twig. That grace is plainly not a natural product nor to be accounted for by environment. The dew of the Spirit, which God and God only, can give, can freshen our worn and drooping souls, can give joy in sorrow, can keep us from being touched by surrounding evils, and from being parched by surrounding drought, can silently distil' its supplies of strength according to our need into our else dry hearts.

The wet fleece on the dry ground was not only a revelation of God's power, but may be taken as a pattern of what God's soldiers must ever be. A prophet long after Gideon said: The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from the Lord,' bringing to others the grace which they have received that they may diffuse it, and turning the dry and thirsty land where no water is into fertility, and the parched ground' into a pool.'

We have said that the main point of Gideon's petition was that the fleece should be made unlike the threshing-floor, and that that un1ikeness, which could obviously not be naturally brought about, was to be to him the sure token that God was at work to produce it. The strongest demonstration that the Church can give the world of its really being God's Church is its unlikeness to the world. If it is wet with divine dew when all the threshing-floor is dry, and if, when all the floor is drenched with poisonous miasma, it is dry from the diffused and clinging malaria, the world will take knowledge of it, and some souls be set to ask how this unlikeness comes. When Haman has to say: There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples … and their laws are diverse from those of every people,' he may meditate murder, but many from among the people of the land' will join their ranks. Gideon may or may not have thought of the fleece as a symbol of his little host, but we may learn from it the old lesson, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.'

MHCC: Jdg 6:1-6

Israel's sin was renewed, and Israel's troubles were repeated. Let all that sin expect to suffer. The Israelites hid themselves in dens and caves; such was the effect of a guilty conscience. Sin dispirits men. The invaders left no food for Israel, except what was taken into the caves. They prepared that for Baal with which God should have been served, now God justly sends an enemy to take it away in the season thereof.

MHCC: Jdg 6:7-10

They cried to God for a deliverer, and he sent them a prophet to teach them. When God furnishes a land with faithful ministers, it is a token that he has mercy in store for it. He charges them with rebellion against the Lord; he intends to bring them to repentance. Repentance is real when the sinfulness of sin, as disobedience to God, is chiefly lamented.

MHCC: Jdg 6:11-24

Gideon was a man of a brave, active spirit, yet in obscurity through the times: he is here stirred up to undertake something great. It was very sure that the Lord was with him, when his Angel was with him. Gideon was weak in faith, which made it hard to reconcile the assurances of the presence of God with the distress to which Israel was brought. The Angel answered his objections. He told him to appear and act as Israel's deliverer, there needed no more. Bishop Hall says, While God calls Gideon valiant, he makes him so. God delights to advance the humble. Gideon desires to have his faith confirmed. Now, under the influences of the Spirit, we are not to expect signs before our eyes such as Gideon here desired, but must earnestly pray to God, that if we have found grace in his sight, he would show us a sign in our heart, by the powerful working of his Spirit there, The Angel turned the meat into an offering made by fire; showing that he was not a man who needed meat, but the Son of God, who was to be served and honoured by sacrifice, and who in the fulness of time was to make himself a sacrifice. Hereby a sign was given to Gideon, that he had found grace in God's sight. Ever since man has by sin exposed himself to God's wrath and curse, a message from heaven has been a terror to him, as he scarcely dares to expect good tidings thence. In this world, it is very awful to have any converse with that world of spirits to which we are so much strangers. Gideon's courage failed him. But God spoke peace to him.

MHCC: Jdg 6:25-32

See the power of God's grace, that he could raise up a reformer; and the kindness of his grace, that he would raise up a deliverer, out of the family of a leader in idolatry. Gideon must not think it enough not to worship at that altar; he must throw it down, and offer sacrifice on another. It was needful he should make peace with God, before he made war on Midian. Till sin be pardoned through the great Sacrifice, no good is to be expected. God, who has all hearts in his hands, influenced Joash to appear for his son against the advocates for Baal, though he had joined formerly in the worship of Baal. Let us do our duty, and trust God with our safety. Here is a challenge to Baal, to do either good or evil; the result convinced his worshippers of their folly, in praying to one to help them that could not avenge himself.

MHCC: Jdg 6:33-40

These signs are truly miraculous, and very significant. Gideon and his men were going to fight the Midianites; could God distinguish between a small fleece of Israel, and the vast floor of Midian? Gideon is made to know that God could do so. Is Gideon desirous that the dew of Divine grace might come down upon himself in particular? He sees the fleece wet with dew to assure him of it. Does he desire that God will be as the dew to all Israel? Behold, all the ground is wet. What cause we sinners of the Gentiles have, to bless the Lord that the dew of heavenly blessings, once confined to Israel, is now sent to all the inhabitants of the earth! Yet still the means of grace are in different measures, according to the purposes of God. In the same congregation, one man's soul is like Gideon's moistened fleece, another like the dry ground.

Matthew Henry: Jdg 6:1-6

We have here, I. Israel's sin renewed: They did evil in the sight of the Lord, Jdg 6:1. The burnt child dreads the fire; yet this perverse unthinking people, that had so often smarted sorely for their idolatry, upon a little respite of God's judgments return to it again. This people hath a revolting rebellious heart, not kept in awe by the terror of God's judgments, nor engaged in honour and gratitude by the great things he had done for them to keep themselves in his love. The providence of God will not change the hearts and lives of sinners.

II. Israel's troubles repeated. This would follow of course; let all that sin expect to suffer; let all that return to folly expect to return to misery. With the froward God will show himself froward (Psa 18:26), and will walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him, Lev 26:21, Lev 26:24. Now as to this trouble, 1. It arose from a very despicable enemy. God delivered them into the hand of Midian (Jdg 6:1), not Midian in the south where Jethro lived, but Midian in the east that joined to Moab (Num 22:4), a people that all men despised as uncultivated and unintelligent; hence we read not here of any king, lord, or general, that they had, but the force with which they destroyed Israel was an undisciplined mob; and, which made it the more grievous, they were a people that Israel had formerly subdued, and in a manner destroyed (see Num 31:7), and yet by this time (nearly 200 years after) the poor remains of them were so multiplied, and so magnified, that they were capable of being made a very severe scourge to Israel. Thus God moved them to jealousy with those who were not a people, even a foolish nation, Deu 32:21. The meanest creature will serve to chastise those that have made the great Creator their enemy. And, when those we are authorized to rule prove rebellious and disobedient to us, it concerns us to enquire whether we have not been so to our sovereign Ruler. 2. It arose to a very formidable height (Jdg 6:2): The hand of Midian prevailed, purely by their multitude. God had promised to increase Israel as the sand on the sea shore; but their sin stopped their growth and diminished them, and then their enemies, though otherwise every way inferior to them, overpowered them with numbers. They came upon them as grasshoppers for multitude (Jdg 6:5), not in a regular army to engage them in the field, but in a confused swarm to plunder the country, quarter themselves upon it, and enrich themselves with its spoils - bands of robbers, and no better. And sinful Israel, being separated by sin from God, had not spirit to make head against them. Observe the wretched havoc that these Midianites made with their bands of plunderers in Israel. Here we have, (1.) The Israelites imprisoned, or rather imprisoning themselves, in dens and caves, Jdg 6:2. This was owing purely to their own timorousness and faint-heartedness, that they would rather fly than fight; it was the effect of a guilty conscience, which made them tremble at the shaking of a leaf, and the just punishment of their apostasy from God, who thus fought against them with those very terrors with which he would otherwise have fought for them. Had it not been for this, we cannot but think Israel a match for the Midianites, and able enough to make head against them; but the heart that departs from God is lost, not only to that which is good, but to that which is great. Sin dispirits men, and makes them sneak into dens and caves. The day will come when chief captains and mighty men will call in vain to rocks and mountains to hide them. (2.) The Israelites impoverished, greatly impoverished, Jdg 6:6. The Midianites and the other children of the east that joined with them to live by spoil and rapine (as long before the Sabeans and Chaldeans did that plundered Job, free-booters) made frequent incursions into the land of Canaan. This fruitful land was a great temptation to them; and the sloth and luxury into which the Israelites had sunk by forty years' rest made them and their substance an easy prey to them. They came up against them (Jdg 6:3), pitched their camps among them (Jdg 6:4), and brought their cattle with them, particularly camels innumerable (Jdg 6:5), not a flying party to make a sally upon them and be gone presently, but they resolved to force their way, and penetrated through the heart of the country as far as Gaza on the western side, Jdg 6:4. They let the Israelites alone to sow their ground, but towards harvest they came and seized all, and ate up and destroyed it, both grass and corn, and when they went away took with them the sheep and oxen, so that in short they left no sustenance for Israel, except what was privately taken by the rightful owners into the dens and caves. Now here we may see, [1.] The justice of God in the punishment of their sin. They had neglected to honour God with their substance in tithes and offerings, and had prepared that for Baal with which God should have been served, and now God justly sends an enemy to take it away in the season thereof, Hos 2:8, Hos 2:9. [2.] The consequence of God's departure from a people; when he goes all good goes and all mischiefs break in. When Israel kept in with God, they reaped what others sowed (Jos 24:13; Psa 105:44); but now that God had forsaken them others reaped what they sowed. Let us take occasion from this to bless God for our national peace and tranquillity, that we eat the labour of our hands.

III. Israel's sense of God's hand revived at last. Seven years, year after year, did the Midianites make these inroads upon them, each we may suppose worse than the other (Jdg 6:1), until at last, all other succours failing, Israel cried unto the Lord (Jdg 6:6), for crying to Baal ruined them, and would not help them. When God judges he will overcome; and sinners shall be made either to bend or break before him.

Matthew Henry: Jdg 6:7-10

Observe here, I. The cognizance God took of the cries of Israel, when at length they were directed towards him. Though in their prosperity they had neglected him and made court to his rivals, and though they never looked towards him until they were driven to it by extremity, yet, upon their complain and prayer, he intended relief for them. Thus would he show how ready he is to forgive, how swift he is to show mercy, and how inclinable to hear prayer, that sinners may be encouraged to return and repent, Psa 130:4.

II. The method God took of working deliverance for them.

1. Before he sent an angel to raise them up a saviour he sent a prophet to reprove them for sin, and to bring them to repentance, Jdg 6:8. This prophet is not named, but he was a man, a prophet, not an angel, as Jdg 2:1. Whether this prophet took an opportunity of delivering his message to the children of Israel when they had met together in a general assembly, at some solemn feast or other great occasion, or whether he went from city to city and from tribe to tribe, preaching to this purport, is not certain; but his errand was to convince them of sin, that, in their crying to the Lord, they might confess that with sorrow and shame, and not spend their breath in only complaining of their trouble. They cried to God for a deliverer, and God sent them a prophet to instruct them, and to make them ready for deliverance. Note, (1.) We have reason to hope God is designing mercy for us if we find he is by his grace preparing us for it. If to those that are sick he sends a messenger, an interpreter, by whom he shows unto man his uprightness, then he is gracious, and grants a recovery, Job 33:23, Job 33:24. (2.) The sending of prophets to a people, and the furnishing of a land with faithful ministers, is a token for good, and an evidence that God has mercy in store for them. He thus turns us to him, and then causes his face to shine, Psa 80:19.

2. We have here the heads of the message which this prophet delivered in to Israel, in the name of the Lord.

(1.) He sets before them the great things God had done for them (Jdg 6:8, Jdg 6:9): Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; they had worshipped the gods of the nations, as if they had had no God of their own to worship and therefore might choose whom they pleased; but they are here reminded of one whom they had forgotten, who was known by the title of the God of Israel, and to him they must return. They had turned to other gods, as if their own had been either incapable or unwilling to protect them, and therefore they are told what he did for their fathers, in whose loins they were, the benefit of which descended and still remained to this their ungrateful seed. [1.] He brought them out of Egypt, where otherwise they would have continued in perpetual poverty and slavery. [2.] He delivered them out of the hands of all that oppressed them; this is mentioned to intimate that the reason why they were not now delivered out of the hands of the oppressing Midianites was not for want of any power or good-will in God, but because by their iniquity they had sold themselves, and God would not redeem them until they by repentance revoked the bargain. [3.] He put them in quiet possession of this good land; this not only aggravated their sin, and affixed the brand of base ingratitude to it, but it justified God, and cleared him from blame upon account of the trouble they were now in. They could not say he was unkind, for he had given all possible proofs of his designing well for them; if ill befel them notwithstanding, they must thank themselves.

(2.) He shows the easiness and equity of God's demands and expectations from them (Jdg 6:10): " I am the Lord your God, to whom you lie under the highest obligations, fear not the gods of the Amorites, "that is, "do not worship them, nor show any respect to them; do not worship them for fear of their doing you any hurt, for what hurt can they do you while I am your God? Fear God, and you need not fear them."

(3.) He charges them with rebellion against God, who had laid this injunction upon them: But you have not obeyed my voice. The charge is short, but very comprehensive; this was the malignity of all their sin, it was disobedience to God; and therefore it was this that brought those calamities upon them under which they were now groaning, pursuant to the threatenings annexed to his commands. He intends hereby to bring them to repentance; and our repentance is then right and genuine when the sinfulness of sin, as disobedience to God, is that in it which we chiefly lament.

Matthew Henry: Jdg 6:11-24

It is not said what effect the prophet's sermon had upon the people, but we may hope it had a good effect, and that some of them at least repented and reformed upon it; for here, immediately after, we have the dawning of the day of their deliverance, by the effectual calling of Gideon to take upon him the command of their forces against the Midianites.

I. The person to be commissioned for this service was Gideon, the son of Joash, Jdg 6:14. The father was now living, but he was passed by, and this honour put upon the son, for the father kept up in his own family the worship of Baal (Jdg 6:25), which we may suppose this son, as far as was in his power, witnessed against. He was of the half tribe of Manasseh that lay in Canaan, of the family of Abiezer; the eldest house of that tribe, Jos 17:2. Hitherto the judges were raised up out of that tribe which suffered most by the oppression, and probably it was so here.

II. The person that gave him the commission was an angel of the Lord; it should seem not a created angel, but the Son of God himself, the eternal Word, the Lord of the angels, who then appeared upon some great occasions in human shape, as a prelude (says the learned bishop Patrick) to what he intended in the fulness of time, when he would take our nature upon him, as we say, for good and all. This angel is here called Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God (Jdg 6:14, Jdg 6:16), and he said, I will be with thee.

1. This divine person appeared here to Gideon, and it is observable how he found him, (1.) Retired - all alone. God often manifests himself to his people when they are out of the noise and hurry of this world. Silence and solitude befriend our communion with God. (2.) Employed in threshing wheat, with a staff or rod (so the word signifies), such as they used in beating out fitches and cummin (Isa 28:27), but now used for wheat, probably because he had but little to thresh, he needed not the oxen to tread it out. It was not then looked upon as any diminution to him, though he was a person of some account and a mighty man of valour, to lay his hand to the business of the husbandman. He had many servants (Jdg 6:27), and yet would not himself live in idleness. We put ourselves in the way of divine visits when we employ ourselves in honest business. Tidings of Christ's birth were brought to the shepherds when they were keeping their flocks. The work he was about was an emblem of that greater work to which he was now to be called, as the disciples' fishing was. From threshing corn he is fetched to thresh the Midianites, Isa 41:15. (3.) Distressed; he was threshing his wheat, not in the threshing-floor, the proper place, but by the wine-press, in some private unsuspected corner, for fear of the Midianites. He himself shared in the common calamity, and now the angel came to animate him against Midian when he himself could speak so feelingly of the heaviness of their yoke. The day of the greatest distress is God's time to appear for his people's relief.

2. Let us now see what passed between the angel and Gideon, who knew not with certainty, till after he was gone, that he was an angel, but supposed he was a prophet.

(1.) The angel accosted him with respect, and assured him of the presence of God with him, Jdg 6:12. He calls him a mighty man of valour, perhaps because he observed how he threshed his corn with all his might; and seest thou a man diligent in his business? whatever his business is, he shall stand before kings. He that is faithful in a few things shall be ruler over many. Gideon was a man of a brave active spirit, and yet buried alive in obscurity, through the iniquity of the times; but he is here animated to undertake something great, like himself, with that word, The Lord is with thee, or, as the Chaldee reads it, the Word of the Lord is thy help. It was very sure that the Lord was with him when this angel was with him. By this word, [1.] He gives him his commission. If we have God's presence with us, this will justify us and bear us out in our undertakings. [2.] He inspires him with all necessary qualifications for the execution of his commission. "The Lord is with thee to guide and strengthen thee, to animate and support thee."[3.] He assures him of success; for, if God be for us, who can prevail against us? If he be with us, nothing can be wanting to us. The presence of God with us is all in all to our prosperity, whatever we do. Gideon was a mighty man of valour, and yet he could bring nothing to pass without the presence of God, and that presence is enough to make any man mighty in valour and to give a man courage at any time.

(2.) Gideon gave a very melancholy answer to this joyful salutation (Jdg 6:13): O my Lord! if the Lord be with us (which the Chaldee reads, Is the Shechinah of the Lord our help? making that the same with the Word of the Lord ) why then has all this befallen us? "all this trouble and distress from the Midianites' incursions, which force me to thresh wheat here by the wine-press - all this loss, and grief, and fright; and where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of? "Observe, In his reply he regards not the praise of his own valour, nor does this in the least elevate him or give him any encouragement, though it is probable the angel adapted what he said to that which Gideon was at the same time thinking of; while his labouring hands were employed about his wheat, his working head and daring heart were meditating Israel's rescue and Midian's ruin, with which thought he that knows the heart seasonably sets in, calls him a man of valour for his brave projects, and open him a way to put them in execution; yet Gideon, as if not conscious to himself of any thing great or encouraging in his own spirit, fastens only on the assurance the angel had given him of God's presence, as that by which they held all their comfort. Observe, The angel spoke in particular to him: The Lord is with thee; but he expostulates for all: If the Lord be with us, herding himself with the thousands of Israel, and admitting no comfort but what they might be sharers in, so far is he from the thoughts of monopolizing it, though he had so fair an occasion given him. Note, Public spirits reckon that only an honour and joy to themselves which puts them in a capacity of serving the common interests of God's church. Gideon was a mighty man of valour, but as yet weak in faith, which makes it hard to him to reconcile to the assurances now given him of the presence of God, [1.] The distress to which Israel was reduced: Why has all this (and all this was no little) befallen us? Note, It is sometimes hard, but never impossible, to reconcile cross providences with the presence of God and his favour. [2.] The delay of their deliverance: " Where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of? Why does not the same power which delivered our fathers from the yoke of the Egyptians deliver us out of the hands of the Midianites?"As if because God did not immediately work miracles for their deliverance, though they had by their sins forfeited his favour and help, it must be questioned whether ever he had wrought the miracles which their fathers told them of, or, if he had, whether he had now the same wisdom, and power, and good-will to his people, that he had had formerly. This was his weakness. We must not expect that the miracles which were wrought when a church was in the forming, and some great truth in the settling, should be continued and repeated when the formation and settlement are completed: no, nor that the mercies God showed to our fathers that served him, and kept close to him, should be renewed to us, if we degenerate and revolt from him. Gideon ought not to have said either, First, That God had delivered them into the hands of the Midianites, for by their iniquities they had sold themselves, or, Secondly, That now they were in their hands he had forsaken them, for he had lately sent them a prophet (Jdg 6:8), which was a certain indication that he had not forsaken them.

(3.) The angel gave him a very effectual answer to his objections, by giving him a commission to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, and assuring him of success therein, Jdg 6:14. Now the angel is called Jehovah, for he speaks as one having authority, and not as a messenger. [1.] There was something extraordinary in the look he now gave to Gideon; it was a gracious favourable look, which revived his spirits that dropped, and silenced his fears, such a look as that with which God's countenance beholds the upright, Psa 11:7. He looked upon him, and smiled at the objections he made, which he gave him no direct answer to, but girded and clothed him with such power as would shortly enable him to answer them himself, and make him ashamed that ever he had made them. It was a speaking look, like Christ's upon Peter (Luk 22:61), a powerful look, a look that strangely darted new light and life into Gideon's breast, and inspired him with a generous heat, far above what he felt before. [2.] But there was much more in what he said to him. First, He commissioned him to appear and act as Israel's deliverer. Such a one the few thinking people in the nation, and Gideon among the rest, were now expecting to be raised up, according to God's former method, in answer to the cries of oppressed Israel; and now Gideon is told, "Thou art the man: Go in this thy might, this might wherewith thou art now threshing wheat; go and employ it to a nobler purpose; I will make thee a thresher of men. "Or, rather, "this might wherewith thou art now endued by this look."God gave him his commission by giving him all the qualifications that were necessary for the execution of it, which is more than the mightiest prince and potentate on earth can do for those to whom he gives commissions. God's fitting men for work is a sure and constant evidence of his calling them to it. "Go, not in thy might, that which is natural, and of thyself, depend not on thy own valour; but go in this thy might, this which thou hast now received, go in the strength of the Lord God, that is, the strength with which thou must strengthen thyself." Secondly, He assured him of success. This was enough to put courage into him; he might be confident he should not miscarry in the attempt; it should not turn either to his own disgrace or the damage of his people (as baffled enterprises do), but to his honour and their happiness: Thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, and so shalt not only be an eye-witness, but a glorious instrument, of such wonders as thy fathers told thee of. Gideon, we may suppose, looked as one astonished at this strange and surprising power conferred upon him, and questions whether he may depend upon what he hears: the angel ratifies his commission with a teste meipso - an appeal to his own authority; there needed no more. " Have not I commanded thee - I that have all power in heaven and earth, and particular authority here as Israel's King, giving commissions immediately - I who am that I am, the same that sent Moses?"Exo 3:14.

(4.) Gideon made a very modest objection against this commission (Jdg 6:15): O my Lord! wherewith shall I save Israel? This question bespeaks him either, [1.] Distrustful of God and his power, as if, though God should be with him, yet it were impossible for him to save Israel. True faith is often weak, yet it shall not be rejected, but encouraged and strengthened. Or, [2.] Inquisitive concerning the methods he must take: "Lord, I labour under all imaginable disadvantages for it; if I must do it, thou must put me in the way."Note, Those who receive commissions from God must expect and seek for instructions from him. Or rather, [3.] Humble, self-diffident, and self-denying. The angel had honoured him, but see how meanly he speaks of himself: "My family is comparatively poor in Manasseh"(impoverished, it may be, more than other families by the Midianites), "and I am the least, that have the least honour and interest, in my father's house; what can I pretend to do? I am utterly unfit for the service, and unworthy of the honour."Note, God often chooses to do great things by those that are little, especially that are so in their own eyes. God delights to advance the humble.

(5.) This objection was soon answered by a repetition of the promise that God would be with him, v. 16. "Object not thy poverty and meanness; such things have indeed often hindered men in great enterprises, but what are they to a man that has the presence of God with him, which will make up all the deficiencies of honour and estate. Surely I will be with thee, to direct and strengthen thee, and put such a reputation upon thee that, how weak soever thy personal interest is, thou shalt have soldiers enough to follow thee, and be assured thou shalt smite the Midianites as one men, as easily as if they were but one man and as effectually. All the thousands of Midian shall be as if they had but one neck, and thou shalt have the cutting of it off."

(6.) Gideon desires to have his faith confirmed touching this commission; for he would not be over-credulous of that which tended so much to his own praise, would not venture upon an undertaking so far above him, and in which he must engage many more, but he would be well satisfied himself of his authority, and would be able to give satisfaction to others as to him who gave him that authority. He therefore humbly begs of this divine person, whoever he was, [1.] That he would give him a sign, Jdg 6:17. And, the commission being given him out of the common road of providence, he might reasonably expect it should be confirmed by some act of God out of the common course of nature: "Show me a sign to assure me of the truth of this concerning which thou talkest with me, that it is something more than talk, and that thou art in earnest."Now, under the dispensation of the Spirit, we are not to expect signs before our eyes, such as Gideon here desired, but must earnestly pray to God that, if we have found grace in his sight, he would show us a sign in our heart, by the powerful operations of his Spirit there, fulfilling the work of faith, and perfecting what is lacking in it. [2.] In order hereunto, that he would accept of a treat, and so give him a further and longer opportunity of conversation with him, Jdg 6:18. Those who know what it is to have communion with God desire the continuance of it, and are loth to part, praying with Gideon, Depart not hence, I pray thee. That which Gideon desired in courting his stay was that he might bring out some provision of meat for this stranger. He did not take him into the house to entertain him there, perhaps because his father's house were not well affected to him and his friends, or because he desired still to be in private with this stranger, and to converse with him alone (therefore he calls not for a servant to bring the provision, but fetches it himself), or because thus his father Abraham entertained angels unawares, not in his tent, but under a tree, Gen 18:8. Upon the angel's promise to stay to dinner with him, he hastened to bring out a kid, which, it is likely, was ready boiled for his own dinner, so that in making it ready he had nothing to do but to put it in the basket (for here was no sauce to serve it up in, nor the dish garnished) and the broth in a vessel, and so he presented it, Jdg 6:19. Hereby he intended, First, To testify his grateful and generous respects to this stranger, and, in him, to God who sent him, as one that studied what he should render. He had pleaded the poverty of his family (Jdg 6:15) to excuse himself from being a general, but not here to excuse himself from being hospitable. Out of the little which the Midianites had left him he would gladly spare enough to entertain a friend, especially a messenger from heaven. Secondly, To try who and what this extraordinary person was. What he brought out is called his present, Jdg 6:18. It is the same word that is used for a meat-offering, and perhaps that word is used which signifies both because Gideon intended to leave it to this divine person to determine which it should be when he had it before him: whether a feast or a meat-offering, and accordingly he would be able to judge concerning him: if he ate of it as common meat, he would suppose him to be a man, a prophet; if otherwise, as it proved, he should know him to be an angel.

(7.) The angel gives him a sign in and by that which he had kindly prepared for his entertainment. For what we offer to God for his glory, and in token of our gratitude to him, will be made by the grace of God to turn to our own comfort and satisfaction. The angel ordered him to take the flesh and bread out of the basket, and lay it upon a hard and cold rock, and to pour out the broth upon it, which, if he brought it hot, would soon be cold there; and Gideon did so (Jdg 6:20), believing that the angel appointed it, not in contempt of his courtesy, but with an intention to give him a sign, which he did, abundantly to his satisfaction. For, [1.] He turned the meat into an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto himself, showing hereby that he was not a man who needed meat, but the Son of God who was to be served and honoured by sacrifice, and who in the fulness of time was to make himself a sacrifice. [2.] He brought fire out of the rock, to consume this sacrifice, summoning it, not by striking the rock, as we strike fire out of a flint, but by a gentle touch given to the offering with the end of his staff, Jdg 6:21. Hereby he gave him a sign that he had found grace in his sight, for God testified his acceptance of sacrifices by kindling them, if public, with fire from heaven, as those of Moses and Elias, if private, as this, with fire out of the earth, which was equivalent: both were the effect of divine power; and this acceptance of his sacrifice evidenced the acceptance of his person, confirmed his commission, and perhaps was intended to signify his success in the execution of it, that he and his army should be a surprising terror and consumption to the Midianites, like this fire out of the rock. [3.] He departed out of his sight immediately, did not walk off as a man, but vanished and disappeared as a spirit. Here was as much of a sign as he could wish.

(8.) Gideon, though no doubt he was confirmed in his faith by the indications given of the divinity of the person who had spoken to him, yet for the present was put into a great fright by it, till God graciously pacified him and removed his fears. [1.] Gideon speaks peril to himself (Jdg 6:22): When he perceived that he was an angel (which was not till he had departed, as the two disciples knew not it was Jesus they had been talking with till he was going, Luk 24:31), then he cried out, Alas! O Lord God! be merciful to me, I am undone, for I have seen an angel, as Jacob, who wondered that his life was preserved when he had seen God, Gen 32:30. Ever since man has by sin exposed himself to God's wrath and curse an express from heaven has been a terror to him, as he scarcely dares to expect good tidings thence; at least, in this world of sense, it is a very awful thing to have any sensible conversation with that world of spirits to which we are so much strangers. Gideon's courage failed him now. [2.] God speaks peace to him, Jdg 6:23. It might have been fatal to him, but he assures him it should not. The Lord had departed out of his sight, Jdg 6:21. But though he must no longer walk by sight he might still live by faith, that faith which comes by hearing; for the Lord said to him, with an audible voice (as bishop Patrick thinks) these encouraging words, " Peace be unto thee, all is well, and be thou satisfied that it is so. Fear not; he that came to employ thee did not intend to slay thee; thou shalt not die. "See how ready God is to revive the hearts of those that tremble at his word and presence, and to give those that stand in awe of his majesty assurances of his mercy.

3. The memorial of this vision which Gideon set up was a monument in form of an altar, the rather because it was by a kind of sacrifice upon a rock, without the solemnity of an altar, that the angel manifested his acceptance of him; then an altar was unnecessary (the angel's staff was sufficient to sanctify the gift without an altar), but now it was of use to preserve the remembrance of the vision, which was done by the name Gideon gave to this memorial, Jehovah-shalom (Jdg 6:24) - The Lord peace. This is, (1.) The title of the Lord that spoke to him. Compare Gen 16:13. The same that is the Lord our righteousness is our peace (Eph 2:14), our reconciler and so our Saviour. Or, (2.) The substance of what he said to him: " The Lord spoke peace, and created that fruit of the lips, bade me be easy when I was in that agitation."Or, (3.) A prayer grounded upon what he had said, so the margin understands it: The Lord send peace, that is, rest from the present trouble, for still the public welfare lay nearest his heart.

Matthew Henry: Jdg 6:25-32

Here, I. Orders are given to Gideon to begin his government with the reformation of his father's house, Jdg 6:25, Jdg 6:26. A correspondence being settled between God and Gideon, by the appearance of the angel to him, it was kept up in another way; the same night after he had seen God, when he was full of thoughts concerning what had passed, which probably he had not yet communicated to any, The Lord said unto him in a dream, Do so and so. Note, God's visits, if gratefully received, shall be graciously repeated. Bid God welcome, and he will come again. Gideon is appointed, 1. To throw down Baal's altar, which it seems hi father had, either for his own house or perhaps for the whole town. See the power of God's grace, that he could raise up a reformer, and the condescensions of his grace, that he would raise up a deliverer, out of the family of one that was a ring-leader in idolatry. But Gideon must not now think it enough not to worship at that altar, which we charitably hope he had not done, but he must throw it down; not consecrate the same altar to God (tit is bishop Hall's observation), but utterly demolish it. God first commands down the monuments of superstition, and then enjoins his own service. He must likewise cut down the grove that was by it, the plantation of young trees, designed to beautify the place. The learned bishop Patrick, by the grove, understands the image in the grove, probably the image of Ashtaroth (for the word for a grove is Ashereh ), which stood upon or close by the altar. 2. The erect an altar to God, to Jehovah his God, which probably was to be notified by an inscription upon the altar to that purport - to Jehovah, Gideon's God, or Israel's. It would have been an improper thing for him to build an altar, even to the God of Israel, especially for burnt-offering and sacrifice, and would have been construed into a contempt of the altar at Shiloh, if God, who has not tied up himself to his own laws, had not bidden him to do it. But now it was his duty and honour to be thus employed. God directs him to the place where he should build it, on the top of the rock, perhaps in the same place in which the angel had appeared to him, near to the altar he had already built: and he must not do it in a hurry, but with the decency that became a religious action ( in an orderly manner, as it is in the margin), according to the ancient law for altars raised on particular occasions, that they must be of earth not of hewn stone. The word here used for the rock on which the altar was to be built signifies a fortress, or strong-hold, erected, some think, to secure them from the Midianites; if so, it was no security while the altar of Baal was so near it, but it was effectually fortified when an altar to the Lord was built on the top of it, for that is the best defence upon our glory. On this altar, (1.) He was to offer sacrifice. Two bullocks he must offer: his father's young bullock, and the second bullock of seven years old, so it should rather be read, not even the second as we read it. The former, we may suppose, he was to offer for himself, the latter for the sins of the people whom he was to deliver. It was requisite he should thus make peace with God, before he made war on Midian. Till sin be pardoned through the great sacrifice, no good is to be expected. These bullocks, it is supposed, were intended for sacrifices on the altar of Baal, but were now converted to a better use. Thus, when the strong man armed is overcome and dispossessed, the stronger than he divides the spoil, seizes that for himself which was prepared for Baal. Let him come whose right it is, and give it to him. (2.) Ball's grove, or image, or whatever it was that was the sanctity or beauty of his altar, must not only be burnt, but must be used as fuel for God's altar, to signify not only that whatever sets up itself in opposition to God shall be destroyed, but that the justice of God will be glorified in its destruction. God ordered Gideon to do this, [1.] To try his zeal for religion, which it was necessary he should give proofs of before he took the field, to give proof of his valour there. [2.] That some steps might hereby to taken towards Israel's reformation, which must prepare the way for their deliverance. Sin, the cause, must be taken away, else how should the trouble, which was but the effect, come to an end? And it might be hoped that this example of Gideon's, who was now shortly to appear so great a man, would be followed by the rest of the cities and tribes, and the destruction of this one altar of Baal would be the destruction of many.

II. Gideon was obedient to the heavenly vision, Jdg 6:27. He that was to command the Israel of God must be subject to the God of Israel, without disputing, and, as a type of Christ, must first save his people from their sins, and then save them from their enemies. 1. He had servants of his own, whom he could confide in, who, we may suppose, like him, had kept their integrity, and had not bowed the knee to Baal, and therefore were forward to assist him in destroying the altar of Baal. 2. He did not scruple taking his father's bullock and offering it to God without his father's consent, because God, who expressly commanded him to do so, had a better title to it than his father had, and it was the greatest real kindness he could do to his father to prevent his sin. 3. He expected to incur the displeasure of his father's household by it, and the ill-will of his neighbours, yet he did it, remembering how much it was Levi's praise that, in the cause of God, he said to his father and mother, I have not seen him, Deu 33:9. And, while he was sure of the favour of God, he feared not the anger of men; he that bade him do it would bear him out. Yet, 4. Though he feared not their resentment when it was done, to prevent their resistance in the doing of it he prudently chose to do it by night, that he might not be disturbed in these sacred actions. And some think it was the same night in which God spoke to him to do it, and that, as soon as ever he had received the orders, he immediately applied himself to the execution of them, and finished before morning.

III. He was brought into peril of his life for doing it, Jdg 6:28-30. 1. It was soon discovered what was done. Gideon, when he had gone through with the business, did not desire the concealment of it, nor could it be hid, for the men of the city rose early in the morning, as it should seem, to say their matins at Baal's altar, and so to begin the day with their god, such a one as he was, a shame to those who say the true God is their God, and yet, in the morning, direct no prayer to him, nor look up. 2. It was soon discovered who had done it. Strict enquiry was made. Gideon was known to be disaffected to the worship of Baal, which brought him into suspicion, and positive proof immediately came against him: "Gideon, no doubt, has done this thing. "3. Gideon being found guilty of the fact, to such a pitch of impiety had these degenerate Israelites arrived that they take it for law he must die for the same, and require his own father (who, by patronising their idolatry, had given them too much cause to expect he would comply with them herein) to deliver him up: Bring out thy son, that he may die. Be astonished, O heavens! at this, and tremble, O earth! By the law of God the worshippers of Baal were to die, but these wicked men impiously turn the penalty upon the worshippers of the God of Israel. How prodigiously mad were they upon their idols! Was it not enough to offer the choicest of their bullocks to Baal, but must the bravest youth of their city fall as a sacrifice to that dunghill-deity, when they pretended he was provoked? How soon will idolaters become persecutors!

IV. He was rescued out of the hands of his persecutors by his own father, Jdg 6:31.

1. There were those that stood against Gideon, that not only appeared at the first to make a demand, but insisted on it, and would have him put to death. Notwithstanding the heavy judgments they were at this time under for their idolatry, yet they hated to be reformed, and walked contrary to God even when he was walking contrary to them.

2. Yet then Joash stood for him; he was one of the chief men of the city. Those that have power may do a great deal for the protection of an honest man and an honest cause, and when they so use their power they are ministers of God for good.

(1.) This Joash had patronised Baal's altar, yet now protects him that had destroyed it, [1.] Out of natural affection to his son, and perhaps a particular esteem for him as a virtuous, valiant, valuable, young man, and never the worse for not joining with him in the worship of Baal. Many that have not courage enough to keep their integrity themselves yet have so much conscience left as makes them love and esteem those that do. If Joash had a kindness for Baal, yet he had a greater kindness for his son. Or, [2.] Out of a care for the public peace. The mob grew riotous, and, he feared, would grow more so, and therefore, as some think, he bestirred himself to repress the tumult: "Let it be left to the judges; it is not for you to pass sentence upon any man;"he that offers it, let him be put to death: he means not as an idolater, but as a disturber of the peace, and the mover of sedition. Under this same colour Paul was rescued at Ephesus from those that were as zealous for Diana as these were for Baal, Act 19:40. Or, [3.] Out of a conviction that Gideon had done well. His son, perhaps, had reasoned with him, or God, who has all hearts in his hands, had secretly and effectually influenced him to appear thus against the advocates for Baal, though he had complied with them formerly in the worship of Baal. Note, It is good to appear for God when we are called to it, though there be few or none to second us, because God can incline the hearts of those to stand by us from whom we little expect assistance. Let us do our duty, and then trust God with our safety.

(2.) Two things Joash urges: - [1.] That it was absurd for them to plead for Baal. "Will you that are Israelites, the worshippers of the one only living and true God, plead for Baal, a false god? Will you be so sottish, so senseless? Those whose fathers' god Baal was, and who never knew any other, are more excusable in pleading for him than you are, that are in covenant with Jehovah, and have been trained up in the knowledge of him. You that have smarted so much for worshipping Baal, and have brought all this mischief and calamity upon yourselves by it, will you yet plead for Baal?"Note, It is bad to commit sin, but it is great wickedness indeed to plead for it, especially to plead for Baal, that idol, whatever it is, which possesses that room in the heart which God should have. [2.] That it was needless for them to plead for Baal. If he were not a god, as was pretended, they could have nothing to say for him; if he were, he was able to plead for himself, as the God of Israel had often done by fire from heaven, or some other judgment against those who put contempt upon him. Here is a fair challenge to Baal to do either good or evil, and the result convinced his worshippers of their folly in praying to one to help them that could not avenge himself; after this Gideon remarkably prospered, and thereby it appeared how unable Baal was to maintain his own cause.

(3.) Gideon's father hereupon gave him a new name (Jdg 6:32); he called him Jerubbaal: "Let Baal plead; let him plead against him if he can; if he have any thing to say for himself against his destroyer, let him say it."This name was a standing defiance to Baal: "Now that Gideon is taking up arms against the Midianites that worship Baal, let him defend his worshippers if he can."It likewise gave honour to Gideon (a sworn enemy to that great usurper, and that had carried the day against him), that encouragement to his soldiers, that they fought under one that fought for God against this great competitor with him for the throne. It is the probable conjecture of the learned that that Jerombalus whom Sanchoniathon (one of the most ancient of all the heathen writers) speaks of as a priest of the god Jao (a corruption of the name Jehovah ), and one to whom he was indebted for a great deal of knowledge, was this Jerubbaal. He is called Jerubbesheth (2Sa 11:12), Baal, a lord, being fitly turned into Besheth, shame.

Matthew Henry: Jdg 6:33-40

Here we have, I. The descent which the enemies of Israel made upon them, Jdg 6:33. A vast number of Midianites, Amalekites, and Arabians, got together, and came over Jordan, none either caring or daring to guard that important and advantageous pass against them, and they made their headquarters in the valley of Jezreel, in the heart of Manasseh's tribe, not far from Gideon's city. Some think that the notice they had of Gideon's destroying Baal's altar brought them over, and that they came to plead for Baal and to make that a pretence for quarrelling with Israel; but it is more likely that it was now harvest-time, when they had been wont each year to make such a visit as this (Jdg 6:3), and that they were expected when Gideon was threshing, Jdg 6:11. God raised up Gideon to be ready against this terrible blow came. Their success so many years in these incursions, the little opposition they had met with and the great booty they had carried off, made them now both very eager and very confident. But it proved that the measure of their iniquity was full and the year of recompence had come; they must now make an end to spoil and must be spoiled, and they are gathered as sheaves to the floor (Mic 4:12, Mic 4:13), for Gideon to thresh.

II. The preparation which Gideon makes to attack them in their camp, Jdg 6:34, Jdg 6:35. 1. God by his Spirit put life into Gideon: The Spirit of the Lord clothes Gideon (so the word is), clothed him as a robe, to put honour upon him, clothed him as a coat of mail, to put defence upon him. Those are well clad that are thus clothed. A spirit of fortitude from before the Lord clothed Gideon; so the Chaldee. He was of himself a mighty man of valour; yet personal strength and courage, though vigorously exerted, would not suffice for this great action; he must have the armour of God upon him, and this is what he must depend upon: The Spirit of the Lord clothed him in an extraordinary manner. Whom God calls to his work he will qualify and animate for it. 2. Gideon with his trumpet put life into his neighbours, God working with him; he blew a trumpet, to call in volunteers, and more came in than perhaps he expected. (1.) The men of Abiezer, though lately enraged against him for throwing down the altar of Baal, and though they had condemned him to death as a criminal, were now convinced of their error, bravely came in to his assistance, and submitted to him as their general: Abiezer was gathered after him, Jdg 6:34. So suddenly can God turn the hearts even of idolaters and persecutors. (2.) Distant tribes, even Asher and Naphtali, which lay most remote, though strangers to him, obeyed his summons, and sent him in the best of their forces, Jdg 6:35. Though they lay furthest from the danger, yet, considering that if their neighbours were over-run by the Midianites their own turn would be next, they were forward to join against a common enemy.

III. The signs which God gratified him with, for the confirming both of his own faith and that of his followers; and perhaps it was more for their sakes than for his own that he desired them. Or, perhaps, he desired by these to be satisfied whether this was the time of his conquering the Midianites, or whether he was to wait for some other opportunity. Observe, 1. His request for a sign (Jdg 6:36, Jdg 6:37): "Let me by this know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, let a fleece of wool, spread in the open air, be wet with the dew, and let the ground about it be dry."The purport of this is, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. He found his own faith weak and wavering, and therefore begged of God by this sign to perfect what was lacking in it. We may suppose that God, who intended to give him these signs, for the glorifying of his own power and goodness, put it into his heart to ask them. Yet, when he repeated his request for a second sign, the reverse of the former, he did it with a very humble apology, deprecating God's displeasure, because it looked so like a peevish humoursome distrust of God and dissatisfaction with the many assurances he had already given him (Jdg 6:39): Let not thy anger be hot against me. Though he took the boldness to ask another sign, yet he did it with such fear and trembling as showed that the familiarity God had graciously admitted him to did not breed any contempt of God's glory, nor presumption on God's goodness. Abraham had given him an example of this, when God gave him leave to be very free with him (Gen 18:30, Gen 18:32), O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. God's favour must be sought with great reverence, a due sense of our distance, and a religious fear of his wrath. 2. God's gracious grant of his request. See how tender God is of true believers though they be weak, and how ready to condescend to their infirmities, that the bruised reed may not be broken nor the smoking flax quenched. Gideon would have the fleece wet and the ground dry; but then, lest any should object, "It is natural for wool, if ever so little moisture fall, to drink it in and retain it, and therefore there was nothing extraordinary in this,"though the quantity wrung out was sufficient to obviate such an objection, yet he desires that next night the ground might be wet and the fleece dry, and it is done, so willing is God to give to the heirs of promise strong consolation (Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18), even by two immutable things. He suffers himself, not only to be prevailed with by their importunities, but even to be prescribed to by their doubts and dissatisfactions. These signs were, (1.) Truly miraculous, and therefore abundantly serving to confirm his commission. It is said of the dew that it is from the Lord, and tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men (Mic 5:7); and yet God here in this matter hearkened to the voice of a man; as to Joshua, in directing the course of the sun, so to Gideon in directing that of the dew, by which it appears that it falls not by chance, but by providence. The latter sign inverted the former, and, to please Gideon, it was wrought backward and forward, whence Dr. Fuller observes that heaven's real miracles will endure turning, being inside and outside both alike. (2.) Very significant. He and his men were going to engage the Midianites; could God distinguish between a small fleece of Israel and the vast floor of Midian? Yes, by this he is made to know that he can. Is Gideon desirous that the dew of divine grace might descend upon himself in particular? He sees the fleece wet with dew to assure him of it. Does he desire that God will be as the dew to all Israel? Behold, all the ground is wet. Some make this fleece an emblem of the Jewish nation, which, when time was, was wet with the dew of God's word and ordinances, while the rest of the world was dry; but since the rejection of Christ and his gospel they are dry as the heath in the wilderness, while the nations about are as a watered garden.

Keil-Delitzsch: Jdg 6:1-10

Renewed Apostasy of the Nation, and Its Punishment . - Jdg 6:1. As the Israelites forsook Jehovah their God again, the Lord delivered them up for seven years into the hands of the Midianites. The Midianites , who were descendants of Abraham and Keturah (Gen 25:2), and had penetrated into the grassy steppes on the eastern side of the country of the Moabites and Ammonites (see at Num 22:4), had shown hostility to Israel even in the time of Moses, and had been defeated in a war of retaliation on the part of the Israelites (Num 31). But they had afterwards recovered their strength, so that now, after an interval of 200 years, the Lord used them as a rod of chastisement for His rebellious people. In Jdg 6:1, Jdg 6:2, Jdg 6:6, they alone are mentioned as oppressors of Israel; but in Jdg 6:3, Jdg 6:33, and Jdg 7:12, the Amalekites and children of the east are mentioned in connection with them, from which we may see that the Midianites were the principal enemies, but had allied themselves with other predatory Bedouin tribes, to make war upon the Israelites and devastate their land. On the Amalekites , those leading enemies of the people of God who had sprung from Esau, see the notes on Gen 36:12 and Exo 17:8. " Children of the east "(see Job 1:3) is the general name for the tribes that lived in the desert on the east of Palestine, "like the name of Arabs in the time of Josephus (in Ant. v. 6, 1, he calls the children of the east mentioned here by the name of Arabs), or in later times the names of the Nabataeans and Kedarenes"( Bertheau ). Hence we find in Jdg 8:10, that all the enemies who oppressed the Israelites are called "children of the east."

Jdg 6:2-5

The Oppression of Israel by Midian and Its Allies . Their power pressed so severely upon the Israelites, that before (or because of) them the latter " made them the ravines which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds, "sc., which were to be met with all over the land in after times (viz., at the time when our book was written), and were safe places of refuge in time of war. This is implied in the definite article before מנהרות and the following substantives. The words " they made them "are not at variance with the fact that there are many natural caves to be found in the limestone mountains of Palestine. For, on the one hand, they do not affirm that all the caves to be found in the land were made by the Israelites at that time; and, on the other hand, עשׂה does not preclude the use of natural caves as places of refuge, since it not only denotes the digging and making of caves, but also the adaptation of natural caves to the purpose referred to, i.e., the enlargement of them, or whatever was required to make them habitable. The ἁπ. λεγ. מנהרות does not mean "light holes"( Bertheau ), or "holes with openings to the light,"from נהר , in the sense of to stream, to enlighten ( Rashi, Kimchi , etc.), but is to be taken in the sense of "mountain ravines," hollowed out by torrents (from נהר , to pour), which the Israelites made into hiding-places. מצדות , fortresses , mountain strongholds. These ravines, caves, and fortresses were not merely to serve as hiding-places for the Israelitish fugitives, but much more as places of concealment for their possessions, and necessary supplies. For the Midianites, like genuine Bedouins, thought far more of robbing and plundering and laying waste the land of the Israelites, than of exterminating the people themselves. Herodotus (i. 17) says just the same respecting the war of the Lydian king Alyattes wit the Milesians.

Jdg 6:3-5

When the Israelites had sown, the Midianites and their allies came upon them, encamped against them, and destroyed the produce of the land (the fruits of the field and soil) as far as Gaza, in the extreme south-west of the land ("till thou come,"as in Gen 10:19, etc.). As the enemy invaded the land with their camels and flocks, and on repeated occasions encamped in the valley of Jezreel (Jdg 6:33), they must have entered the land on the west of the Jordan by the main road which connects the countries on the east with Palestine on the west, crossing the Jordan near Beisan, and passing through the plain of Jezreel; and from this point they spread over Palestine to the sea-coast of Gaza. " They left no sustenance (in the shape of produce of the field and soil) in Israel, and neither sheep, nor oxen, nor asses. For they came on with their flocks, and their tents came like grasshoppers in multitude. "The Chethibh יבאוּ is not to be altered into וּבאוּ , according to the Keri and certain Codd . If we connect ואהליהם with the previous words, according to the Masoretic pointing, we have a simple asyndeton. It is more probable, however, that ואהליהם belongs to what follows: "And their tents came in such numbers as grasshoppers." כּדי , lit . like a multitude of grasshoppers, in such abundance. "Thus they came into the land to devastate it."

Jdg 6:6

The Israelites were greatly weakened in consequence ( ידּל , the imperf . Niphal of דּלל ), so that in their distress they cried to the Lord for help.

Jdg 6:7-10

But before helping them, the Lord sent a prophet to reprove the people for not hearkening to the voice of their God, in order that they might reflect, and might recognise in the oppression which crushed them the chastisement of God for their apostasy, and so be brought to sincere repentance and conversion by their remembrance of the former miraculous displays of the grace of God. The Lord God, said the prophet to the people, brought you out of Egypt, the house of bondage, and delivered you out of the hand of Egypt (Exo 18:9), and out of the hand of all your oppressors (see Jdg 2:18; Jdg 4:3; Jdg 10:12), whom He drove before you (the reference is to the Amorites and Canaanites who were conquered by Moses and Joshua); but ye have not followed His commandment, that ye should not worship the gods of the Amorites. The Amorites stand here for the Canaanites, as in Gen 15:16 and Jos 24:15.

Keil-Delitzsch: Jdg 6:11-32

Call of Gideon to Be the Deliverer of Israel . - As the reproof of the prophet was intended to turn the hearts of the people once more to the Lord their God and deliverer, so that manner in which God called Gideon to be their deliverer, and rescued Israel from its oppressors through his instrumentality, as intended to furnish the most evident proof that the help and salvation of Israel were not to be found in man, but solely in their God. God had also sent their former judges. The Spirit of Jehovah had come upon Othniel, so that he smote the enemy in the power of God ( Jdg 3:10). Ehud had put to death the hostile king by stratagem, and then destroyed his army; and Barak had received the command of the Lord, through the prophetess Deborah, to deliver His people from the dominion of their foes, and had carried out the command with her assistance. But Gideon was called to be the deliverer of Israel through an appearance of the angel of the Lord, to show to him and to all Israel, that Jehovah, the God of the fathers, was still near at hand to His people, and could work miracles as in the days of old, if Israel would only adhere to Him and keep His covenant. The call of Gideon took place in two revelations from God. First of all the Lord appeared to him in the visible form of an angel, in which He had already made himself known to the patriarchs, and summoned him in the strength of God to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Midianites (Jdg 6:11-24). He then commanded him, in a dream of the night, to throw down his father's altar of Baal, and to offer a burnt-offering to Jehovah his God upon an altar erected for the purpose (Jdg 6:25-32). In the first revelation the Lord acknowledged Gideon; in the second He summoned Gideon to acknowledge Him as his God.

Jdg 6:11-24

Appearance of the Angel of the Lord . - Jdg 6:11. The angel of the Lord, i.e., Jehovah, in a visible self-revelation in human form (see Pentateuch, pp. 106ff.), appeared this time in the form of a traveller with a staff in his hand (Jdg 6:21), and sat down " under the terebinth which (was) in Ophrah , that (belonged) to Joash the Abi-ezrite ."It was not the oak, but Ophrah, that belonged to Joash, as we may see from Jdg 6:24, where the expression "Ophrah of the Abi-ezrite"occurs. According to Joash Jdg 17:2 and 1Ch 7:18, Abiezer was a family in the tribe of Manasseh, and according to Jdg 6:15 it was a small family of that tribe. Joash was probably the head of the family at that time, and as such was the lord or owner of Ophrah , a town (Jdg 8:27; cf. Jdg 9:5) which was called "Ophrah of the Abi-ezrite,"to distinguish it from Ophrah in the tribe of Benjamin (Jos 18:23). The situation of the town has not yet been determined with certainty. Josephus (Ant. v. 6, 5) calls it Ephran . Van de Velde conjectures that it is to be found in the ruins of Erfai , opposite to Akrabeh, towards the S.E., near the Mohammedan Wely of Abu Kharib, on the S.W. of Janun (Me. pp. 337-8), close to the northern boundary of the tribe-territory of Ephraim, if not actually within it. By this terebinth tree was Gideon the son of Joash " knocking out wheat in the wine-press. " חבט does not mean to thresh, but to knock with a stick. The wheat was threshed upon open floors, or in places in the open field that were rolled hard for the purpose, with threshing carriages or threshing shoes, or else with oxen, which they drove about over the scattered sheaves to tread out the grains with their hoofs. Only poor people knocked out the little corn that they had gleaned with a stick (Rth 2:17), and Gideon did it in the existing times of distress, namely in the pressing-tub, which, like all wine-presses, was sunk in the ground, in a hole that had been dug out or hewn in the rock (for a description of cisterns of this kind, see Rob . Bibl. Res. pp. 135-6), " to make the wheat fly "(i.e., to make it safe) " from the Midianites "( הנים as in Exo 9:20).

Jdg 6:12

While he was thus engaged the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and addressed him in these words: " Jehovah (is) with thee, thou brave hero ."This address contained the promise that the Lord would be with Gideon, and that he would prove himself a mighty hero through the strength of the Lord. This promise was to be a guarantee to him of strength and victory in his conflict with the Midianites.

Jdg 6:13

But Gideon, who did not recognise the angel of the Lord in the man who was sitting before him, replied doubtingly, " Pray, sir, if Jehovah is with us, why has all this befallen us? "- words which naturally recall to mind the words of Deu 31:17, "Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?""And where," continued Gideon, " are all His miracles, of which our fathers have told us? ... But now Jehovah hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. "Gideon may have been reflecting, while knocking the wheat, upon the misery of his people, and the best means of delivering them from the oppression of the enemy, but without being able to think of any possibility of rescuing them. For this reason he could not understand the address of the unknown traveller, and met his promise with the actual state of things with which it was so directly at variance, namely, the crushing oppression of his people by their enemies, from which he concluded that the Lord had forsaken them and given them up to their foes.

Jdg 6:14

" Then Jehovah turned to him and said, Go in this thy strength, and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have not I sent thee? "The writer very appropriately uses the name Jehovah here, instead of the angel of Jehovah; for by his reply the angel distinctly manifested himself as Jehovah, more especially in the closing words, " Have not I sent thee? "( הלא , in the sense of lively assurance), which are so suggestive of the call of Moses to be the deliverer of Israel (Exo 3:12). " In this thy strength, "i.e., the strength which thou now hast, since Jehovah is with thee-Jehovah, who can still perform miracles as in the days of the fathers. The demonstrative " this "points to the strength which had just been given to him through the promise of God.

Jdg 6:15

Gideon perceived from these words that it was not a mere man who was speaking to him. He therefore said in reply, not "pray sir"( אדני ), but " pray, Lord "( אדני , i.e., Lord God), and no longer speaks of deliverance as impossible, but simply inquires, with a consciousness of his own personal weakness and the weakness of his family, " Whereby (with what) shall I save Israel? Behold, my family (lit., ' thousand ,' equivalent to mishpachah : see at Num 1:16) is the humblest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house (my family)."

Jdg 6:16

To this difficulty the Lord replies, " I will be with thee (see Exo 3:12; Jos 1:5), and thou wilt smite the Midianites as one man, "i.e., at one blow, as they slay a single man (see Num 14:15).

Jdg 6:17-19

As Gideon could no longer have any doubt after this promise that the person who had appeared to him was speaking in the name of God, he entreated him to assure him by a sign ( אות , a miraculous sign) of the certainty of his appearance. " Do a sign that thou art speaking with me, "i.e., that thou art really God, as thou affirmest. שׁאתּה , or אתּה אשׁר , is taken from the language of ordinary life. At the same time he presents this request: " Depart not hence till I (go and) come to thee, and bring out my offering and set it before thee; "and the angel at once assents. Minchah does not mean a sacrifice in the strict sense ( θυσία , sacrificium ), nor merely a "gift of food,"but a sacrificial gift in the sense of a gift presented to God, on the acceptance of which he hoped to receive the sign, which would show whether the person who had appeared to him was really God. This sacrificial gift consisted of such food as they were accustomed to set before a guest whom they wished especially to honour. Gideon prepared a kid of the goats ( עשׂה is used to denote the preparation of food, as in Gen 18:7-8, etc.), and unleavened cakes of an ephah (about 221/2 lbs.) of meal, and brought the flesh in a basket and the broth in a pot out to the terebinth tree, and placed it before him.

Jdg 6:20-21

The angel of the Lord then commanded him to lay the flesh and the cakes upon a rock close by, and to pour the broth upon it; that is to say, to make use of the rock as an altar for the offering to be presented to the Lord. When he had done this, the angel touched the food with the end of his staff, and fire came out of the rock and consumed the food, and the angel of the Lord vanished out of Gideon's sight. " This rock,"i.e., a rocky stone that was lying near. The departure of the angel from his eyes it to be regarded as a sudden disappearance; but the expression does not warrant the assumption that the angel ascended to heaven in this instance, as in Jdg 13:19-20, in the flame of the sacrifice.

Jdg 6:22

In this miracle Gideon received the desired sign, that the person who had appeared to him was God. But the miracle filled his soul with fear, so that he exclaimed, "Alas, Lord Jehovah! for to this end have I seen the angel of the Lord face to face." יהוה אדני אההּ is an exclamation, sometimes of grief on account of a calamity that has occurred (Jos 7:7), and sometimes of alarm caused by the foreboding of some anticipated calamity (Jer 1:6; Jer 4:10; Jer 32:17; Eze 4:14, etc.). Here it is an expression of alarm, viz., fear of the death which might be the necessary consequence of his seeing God (see Exo 20:16-19, and the remarks on Gen 16:13). The expression which follows, "for to this end," serves to account for the exclamation, without there being any necessity to assume an ellipsis, and supply "that I may die." כּי־על־כּן is always used in this sense (see Gen 18:5; Gen 19:8; Gen 33:10, etc.).

Jdg 6:23-24

But the Lord comforted him with the words, " Peace to thee; fear not: thou wilt not die. "These words were not spoken by the angel as he vanished away, but were addressed by God to Gideon, after the disappearance of the angel, by an inward voice. In gratitude for this comforting assurance, Gideon built an altar to the Lord, which he called Jehovah-shalom , "the Lord is peace."The intention of this altar, which was preserved "unto this day,"i.e., till the time when the book of Judges was composed, is indicated in the name that was given to it. It was not to serve as a place of sacrifice, but to be a memorial and a witness of the revelation of God which had been made to Gideon, and of the proof which he had received that Jehovah was peace, i.e., would not destroy Israel in wrath, but cherished thoughts of peace. For the assurance of peace which He had given to Gideon, was also a confirmation of His announcement that Gideon would conquer the Midianites in the strength of God, and deliver Israel from its oppressors.

The theophany here described resembles so far the appearance of the angel of the Lord to Abram in the grove of Mamre (Gen 18), that he appears in perfect human form, comes as a traveller, and allows food to be set before him; but there is this essential difference between the two, that whereas the three men who came to Abraham took the food that was set before them and ate thereof - that is to say, allowed themselves to be hospitably entertained by Abraham - the angel of the Lord in the case before us did indeed accept the minchah that had been made ready for him, but only as a sacrifice of Jehovah which he caused to ascend in fire. The reason for this essential difference is to be found in the different purpose of the two theophanies. To Abraham the Lord came to seal that fellowship of grace into which He had entered with him through the covenant that He had made; but in the case of Gideon His purpose was simply to confirm the truth of His promise, that Jehovah would be with him and would send deliverance through him to His people, or to show that the person who had appeared to him was the God of the fathers, who could still deliver His people out of the power of their enemies by working such miracles as the fathers had seen. But the acceptance of the minchah prepared for Him as a sacrifice which the Lord himself caused to be miraculously consumed by fire, showed that the Lord would still graciously accept the prayers and sacrifices of Israel, if they would but forsake the worship of the dead idols of the heathen, and return to Him in sincerity. (Compare with this the similar theophany in Judg 13.)

Jdg 6:25-32

Gideon Set Apart as the Deliverer of His People . - In order to be able to carry out the work entrusted to him of setting Israel free, it was necessary that Gideon should first of all purify his father's house from idolatry, and sanctify his own life and labour to Jehovah by sacrificing a burnt-offering.

Jdg 6:25-26

"In that night," i.e., the night following the day on which the Lord appeared to him, God commanded him to destroy his father's Baal's altar, with the asherah-idol upon it, and to build an altar to Jehovah, and offer a bullock of his father's upon the altar. " Take the ox-bullock which belongs to thy father, and indeed the second bullock of seven years, and destroy the altar of Baal, which belongs to thy father, and throw down the asherah upon it. "According to the general explanation of the first clauses, there are two oxen referred to: viz., first , his father's young bullock; and secondly , an ox of seven years old, the latter of which Gideon was to sacrifice (according to Jdg 6:26) upon the altar to be built to Jehovah, and actually did sacrifice, according to Jdg 6:27, Jdg 6:28. But in what follows there is no further allusion to the young bullock, or the first ox of his father; so that there is a difficulty in comprehending for what purpose Gideon was to take it, or what use he was to make of it. Most commentators suppose that Gideon sacrificed both of the oxen-the young bullock as an expiatory offering for himself, his father, and all his family, and the second ox of seven years old for the deliverance of the whole nation (see Seb. Schmidt ). Bertheau supposes, on the other hand, that Gideon was to make use of both oxen, or of the strength they possessed for throwing down or destroying the altar, and (according to Jdg 6:26) for removing the מערכה and the האשׁרה עצי to the place of the new altar that was to be built, but that he was only to offer the second in sacrifice to Jehovah, because the first was probably dedicated to Baal, and therefore could not be offered to Jehovah. But these assumptions are both of them equally arbitrary, and have no support whatever from the text. If God had commanded Gideon to take two oxen, He would certainly have told him what he was to do with them both. But as there is only one bullock mentioned in Jdg 6:26-28, we must follow Tremell . and others, who understand Jdg 6:25 as meaning that Gideon was to take only one bullock, namely the young bullock of his father, and therefore regard שׁ שׁ השּׁני וּפר as a more precise definition of that one bullock ( vav being used in an explanatory sense, "and indeed,"as in Jos 9:27; Jos 10:7, etc.). This bullock is called "the second bullock,"as being the second in age among the bullocks of Joash. The reason for choosing this second of the bullocks of Joash for a burnt-offering is to be found no doubt in its age (seven years), which is mentioned here simply on account of its significance as a number, as there was no particular age prescribed in the law for a burnt-offering, that is to say, because the seven years which constituted the age of the bullock contained an inward allusion to the seven years of the Midianitish oppression. For seven years had God given Israel into the hands of the Midianites on account of their apostasy; and now, to wipe away this sin, Gideon was to take his father's bullock of seven years old, and offer it as a burnt-offering to the Lord. To this end Gideon was first of all to destroy the altar of Baal and of the asherah which his father possessed, and which, to judge from Jdg 6:28, Jdg 6:29, was the common altar of the whole family of Abiezer in Ophrah. This altar was dedicated to Baal, but there was also upon it an asherah , an idol representing the goddess of nature, which the Canaanites worshipped; not indeed a statue of the goddess, but, as we may learn from the word כּרת , to hew down , simply a wooden pillar (see at Deu 16:21). The altar therefore served for the two principal deities of the Canaanites (see Movers , Phönizier, i. pp. 566ff.). Jehovah could not be worshipped along with Baal. Whoever would serve the Lord must abolish the worship of Baal. The altar of Baal must be destroyed before the altar of Jehovah could be built. Gideon was to build this altar " upon the top of this stronghold, "possibly upon the top of the mountain, upon which the fortress belonging to Ophrah was situated. בּמּערכה , " with the preparation; "the meaning of this word is a subject of dispute. As בּנה occurs in 1Ki 15:22 with בּ , to denote the materials out of which (i.e., with which) a thing is built, Stud . and Berth . suppose that maaracah refers to the materials of the altar of Baal that had been destroyed, with which Gideon was to build the altar of Jehovah. Stud . refers it to the stone foundation of the altar of Baal; Bertheau to the materials that were lying ready upon the altar of Baal for the presentation of sacrifices, more especially the pieces of wood. But this is certainly incorrect, because maaracah does not signify either building materials or pieces of wood, and the definite article attached to the word does not refer to the altar of Baal at all. The verb ערך is not only very frequently used to denote the preparation of the wood upon the altar (Gen 22:9; Lev 1:7, etc.), but is also used for the preparation of an altar for the presentation of sacrifice (Num 23:4). Consequently maaracah can hardly be understood in any other way than as signifying the preparation of the altar to be built for the sacrificial act, in the sense of build the altar with the preparation required for the sacrifice. This preparation was to consist, according to what follows, in taking the wood of the asherah , that had been hewn down, as the wood for the burnt-offering to be offered to the Lord by Gideon. האשׁרה עצי are not trees, but pieces of wood from the asherah (that was hewn down).

Jdg 6:27

Gideon executed this command of God with ten men of his servants during the night, no doubt the following night, because he was afraid to do it by day, on account of his family (his father's house), and the people of the town.

Jdg 6:28-29

But on the following morning, when the people of the town found the altar of Baal destroyed and the asherah upon it hewn down, and the bullock sacrificed upon the (newly) erected altar (the bullock would not be entirely consumed), they asked who had done it, and soon learned that Gideon had done it all. The accusative חשּׁני הפּר את is governed by the Hophal העלה (for העלה see Ges . s. 63, Anm. 4), according to a construction that was by no means rare, especially in the earlier Hebrew, viz., of the passive with את (see at Gen 4:18). "They asked and sought," sc., for the person who had done it; "and they said," either those who were making the inquiry, according to a tolerably safe conjecture, or the persons who were asked, and who were aware of what Gideon had done.

Jdg 6:30-31

But when they demanded of Joash, " Bring out (give out) thy son, that he may die ,"he said to all who stood round, " Will ye, ye, fight for Baal, or will he save him? ('ye' is repeated with special emphasis). " whoever shall fight for him (Baal), shall be put to death till the morning. " עד־הבּקר , till the (next) morning, is not to be joined to יוּומת , in the sense of "very speedily, before the dawning day shall break"( Bertheau ), - a sense which is not to be found in the words: it rather belongs to the subject of the clause, or to the whole clause in the sense of, Whoever shall fight for Baal, and seek to avenge the destruction of his altar by putting the author of it to death, shall be put to death himself; let us wait till to-morrow, and give Baal time to avenge the insult which he has received. " If he be God, let him fight for himself; for they have destroyed his altar, "and have thereby challenged his revenge. Gideon's daring act of faith had inspired his father Joash with believing courage, so that he took the part of his son, and left the whole matter to the deity to decide. If Baal were really God, he might be expected to avenge the crime that had been committed against this altar.

Jdg 6:32

From this fact Gideon received the name of Jerubbaal , i.e., " let Baal fight (or decide,"since they said, "Let Baal fight against him, for he has destroyed his altar." ירבּעל , is formed from ירב = ירב or יריב and בּעל . This surname very soon became an honourable title for Gideon. When, for example, it became apparent to the people that Baal could not do him any harm, Jerubbaal became a Baal-fighter, one who had fought against Baal. In 2Sa 11:21, instead of Jerubbaal we find the name Jerubbesheth , in which Besheth = Bosheth is a nickname of Baal, which also occurs in other Israelitish names, e.g., in Ishbosheth (2Sa 2:8.) for Eshbaal (1Ch 8:33; 1Ch 9:39). The name Jerubbaal is written Ἱεροβάαλ by the lxx, from which in all probability Philo of Byblus, in his revision of Sanchuniathon, has formed his Ἱερόμβαλος , a priest of the god Ἰεύω .

Keil-Delitzsch: Jdg 6:33-40

Equipment of Gideon for the Battle. - When the Midianites and their allies once more invaded the land of Israel, Gideon was seized by the Spirit of God, so that he gathered together an army from the northern tribes of Israel (Jdg 6:33-35), and entreated God to assure him by a sign of gaining the victory over the enemy (Jdg 6:36-40).

Jdg 6:33-35

The enemy gathered together again, went over (viz., across) the Jordan in the neighbourhood of Beisan (see at Jdg 7:24 and Jdg 8:4), and encamped in the valley of Jezreel (see at Jos 17:16). " And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon "( לבשׁה , clothed , i.e., descended upon him, and laid itself around him as it were like a coat of mail, or a strong equipment, so that he became invulnerable and invincible in its might: see 1Ch 12:18; 2Ch 24:20, and Luk 24:49). Gideon then blew the trumpet, to call Israel to battle against the foe (see Jdg 3:27); " and Abiezer let itself be summoned after him. "His own family, which had recognised the deliverer of Israel in the fighter of Baal, who was safe from Baal's revenge, was the first to gather round him. Their example was followed by all Manasseh, i.e., the Manassites on the west of the Jordan (for the tribes on the east of the Jordan took no part in the war), and the neighbouring tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali on the north, which had been summoned by heralds to the battle. " They advanced to meet them: "i.e., to meet the Manassites, who were coming from the south to the battle, to make war upon the enemy in concert with them and under the guidance of Gideon. עלה is used to denote their advance against the enemy (see at Jos 8:2), and not in the sense of going up, since the Asherites and Naphtalites would not go up from their mountains into the plain of Jezreel, but could only go down.

Jdg 6:36-37

But before Gideon went into the battle with the assembled army, he asked for a sign from God of the success of his undertaking. " If Thou, "he said to God, " art saving Israel through my hand, as Thou hast said, behold, I lay this fleece of wool upon the floor; if there shall be dew upon the fleece only, and dryness upon all the earth (round about), I know (by this ) that Thou wilt save, "etc. הצּמר גּזּת , the shorn of the wool; i.e., the fleece, the wool that had been shorn off a sheep, and still adhered together as one whole fleece. The sign which Gideon asked for, therefore, was that God would cause the dew to fall only upon a shorn fleece, which he would spread the previous night upon the floor, that is to say, upon some open ground, and that the ground all round might not be moistened by the dew.

Jdg 6:38

God granted the sign. " And so it came to pass; the next morning, Gideon pressed the fleece together ( יזר from זוּר ), and squeezed ( ימץ from מצה ) dew out of the fleece a vessel full of water "( מלוא as in Num 22:18, and ספל as in Jdg 5:25). So copiously had the dew fallen in the night upon the fleece that was exposed; whereas, as we may supply from the context, the earth all round had remained dry.

Jdg 6:39-40

But as this sign was not quite a certain one, since wool generally attracts the dew, even when other objects remain dry, Gideon ventured to solicit the grace of God to grant him another sign with the fleece, - namely, that the fleece might remain dry, and the ground all round be wet with dew. And God granted him this request also. Gideon's prayer for a sign did not arise from want of faith in the divine assurance of a victory, but sprang from the weakness of the flesh, which crippled the strength of the spirit's faith, and often made the servants of God so anxious and despondent, that God had to come to the relief of their weakness by the manifestation of His miraculous power. Gideon knew himself and his own strength, and was well aware that his human strength was not sufficient for the conquest of the foe. But as the Lord had promised him His aid, he wished to make sure of that aid through the desired sign.

(Note: "From all these things, the fact that he had seen and heard the angel of Jehovah, and that he had been taught by fire out of the rock, by the disappearance of the angel, by the vision of the night, and by the words addressed to him there, Gideon did indeed believe that God both could and would deliver Israel through his instrumentality; but this faith was not placed above or away from the conflict of the flesh by which it was tested. And it is not strange that it rose to its greatest height when the work of deliverance was about to be performed. Wherefore Gideon with his faith sought for a sign from God against the more vehement struggle of the flesh, in order that his faith might be the more confirmed, and might resist the opposing flesh with the great force. And this petition for a sign was combined with prayers for the strengthening of his faith."- Seb. Schmidt .)

And "the simple fact that such a man could obtain the most daring victory was to be a special glorification of God"( O. v. Gerlach ). The sign itself was to manifest the strength of the divine assistance to his weakness of faith. Dew in the Scriptures is a symbol of the beneficent power of God, which quickens, revives, and invigorates the objects of nature, when they have been parched by the burning heat of the sun's rays. The first sign was to be a pledge to him of the visible and tangible blessing of the Lord upon His people, the proof that He would grant them power over their mighty foes by whom Israel was then oppressed. The woollen fleece represented the nation of Israel in its condition at that time, when God had given power to the foe that was devastating its land, and had withdrawn His blessing from Israel. The moistening of the fleece with the dew of heaven whilst the land all round continued dry, was a sign that the Lord God would once more give strength to His people from on high, and withdraw it from the nations of the earth. Hence the second sign acquires the more general signification, "that the Lord manifested himself even in the weakness and forsaken condition of His people, while the nations were flourishing all around"( O. v. Gerl .); and when so explained, it served to confirm and strengthen the first, inasmuch as it contained the comforting assurance for all times, that the Lord has not forsaken His church, even when it cannot discern and trace His beneficent influence, but rules over it and over the nations with His almighty power.

Constable: Jdg 3:7--17:1

II. THE RECORD OF ISRAEL'S APOSTASY 3:7--16:31

Israel's Judges
Judge	Scripture	Israel's Oppressors		Length in Years
		Nation(s)	King(s)	Oppression	Judgeship	Peace
Othniel	3:7-11	Mesopotamia	Cushan-rishathaim	8(ca. 1358-1350 B.C.)		40(ca. 1350-1310 B.C.)
Ehud	3:12-30	Moab (with Ammon & Amalek)	Eglon	18		80
Shamgar	3:31	Philistia
Deborah	Chs. 4-5	Canaan	Jabin	20(ca. 1250-1230 B.C.)		40(ca. 1230-1190 B.C.)
Gideon	Chs. 6-8	Midian (with Amalek & Arabia)	Zebah & Zalmunna	7		40(ca. 1180-1140 B.C.)
Tola	10:1-2				23(ca. 1117-1094 B.C.)
Jair	10:3-5				22(ca. 1115-1093 B.C.)
Jephthah	10:8-12:7	Ammon		18(ca. 1123-1105 B.C.)	6
Ibzan	12:8-10				7
Elon	12:11-12				10
Abdon	12:13-15				8
Samson	Chs. 13-16	Philistia		40(ca. 1124-1084 B.C.)	20(ca. 1105-1085 B.C.)

"The judges are twelve in number, reckoning either Deborah or Barek as a judge and omitting Abimelech, whose status in fact depended wholly on his descent from Gideon, and who was in effect not a deliverer', and a judge' only in the sense of a local ruler on his own account."⁶⁰

Notice that the writer recorded seven examples of oppression and deliverance (by Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson). This sevenfold scheme gives the impression of totality to Israel's degeneration. It also suggests that the writer viewed these disasters as fulfillments of the curses in Leviticus 26 where the number seven occurs four times (Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, and 28; cf. Deut. 28:25).⁶¹

The total number of judges cited is 12. By selecting 12 judges the writer may also have been suggesting that all 12 tribes of Israel had apostatized. One writer argued that these 12 judges each did their work in a different month, thus adding another impression of completeness to the record.⁶²

Certain formulaic expressions appear in 2:11-23 and then recur in the record of Israel's apostasy (3:7-16:31). However, as noted in the table below, they appear with less frequency as the narrative proceeds. Having established the pattern, the writer did not feel compelled to repeat these expressions as frequently since the reader learns to anticipate them as the narrative unfolds. The breakdown of these expressions is a rhetorical device that parallels and reflects the general moral and spiritual disintegration in Israel as a whole.⁶³

Expression	Othniel	Ehud	Deborah	Gideon	Jephthah	Samson
The Israelites did evil (2:11-13).	3:7	3:12	4:1	6:1	10:6	13:1
Yahweh gave them over (2:14).	3:8	3:12	4:2	6:1	10:7	13:1
The Israelites cried out (2:15, 18).	3:9	3:15	4:3	6:7	10:10
Yahweh raised up a deliverer (2:16, 18).	3:9	3:15
Yahweh gave the oppressor to the deliverer (2:18).	3:10	3:28
The land had rest.	3:11	3:30		5:31	8:28

Constable: Jdg 5:1--7:25

A. Previous Failures vv. 5-7

Jude cited three examples of failure from the past to warn his readers of the danger involved in departing from God's truth. Divine judgment on flagrant evildoers is no novelty.²⁹

Constable: Jdg 6:1--10:6

D. The fourth apostasy 6:1-10:5

The writer of Judges structured this book so the story of Gideon would be its focal center.

"Within the main body of the book, seven major narrative blocks can be noted. Moreover, there are certain parallel features between these narratives so that the entire book reflects a carefully worked symmetrical pattern.¹³² Furthermore this pattern has as its focal point the Gideon narrative in 6:1-8:32.

"A Introduction, Part I (1:1-2:5)

B Introduction, Part II (2:6-3:6)

C Othniel Narrative (3:7-11)

D Ehud Narrative (3:12-31)

E Deborah-Barak Narrative (4:1-5:31)

F Gideon Narrative (6:1-8:32)

E' Abimelech Narrative (8:33-10:5)

D' Jephthah Narrative (10:6-12:15)

C' Samson Narrative (13:1-16:31)

B' Epilogue, Part I (17:1-18:31)

A' Epilogue, Part II (19:1-21:25)

"This arrangement suggests that the Gideon narrative has a unique contribution to make to the theological development of the book. As the nation went from one cycle of discipline to the next, there was a continual deterioration. Also there was a shift in the quality' of the judges themselves as the book advances. The Gideon narrative seems to mark a notable turning point."¹³³

Constable: Jdg 6:1--8:33

1. The story of Gideon 6:1-8:32

Tanner also pointed out that the Gideon narrative consists of five primary structural sections.

"The first section (6:1-10) provides the introduction and setting before Gideon's debut, the second section (6:11-32) gives the commissioning of Gideon as deliverer of Israel, the third section (6:33-7:18) presents the preparation for the battle, the fourth section (7:19-8:21) recounts the defeat of the Midianite army, and the fifth section (8:22-32) records the conclusion to Gideon's life after the victory over Midian. Yet thematic parallels exist between the first and fifth sections and between the second and fourth sections, thus giving the whole narrative a symmetrical pattern:

A 6:1-10

B 6:11-32

C 6:33-7:18

B' 7:19-8:21

A' 8:22-32"¹³⁴

"The history of Gideon and his family is related very fully, because the working of the grace and righteousness of the faithful covenant God was so obviously displayed therein, that it contained a rich treasure of instruction and warning for the church of the Lord in all ages."¹³⁵

Other scholars divide the Gideon narrative into three parts: God's punishment and deliverance of Israel (6:1-8:3), Gideon's punishment and subjugation of Israel (8:4-28), and Gideon's legacy (8:29-9:57).¹³⁶

Constable: Jdg 6:1-10

Renewed apostasy and its punishment 6:1-10

The Midianites were Bedouin nomads and descendants of Abraham and Keturah (Gen. 25:2) who occupied the plains that bordered the Arabian desert to the east of Moab and Ammon. They were raiders who descended on the Israelites at harvest times, stole their crops and possessions, and then retreated to their own land (cf. Isa. 2:12, 19; 9:4). They did not want to kill the Israelites and take over their land. They preferred to let the Israelites sow and harvest their crops and then steal what God's people had labored so hard to produce. The Midianites conducted their raids on camels that made them very hard to overtake in pursuit.

"This is the earliest instance of such a phenomenon of which we have record. The effective domestication of the camel had been accomplished somewhat earlier deep in Arabia and had now spread to tribal confederacies to the south and east of Palestine, giving them a mobility such as they had never had before."¹³⁷

To conceal their harvested crops and other valuable possessions the Israelites hid them in caves and other holes in the ground. Many of the mountainous areas of Israel abound with natural caves and dens.

The Amalekites and other tribes that lived in the Arabian desert east of Canaan joined the Midianites in their raids. These desert dwellers were the "sons of the east" (v. 3). The raids extended all the way to Gaza on the Mediterranean coast (v. 4), far into Israel.

After seven years of these locust-like devastating raids (cf. Deut. 28:31, 38; Joel 1:4), the Israelites were at their wits end and called out to Yahweh in their misery (v. 6). In response to their cries God sent an unnamed prophet (v. 8) to explain the reason for their discipline. They had again disobeyed the Lord (v. 10).

Constable: Jdg 6:1-40

2. The example of certain angels v. 6

A group of angels also did not remain in their privileged position near God but left that sphere and so incurred God's wrath. Some interpreters believe Jude alluded here to Genesis 6:1-4 (but cf. Matt. 22:30).³³ Others believe he was referring to the rebellion of some angels that resulted in Satan's expulsion from heaven. The second explanation seems more probable to me. The apocryphal Book of 1 Enoch described this rebellion that Jude may or may not have had in mind here.³⁴ The rebellious angels he referred to are now in bondage and await God's judgment (cf. 2 Peter 2:4). These appear to be different fallen angels from Satan's agents who are at work in the world today, namely, the demons who have considerable freedom.

Jude's point in this illustration was that the apostates in his day had also abandoned a position of great privilege and blessing, namely, the opportunity to serve and glorify God. God would also judge them severely because of their departure. The angels who fell were not elect. Perhaps the apostates in view here were unsaved though God intended them, as well as the Israelites, to be a group for His own possession.

"If the highest beings known in creation were subject to judgment, how much more sinful men!"³⁵

Constable: Jdg 6:11-32

Gideon's commissioning by Yahweh 6:11-32

". . . the heroic women of the song [of Deborah, ch. 5] give way to an unheroic man of Israel' (7:14) who not only does all he can to evade the call of Yahweh but in the end abandons God. . . . In the person of Gideon the narrator recognizes the schizophrenic nature of Israel's spiritual personality. On the one hand she treasures her call to be God's covenant people; on the other she cannot resist the allurements of the prevailing Canaanite culture."¹³⁸

The writer presented Gideon as sort of a second Moses in his calling. Both men were very reluctant to lead God's people (cf. Exod. 3-4).

Constable: Jdg 6:11-18

The appearance of the Angel of the Lord 6:11-18

"As the reproof of the prophet was intended to turn the hearts of the people once more to the Lord their God and deliverer, so the manner in which God called Gideon to be their deliverer, and rescued Israel from its oppressors through his instrumentality, was intended to furnish the most evident proof that the help and salvation of Israel were not to be found in man, but solely in their God."¹³⁹

Gideon's name means "Hewer." It is interesting that God used him to cut down the altar of Baal and then the Midianites.

In calling Gideon to deliver the Israelites God revealed Himself twice. First, God appeared to Gideon and spoke directly to Him through the Angel of the Lord (vv. 11-24). Second, He commanded Gideon to destroy the local Baal worship and renew the worship of Yahweh (vv. 25-32). In the first case God acknowledged Gideon, and in the second He called on Gideon to acknowledge Him as his God.

Ophrah was a village over which Gideon's father, Joash, exercised a strong influence (v. 11; cf. v. 24). Its exact location is uncertain, but it appears to have been in the Jezreel Valley.

Normally the Israelites beat out their wheat in the open field or on a raised piece of ground. The prevailing wind would blow the lighter chaff away while the heavier grain would fall to the ground. However, Gideon was beating out his grain in a wine press. The Israelites built wine presses in lower lying areas so the juice of the grapes would not run off. Gideon's use of a wine press for threshing grain points to the Midianite threat that he felt. To remain unnoticed he beat out his grain in a less conspicuous place (v. 11).

The Angel in His greeting (v. 12) addressed Gideon as the man he would become by God's enablement, not the man he was then.¹⁴⁰ In the same way God had called Abraham the father of a multitude before he had any children. He called Peter a rock before he behaved as one. He also calls Christians saints even though we are not yet as saintly as God will make us.

"One of the great truths of Scripture is that when God looks at us, He does not see us for what we are, but for what we can become, as He works in our lives."¹⁴¹

Gideon could not understand why the Israelites were suffering as they were if Yahweh was indeed with His people (v. 13; cf. Deut. 31:17). He failed to realize that their condition was the result of their abandoning God, not His abandoning them.

"Sins, not afflictions, argue God's absence.'"¹⁴²

The strength of Gideon to which the Angel referred (v. 14) was what God's promised presence and commission guaranteed (vv. 14, 16).

Gideon did not disbelieve the Angel as much as he failed to understand how he could be God's instrument of deliverance. He was the youngest and therefore the least esteemed in his father's household. Furthermore his family was a comparatively insignificant one in Manasseh (v. 15). Gideon was looking for natural signs of leadership, but God was promising supernatural enablement.

To confirm that the Angel really was a divine messenger Gideon requested some supernatural confirmation that this calling was from God (v. 17). He then prepared to offer his guest a token of his hospitality (v. 18).

Constable: Jdg 6:19-24

The Angel's sign 6:19-24

The food Gideon offered his visitor was what a person would normally set before a guest one wished to honor in a special way in that culture. The Angel directed Gideon to place the food on the rock as though it was a sacrifice on an altar.

The Angel's miracle convinced Gideon that He was God and that He would fulfill His promises to be with Gideon and to grant him victory. Perhaps Gideon remembered how God had consumed the sacrifice on the brazen altar similarly when the Israelites dedicated the tabernacle in the wilderness. If so, this memory might have encouraged him to believe that the same God who had delivered Israel then was still with His people and could deliver them again.

"The acceptance of the sacrifice was also a token of the acceptance of his person; it went to confirm the commission now given him, and to afford him every needed assurance of success."¹⁴³

This miracle strengthened Gideon's faith greatly. In building an altar to Yahweh Gideon acknowledged Him as his God.

"God had taught Gideon that it was not his inadequacy but God's adequacy that really counted."¹⁴⁴

God presented Himself to Gideon as the same God who had appeared to the patriarchs and had fulfilled His promises to them (cf. Gen. 18).

Constable: Jdg 6:25-32

Gideon's public confession 6:25-32

"Under normal circumstances the narrative should have proceeded directly from v. 24 to vv. 33-35, and then on to 7:1. But the normal sequence is interrupted twice to deal with a pair of abnormalities. The first is an objective issue, the presence of a pagan cult installation in Gideon's father's own backyard. The second is a subjective problem, Gideon's persistent resistance to the call of God."¹⁴⁵

After the Angel had vanished, the Lord appeared to Gideon again the same night. He commanded him to tear down his family's pagan altar and its accompanying Asherah pole, build an altar to Yahweh, and offer his father's bull as a burnt offering of worship. This would constitute a public confession of Gideon's commitment to the Lord. It was necessary for him to take this stand personally before the nation would follow him as its judge.¹⁴⁶ The real problem in Israel was not the Midianites' oppression but Israel's spiritual bondage due to idolatry.

Probably Gideon used one bull to pull apart the Canaanite altar, which he then offered as a burnt offering to Yahweh.¹⁴⁷ This sacrifice served a twofold purpose. Burnt offerings of worship made atonement and symbolized the offerer's total dedication to the Lord. Gideon's sacrifice also constituted a rejection of Baal worship since the bull was the sacred animal in the Baal fertility cult.¹⁴⁸ The fact that the bull was seven years old, strong and healthy, may have symbolized that the current seven-year oppression by Israel's enemies was about to end. On the other hand it may have indicated that the destruction of Baal worship to follow would be an act of God.

Gideon's fear of being observed as he obeyed God (v. 27) was natural since veneration of Baal was strong in his family and town (vv. 28-30).

"How different from Deuteronomy 13:6-10, where Moses commanded that even close relatives must be stoned for idolatry! The heresy had become the main religion."¹⁴⁹

"The sentence that should have been imposed on idolators [sic] is pronounced upon the one who destroys the idol!"¹⁵⁰

However, Gideon's daring act of faith inspired his father Joash to take a stand for Yahweh (v. 31) even though Joash had been a leader of Baal worship (v. 25). The person Gideon probably feared most, namely, his father, became his most outspoken defender.

"The probability, we think, is that Gideon, perceiving in the morning to what a pitch of exasperation the citizens were wrought, and how seriously they threatened his life, took occasion frankly to inform his father of the visit of the angel, and of all the circumstances of his call and commission, and that this, added to his feelings as a father, had served at once to convince him of his former error and to determine to stand by his son against the rage of the populace."¹⁵¹

"There are some profound spiritual implications in Gideon's assignment. 1. Baal must go before Midian can go. . . . 2. God's altar cannot be built until Baal's altar is destroyed. . . . 3. The place we must start is in our own backyard."¹⁵²

Constable: Jdg 6:33--7:19

Gideon's personal struggle to believe God's promise 6:33-7:18

"The primary matter in the Gideon narrative is not the deliverance itself, but rather something more personal, namely, Gideon's struggle to believe God's promise. . . .

"Judges 6:33-7:18 is arranged in the following concentric pattern:

"A The Spirit-endowed Gideon mobilized four tribes against the Midianites, though lacking confidence in God's promise (6:33-35).

B Gideon sought a sign from God with the fleece to confirm the promise that the Lord would give Midian into his hand (6:36-40).

C With the fearful Israelites having departed, God directed Gideon to go down to the water for the further reduction of his force (7:1-8).

C' With fear still in Gideon himself, God directed Gideon to go down to the enemy camp to overhear the enemy (7:9-11).

B' God provided a sign to Gideon with the dream of the Midianite to confirm the promise that the Lord would give Midian into his hand (7:12-14).

A' The worshiping Gideon mobilized his force of 300 for a surprise attack against the Midianites, fully confident in God's promise (7:15-18).

"The reduction of Gideon's army is a familiar story often told from the perspective of emphasizing God's ability to deliver whether by many or by few. While this is true, such an explanation falls short of doing justice in this context. The context is dealing with a struggle within Gideon himself."¹⁵³

Constable: Jdg 6:33-35

The mobilizing of four tribes in fear 6:33-35

Some time later Israel's enemies from the East again crossed the Jordan and massed their forces in the Valley of Jezreel near Gideon's home (v. 33). They numbered 135,000, or 135 units, depending on the meaning of eleph here (8:10). "Thousand" seems preferable (cf. 7:12). This foray appears to have been the Midianites' annual invasion.

Gideon wished to reconfirm the Lord's promise to be with him and to lead him in victory against the enemy. Perhaps considerable time had elapsed between Gideon's call (vv. 11-32) and this new threat of attack.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon (lit. clothed) Gideon in a special way strengthening and defending him for his great task (v. 34; cf. Gen 28:20; Isa. 59:17). He then sent out a call for several of the other tribes to join him and his family to fight the Midianites (vv. 34-35).

Constable: Jdg 6:36-40

Gideon's desire for encouragement 6:36-40

The Lord graciously answered Gideon's request for additional signs that God was with him. Gideon did not need to request these signs; God had already promised to help him (vv. 14, 16) and had given him a sign (v. 21). Notwithstanding, Gideon's faith needed some added support, and God provided this without reproof (cf. James 1:5).

"The remarkable thing is that God responds to his tests. He is more anxious to deliver Israel than to quibble with this man's semipagan notions of deity."¹⁵⁴

"Gideon's fleece is not a sign of faith. It is the opposite. It is not a search for God's will. It is a desperate grasp for security by one who knows clearly what that will is but who is reluctant to do it."¹⁵⁵

Perhaps Gideon used a woolen fleece because it was handy. He asked God to cause the dew to settle on the fleece that night but not on the surrounding ground. In the morning he discovered that is what God had done. Gideon may have concluded that he had asked the wrong thing since wool attracts dew. In any case he asked God to let the dew fall on the ground but not on the fleece the next night. God did this too. Thus this double demonstration that God was indeed with him and would grant him victory as He had promised strengthened Gideon's faith.

"But Gideon's fleece was not about discovering the will of God, and his actions are not to be taken as a normative paradigm for discovering the will of God. It was about stubborn resistance to what one knows clearly to be God's will."¹⁵⁶

Some students of this story have seen a deeper meaning in these signs than is immediately apparent.

"Dew in the Scriptures is a symbol of the beneficent power of God, which quickens, revives, and invigorates the objects of nature, when they have been parched by the burning heat of the sun's rays. The first sign was to be a pledge to him of the visible, tangible blessing of the Lord upon His people, the proof that He would grant them power over their mighty foes by whom Israel was then oppressed. The woollen fleece represented the nation of Israel in its condition at this time, when God had given power to the foe that was devastating its land, and had withdrawn His blessing from Israel. The moistening of the fleece with the dew of heaven whilst the land all round continued dry, was a sign that the Lord God would once more give strength to His people from on high, and withdraw it from the nations of the earth. Hence the second sign acquires the more general signification, that the Lord manifested himself even in the weakness and forsaken condition of his people, while the nations were flourishing all around' (O. v. Gerl.) . . . ."¹⁵⁷

Did God intend the dew, the fleece, and the ground to represent these things? Whether He did or not it is clear that these two miraculous demonstrations of God's presence and power strengthened Gideon's faith. Gideon was now ready to lead the Israelites against their foes.

Note four things that God used to prepare Gideon in this chapter. First, Gideon met the preincarnate Christ. Second, he committed himself to following Yahweh. Third, he obeyed the Lord by taking a public stand for Him relying on His promises. Fourth, the Holy Spirit gave Gideon supernatural power. When the people God calls to Himself respond positively by committing themselves to Him and standing up for Him, He strengthens their faith so He can use them in greater ways. His ability can overcome the inability of His servants if they rely on His promises even though their faith may be weak.

"All the judges except Abimelech countered a foreign threat, but only in the case of Gideon is there an extensive personal interaction between the judge and the Lord. This observation suggests that the narrative provides more than simply a victory account for future generations of Israel's defeat of Midian. While it is true that Samson offered up a few quick prayers, only in the case of Gideon is there a focus on the judge's faith and his coming to grips with the Lord's call on his life."¹⁵⁸

Guzik: Jdg 6:1-40

Judges 6 - The Call of Gideon

A. Apostasy, servitude and supplication.

1. (1) Israel's apostasy brings them into servitude.

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,

a. Then the children of Israel did evil: The forty years of rest (Judges 5:31) following the defeat of Sisera eventually came to an end. In their prosperity and complacency, Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD.

b. So the LORD delievered them into the hand of Midian: God brought Israel into bondage through the oppression of the Midianites. This was an example of God's grace and mercy to Israel because the oppression would make them turn back to God. It would have been worse if God just left them alone.

2. (2-6) The details of Israel's bondage to Midian.

And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

a. The children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds: The oppression of Midian - coming because of the sin of Israel - brought Israel into humiliation. Before they turned back to God they had to be humbled.

b. Whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up: The Midianites did not continually occupy the land, but only came at the time of harvest to confiscate what the Israelites grew (leave no sustenance for Israel).

i. Israel's sin made all their hard work profitless. All their produce and livestock was stolen after they worked hard to bring it to fruition. Sin does this. It robs us of what we work hard to gain.

ii. In May of 1990, the president of an American University was charged with two misdemeanor counts of making indecent telephone calls. Police evaluated about a dozen obscene calls made by the educator. He was later fired, and his wife left him. He lost everything for what, in retrospect, seemed like nothing.

c. Both they and their camels were without number: The Midianites dominated Israel because of their effective use of camels. "It is clear that the use of this angular and imposing beast struck terror in the hearts of the Israelites." (Cundall)

d. And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD: After the long season of humiliation, fruitless labor, poverty, and domination by an oppressive power, Israel finally cried out to the LORD. Prayer was their last resort instead of their first resource.

3. (7-10) In response to Israel's cry to the LORD, God sends a prophet.

And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites, that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, "I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell." But you have not obeyed My voice.' "

a. The LORD sent a prophet: The delivering judge will appear later. Before Israel could receive and respond to the work of the judge, they had to be prepared by this un-named prophet.

b. I brought you up from Egypt: God spoke through the prophet, reminding Israel of all He did for them in the past. To face their current crisis, Israel needed a reminder of what God did before.

i. This reminded them of the love of God. The God loving enough to deliver from Egypt before still loved them enough to deliver them from the Midianites.

ii. This reminded them of the power of God. The God powerful enough to deliver from Egypt before was still powerful enough to deliver them from the Midianites.

c. But you have not obeyed My voice: God sent this messenger to tell them where the real problem was. It wasn't that the Midianites were so strong, it was that Israel was so disobedient.

i. Israel thought the problem was the Midianites but the real problem was Israel. It is human nature to blame others for problems that we cause.

ii. The message of the prophet also shows that when Israel cried out to the LORD, they didn't understand that they were the problem. Their cry to God for help did not mean that they recognized or repented of their sin.

B. The deliverer is called.

1. (11-13) The Angel of the LORD appears to Gideon.

Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!" Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."

a. The Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree: When the Angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, we recognize this is as a theophany - an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ, in human, bodily form, but before His incarnation in Bethlehem.

i. The description of the encounter with the Angel of the LORD shows that this is not merely an angel speaking on behalf of God. It shows that God himself, appearing in human form, spoke to Gideon:

· Then the LORD turned to him and said (Judges 6:14)

· And the LORD said to him (Judges 6:16)

ii. Since no man has seen God the Father at any time (John 1:18, John 5:27) and by nature the Holy Spirit is a spirit without bodily form, it is reasonable to see this as an appearance of the Second Person of the Trinity, as an appearance of God the Son. However, this is not the incarnation in the same sense that Jesus was as a baby in Bethlehem. At Bethlehem Jesus was truly and fully human (while also being truly and fully God). Here, it is more likely that Jesus took the mere appearance of humanity, doing so for a specific purpose.

b. Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress: This was both difficult and humiliating. Wheat was threshed in open spaces, typically on a hill-top so the breeze could blow away the chaff. Wheat was not normally threshed in a sunken place like a winepress.

c. The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor! This was a strange greeting to Gideon. It didn't seem like the LORD was with him and it didn't seem like he was a mighty man of valor. Gideon might have turned to see if there was another person to whom the angel spoke.

d. Where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about: Gideon heard about the great works of God in the past yet he wondered why did not see the same great works in his day. Gideon thought the problem was with God (now the LORD has forsaken us) - not with him and with the nation of Israel as a whole. In truth, Israel forsook God - God did not forsake Israel.

2. (14-16) Gideon's call to God's service.

Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?" So he said to Him, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." And the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."

a. Go in this might of yours: It is hard to see that Gideon had any might to go in. But the Angel of the LORD wasn't mocking Gideon when he told him, "Go in this might of yours."

· Gideon had the might of the humble, threshing wheat on the winepress floor

· Gideon had the might of the caring, because he cared about the low place of Israel

· Gideon had the might of knowledge, because he knew God did great things in the past

· Gideon had the might of the spiritually hungry because he wanted to see God to great works again

· Gideon had the might of the teachable, because he listened to what the Angel of the LORD said

· Gideon had the might of the weak, and God's strength is perfected in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)

b. O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Gideon had might to go in, but he could not see himself as someone who could do great things for God. He thought of himself as a nobody, from the smallest clan in his tribe, and that he was the least in his own family.

i. At the same time, Gideon was correct: he could not save Israel. But a great God could use a small and weak Gideon.

c. Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man: God's assurance to Gideon was not to build up his self confidence, but to assure him that God was indeed with him. Gideon did not need more self-confidence, he needed more God-confidence.

i. It is important to know that God sent us but it is even greater to know that He is with us. This was the same assurance God gave to Moses (Exodus 3:12) and that Jesus gave all believers (Matthew 28:20).

3. (17-21) A sign from the Angel of the LORD.

Then he said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You." And He said, "I will wait until you come back." So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

a. Then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me: It was not wrong for Gideon to ask for a confirming sign. It made sense to ask God to confirm some area of direction that was not specifically detailed in His word, and in regard to something as life-or-death as leading Israel into battle against an enemy.

i. For example, we don't need a special sign that God loves us because He forever demonstrated His love at the cross according to Romans 5:8. This is true for many other things specifically detailed in God's Word. Yet when it comes to guidance in things not specifically detailed in God's Word, we should look for and expect confirmation in various ways.

b. Fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread: The miraculous sign alone should not have persuaded Gideon because there are miraculous deceptions. Yet this miracle of fire together with the other aspects of this whole experience should have persuaded Gideon that this all was from the LORD.

4. (22-24) Gideon reacts with awe and worship to the miraculous sign.

Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face." Then the LORD said to him, "Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die." So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

C. The beginning of Gideon's ministry.

1. (25-27) Removing Baal worship from his midst.

Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, "Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down." So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.

a. Tear down the altar of Baal that your father has: In Gideon's community, Baal was worshipped right along side of Yahweh. God called Gideon to get his own house in order first.

b. He did it by night: Gideon lacked the courage to do this in the daytime. Yet it is better to timidly obey the LORD than to not obey Him at all.

2. (28-32) The removal of an altar raises a controversy.

And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. So they said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And when they had inquired and asked, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing." Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it." But Joash said to all who stood against him, "Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!" Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, "Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar."

a. Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing: They didn't have a hard time figuring out who was responsible for the destruction of the altar. Gideon was found out immediately. He should have been bold to begin with because what he did could not be hidden.

b. Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal: This shows just how powerful Baal worship was in Israel at this time. "The heresy had become the main religion." (Wolf)

i. Ancient Israel worshipped Baal because he was thought to be the god of weather, and they relied on the weather for agricultural prosperity. In the hard economic times because of the Midianite oppression, people worshipped Baal all the more - not understanding that they only made things worse by not turning to God.

c. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down! Gideon's father made a very logical argument for preserving his son's life. Since Baal is the offended party, he can defend himself.

i. This is similar to what happened during a great move of God in the South Seas in the 19 ^th Century. One tribal chief was converted to Christianity and he gathered up all the idols of his people. He told the idols he was going to destroy them, and then he gave them the chance to run away. He destroyed all the ones that sat there like dumb statues.

ii. This incident gave Gideon the nickname Jerubbaal.

3. (33-35) Gideon gathers an army.

Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

a. The Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon: This follows the familiar pattern of the Spirit's work upon men under the Old Covenant. The Holy Spirit comes upon specific people for specific reasons, usually for divinely empowered leadership. Under the New Covenant, a broad and generous outpouring of the Holy Spirit is promised upon all flesh (Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17-18).

b. Then he blew the trumpet: Because of this divine empowering, Gideon was able to gather an impressive number of troops on short notice. Judges 7:3 tells us that 32,000 men came to follow him into battle.

4. (36-40) God assures Gideon's doubts.

So Gideon said to God, "If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said; look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said." And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew." And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

a. If you will save Israel by my hand as You have said: Gideon asked God to do another miracle to confirm His word. Then he asked God to a third miracle to confirm it again.

i. Sometimes Christians talk about putting out a "fleece" before the LORD. This phrase refers back to what Gideon did here. He used a literal fleece in asking God to confirm His Word with a sign.

b. Then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said: Gideon showed that he had a weak, imperfect faith. We can understand (and encourage) his request for one sign (fulfilled in Judges 6:17-21). But asking for second and third signs shows that his faith was weak.

i. The test was wrong because it was essentially a trick, and it had nothing to do with fighting the Midianites. Gideon probably didn't understand that he was actually dictating his terms to God. Sometimes God shows His displeasure with such requests. In Luke 1:18, when Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, asked for a confirming sign, the LORD made him mute until the birth of his son.

ii. Gideon also did not keep his word. God fulfilled the sign once, and Gideon said that would be enough for him. But he went back on his word after God fulfilled the first sign. Yet the LORD was still merciful and gracious to Gideon.

iii. Before being too hard on Gideon, we should consider the challenge that is ahead of him. Many of us would dismiss such a call out of hand, without even considering allowing God to confirm it. Gideon's weak faith is still greater than no faith. No wonder Gideon is included in the "hall of faith." (Hebrews 11:32)

© 2003 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Judges (Book Introduction)

JUDGES is the title given to the next book, from its containing the history of those non-regal rulers who governed the Hebrews from the time of Joshua to that of Eli, and whose functions in time of peace consisted chiefly in the administration of justice, although they occasionally led the people in their wars against their public enemies. The date and authorship of this book are not precisely known. It is certain, however, that it preceded the Second Book of Samuel (compare Jdg 9:35 with 2Sa 11:21), as well as the conquest of Jerusalem by David (compare Jdg 1:21 with 2Sa 5:6). Its author was in all probability Samuel, the last of the judges (see Jdg 19:1; Jdg 21:25), and the date of the first part of it is fixed in the reign of Saul, while the five chapters at the close might not have been written till after David's establishment as king in Israel (see Jdg 18:31). It is a fragmentary history, being a collection of important facts and signal deliverances at different times and in various parts of the land, during the intermediate period of three hundred years between Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy. The inspired character of this book is confirmed by allusions to it in many passages of Scripture (compare Jdg 4:2; Jdg 6:14 with 1Sa 12:9-12; Jdg 9:53 with 2Sa 11:21; Jdg 7:25 with Psa 83:11; compare Jdg 5:4-5 with Psa 7:5; Jdg 13:5; Jdg 16:17 with Mat 2:13-23; Act 13:20; Heb 11:32).

JFB: Judges (Outline)

• THE ACTS OF JUDAH AND SIMEON. (Jdg 1:1-3)
• ADONI-BEZEK JUSTLY REQUITED. (Jdg. 1:4-21)
• SOME CANAANITES LEFT. (Jdg 1:22-26)
• AN ANGEL SENT TO REBUKE THE PEOPLE AT BOCHIM. (Jdg 2:1-10)
• WICKEDNESS OF THE NEW GENERATION AFTER JOSHUA. (Jdg 2:11-19)
• NATIONS LEFT TO PROVE ISRAEL. (Jdg 3:1-4)
• BY COMMUNION WITH THESE THE ISRAELITES COMMIT IDOLATRY. (Jdg 3:5-7)
• OTHNIEL DELIVERS ISRAEL. (Jdg 3:8-11)
• EHUD SLAYS EGLON. (Jdg. 3:12-30)
• DEBORAH AND BARAK DELIVER ISRAEL FROM JABIN AND SISERA. (Jdg. 4:1-17)
• DEBORAH AND BARAK'S SONG OF THANKSGIVING. (Jdg. 5:1-31)
• THE ISRAELITES, FOR THEIR SINS, OPPRESSED BY MIDIAN. (Jdg 6:1-6)
• A PROPHET REBUKES THEM. (Jdg 6:7-10)
• AN ANGEL SENDS GIDEON TO DELIVER THEM. (Jdg 6:11-16)
• GIDEON'S PRESENT CONSUMED BY FIRE. (Jdg. 6:17-32)
• THE SIGNS. (Jdg 6:33-39)
• GIDEON'S ARMY. (Jdg 7:1-8)
• HE IS ENCOURAGED BY THE DREAM AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BARLEY CAKE. (Jdg 7:9-15)
• HIS STRATAGEM AGAINST MIDIAN. (Jdg 7:16-24)
• THE EPHRAIMITES OFFENDED, BUT PACIFIED. (Jdg 8:1-9)
• ZEBAH AND ZALMUNNA TAKEN. (Jdg. 8:10-27)
• MIDIAN SUBDUED. (Jdg 8:28)
• ABIMELECH IS MADE KING BY THE SHECHEMITES. (Jdg 9:1-6)
• JOTHAM BY A PARABLE REPROACHES THEM. (Jdg 9:7-21)
• GAAL'S CONSPIRACY. (Jdg. 9:22-49)
• ABIMELECH SLAIN. (Jdg 9:50-57)
• TOLA JUDGES ISRAEL IN SHAMIR. (Jdg 10:1-5)
• ISRAEL OPPRESSED BY THE PHILISTINES AND AMMONITES. (Jdg 10:6-9)
• THEY CRY TO GOD. (Jdg 10:10-15)
• THEY REPENT; GOD PITIES THEM. (Jdg 10:16-18)
• JEPHTHAH. (Jdg 11:1-3)
• THE GILEADITES COVENANT WITH JEPHTHAH. (Jdg 11:4-11)
• HIS VOW. (Jdg 11:29-31)
• HE OVERCOMES THE AMMONITES. (Jdg 11:32-33)
• THE EPHRAIMITES QUARRELLING WITH JEPHTHAH. (Jdg 12:1-3)
• DISCERNED BY THE WORD SIBBOLETH, ARE SLAIN BY THE GILEADITES. (Jdg 12:4-15)
• ISRAEL SERVES THE PHILISTINES FORTY YEARS. (Jdg 13:1)
• AN ANGEL APPEARS TO MANOAH'S WIFE. (Jdg 13:2-10)
• THE ANGEL APPEARS TO MANOAH. (Jdg 13:11-14)
• MANOAH'S SACRIFICE. (Jdg 13:15-23)
• SAMSON BORN. (Jdg 13:24-25)
• SAMSON DESIRES A WIFE OF THE PHILISTINES. (Jdg 14:1-5)
• HE KILLS A LION. (Jdg 14:5-9)
• HIS MARRIAGE FEAST. (Jdg 14:10-11)
• HIS RIDDLE. (Jdg 14:12-18)
• HE SLAYS THIRTY PHILISTINES. (Jdg 14:19-20)
• SAMSON IS DENIED HIS WIFE. (Jdg 15:1-2)
• HE BURNS THE PHILISTINES' CORN. (Jdg 15:3-8)
• HE IS BOUND BY THE MEN OF JUDAH, AND DELIVERED TO THE PHILISTINES. (Jdg 15:9-13)
• SAMSON CARRIES AWAY THE GATES OF GAZA. (Jdg 16:1-3)
• DELILAH CORRUPTED BY THE PHILISTINES. (Jdg 16:4-14)
• HE IS OVERCOME. (Jdg 16:15-20)
• THE PHILISTINES TOOK HIM AND PUT OUT HIS EYES. (Jdg 16:21-22)
• THEIR FEAST TO DAGON. (Jdg 16:23-25)
• HIS DEATH. (Jdg 16:26-31)
• MICAH RESTORING THE STOLEN MONEY TO HIS MOTHER, SHE MAKES IMAGES. (Jdg 17:1-4)
• THE DANITES SEEK OUT AN INHERITANCE. (Jdg. 18:1-26)
• THEY WIN LAISH. (Jdg 18:27-29)
• THEY SET UP IDOLATRY. (Jdg 18:30-31)
• A LEVITE GOING TO BETHLEHEM TO FETCH HIS WIFE. (Jdg 19:1-15)
• AN OLD MAN ENTERTAINS HIM AT GIBEAH. (Jdg 19:16-21)
• THE GIBEAHITES ABUSE HIS CONCUBINE TO DEATH. (Jdg 19:22-28)
• THE LEVITE, IN A GENERAL ASSEMBLY, DECLARES HIS WRONG. (Jdg 20:1-7)
• THEIR DECREE. (Jdg 20:8-17)
• THE PEOPLE BEWAIL THE DESOLATION OF ISRAEL. (Jdg 21:1-15)
• THE ELDERS CONSULT HOW TO FIND WIVES FOR THOSE THAT WERE LEFT. (Jdg 21:16-21)

TSK: Judges (Book Introduction)

The book of Judges forms an important link in the history of the Israelites. It furnishes us with a lively description of a fluctuating and unsettled nation; a striking picture of the disorders and dangers which prevailed in a republic without magistracy; when " the high-ways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways" (Jdg 5:6), when few prophets were appointed to control the people, and " every one did that which was right in his own eyes" (Jdg 17:6). It exhibits the contest of true religion with superstition; and displays the beneficial effects that flow from the former, and the miseries and evil consequences of impiety. It is a most remarkable history of the long-suffering of God towards the Israelites, in which we see the most signal instances of his justice and mercy alternately displayed. the people sinned, and were punished; they repented, and found mercy. These things are written for our warning. none should presume, for God is just; none need despair, for God is merciful. Independently of the internal evidence of the authenticity of this sacred book, the transactions it records are not only cited or alluded to by other inspired writers, but are further confirmed by the traditions current among heathen nations.

TSK: Judges 6 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Jdg 6:1, The Israelites for their sin are oppressed by Midian; Jdg 6:8, A prophet rebukes them; Jdg 6:11, An angel sends Gideon for their deliverance; Jdg 6:17, Gideon’s present is consumed with fire; Jdg 6:24, Gideon destroys Baal’s altar, and offers a sacrifice upon the altar Jehovah-shalom; Jdg 6:28, Joash defends his son, and calls shim Jerubbaal; Jdg 6:33, Gideon’s army; Jdg 6:36, Gideon’s signs.

Poole: Judges (Book Introduction)

BOOK OF JUDGES

THE ARGUMENT

THE author of this book is not certainly known, whether it was Samuel, or Ezra, or some other prophet; nor is it material to know.

1. It matters not who was the king’ s secretary, or with what pen it was written, if it be once known that it was. the king who made the order or decree: it is sufficient that unto the Jews were committed to the oracles of God , Rom 3:2 , i.e. the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, one part of which this was, by confession of all; and that the Jews did not falsify their trust therein, but kept those holy books themselves, and delivered them to the world, entire, without addition or diminution; for neither Christ nor his apostles, who severely rebuke them for their mistakes and misunderstandings of some passages of Scripture, ever charge them with any perfidiousness about the canon or books of the Scripture. This book is called the Book of Judges , because it treats of the judges, or of the state of the commonwealth of Israel under all the judges, except Eli and Samuel, who being the last of the judges, and the occasions or instruments of the change of this government, are omitted in this book. The judges were a sort of magistrates inferior to kings, and could neither make new laws, nor impose any tributes, but were the supreme executors of God’ s laws and commands, and the generals of their armies.

Poole: Judges 6 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 6

The Midianites oppress Israel, Jud 6:1-6 . A prophet raised rebukes them, Jud 6:7-10 . An angel calls Gideon to Israel’ s deliverance, Jud 6:11-16 ; confirms him by a miracle, Jud 6:17-21 . He builds an altar; calls it Jehovah-shalom; and offereth there. By God’ s command he breaks down the altar of BAAL: his name Jerub-baal, Jud 6:22-32 . The Midianites gather together to fight; and Gideon prepares against them: God strengthens and confirms him by a miracle, Jud 6:33-40 .

For although the generality of the Midianites had been cut off by Moses about two hundred years ago, yet many of them doubtless fled into the neighbouring countries, whence afterwards they returned into their own land, and in that time might easily grow to be a very great number; especially when God furthered their increase, that they might be a fit scourge for his people Israel when they transgressed.

MHCC: Judges (Book Introduction)

The book of Judges is the history of Israel during the government of the Judges, who were occasional deliverers, raised up by God to rescue Israel from their oppressors, to reform the state of religion, and to administer justice to the people. The state of God's people does not appear in this book so prosperous, nor their character so religious, as might have been expected; but there were many believers among them, and the tabernacle service was attended to. The history exemplifies the frequent warnings and predictions of Moses, and should have close attention. The whole is full of important instruction.

MHCC: Judges 6 (Chapter Introduction)

(Jdg 6:1-6) Israel oppressed by Midianites.

(Jdg 6:7-10) Israel rebuked by a prophet.

(Jdg 6:11-24) Gideon set to deliver Israel.

(Jdg 6:25-32) Gideon destroys Baal's altar.

(Jdg 6:33-40) Signs given him.

Matthew Henry: Judges (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of Judges

This is called the Hebrew Shepher Shophtim , the Book of Judges, which the Syriac and Arabic versions enlarge upon, and call it, The Book of the Judges of the Children of Israel; the judgments of that nation being peculiar, so were their judges, whose office differed vastly from that of the judges of other nations. The Septuagint entitles it only Kritai , Judges. It is the history of the commonwealth of Israel, during the government of the judges from Othniel to Eli, so much of it as God saw fit to transmit to us. It contains the history (according to Dr. Lightfoot's computation) of 299 years, reckoning to Othniel of Judah forty years, to Ehud of Benjamin eighty years, to Barak of Naphtali forty years, to Gideon of Manasseh forty years, to Abimelech his son three years, to Tola of Issachar twenty-three, to Jair of Manasseh twenty-two, to Jephtha of Manasseh six, to Ibzan of Judah seven, to Elon of Zebulun ten, to Abdon of Ephriam eight, to Samson of Dan twenty, in all 299. As for the years of their servitude, as were Eglon is said to oppress them eighteen years and Jabin twenty years, and so some others, those must be reckoned to fall in with some or other of the years of the judges. The judges here appear to have been of eight several tribes; that honour was thus diffused, until at last it centred in Judah. Eli and Samuel, the two judges that fall not within this book, were of Levi. It seems, there was no judge of Reuben or Simeon, Gad or Asher. The history of these judges in their order we have in this book to the end of ch. 16. And then in the last five chapters we have an account of some particular memorable events which happened, as the story of Ruth did (Rth 1:1) in the days when the judges ruled, but it is not certain in which judge's days; but they are put together at the end of the book, that the thread of the general history might not be interrupted. Now as to the state of the commonwealth of Israel during this period, I. They do not appear here either so great or so good as one might have expected the character of such a peculiar people would be, that were governed by such laws and enriched by such promises. We find them wretchedly corrupted, and wretchedly oppressed by their neighbours about them, and nowhere in all the book, either in war or council, do they make any figure proportionable to their glorious entry into Canaan. What shall we say to it? God would hereby show us the lamentable imperfection of all persons and things under the sun, that we may look for complete holiness and happiness in the other world, and not in this. Yet, II. We may hope that though the historian in this book enlarges most upon their provocations and grievances, yet there was a face of religion upon the land; and, however there were those among them that were drawn aside to idolatry, yet the tabernacle-service, according to the law of Moses, was kept up, and there were many that attended it. Historians record not the common course of justice and commerce in a nation, taking that for granted, but only the wars and disturbances that happen; but the reader must consider the other, to balance the blackness of them. III. It should seem that in these times each tribe had very much its government in ordinary within itself, and acted separately, without one common head, or council, which occasioned many differences among themselves, and kept them from being or doing any thing considerable. IV. The government of the judges was not constant, but occasional; when it is said that after Ehud's victory the land rested eighty years, and after Barak's forty , it is not certain that they lived, much less that they governed, so long; but they and the rest were raised up and animated by the Spirit of God to do particular service to the public when there was occasion, to avenge Israel of their enemies, and to purge Israel of their idolatries, which are the two things principally meant by their judging Israel. Yet Deborah, as a prophetess, was attended for judgment by all Israel, before there was occasion for her agency in war, Jdg 4:4. V. During the government of the judges, God was in a more especial manner Israel's king; so Samuel tells them when they were resolved to throw off this form of government, 1Sa 12:12. God would try what his own law and the constitutions of that would do to keep them in order, and it proved that when there was no king in Israel every man did that which was right in his own eyes; he therefore, towards the latter end of this time, made the government of the judges more constant and universal that it was at first, and at length gave them David, a king after his own heart; then, and not till then, Israel began to flourish, which should make us very thankful for magistrates both supreme and subordinate, for they are ministers of God unto us for good. Four of the judges of Israel are canonized (Heb 11:32), Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephtha. The Learned bishop Patrick thinks the prophet Samuel was the penman of this Book.

Matthew Henry: Judges 6 (Chapter Introduction)

Nothing that occurred in the quiet and peaceable times of Israel is recorded; the forty years' rest after the conquest of Jabin is passed over in silence; and here begins the story of another distress and another deliverance, by Gideon, the fourth of the judges. Here is, I. The calamitous condition of Israel, by the inroads of the Midianites (Jdg 6:1-6). II. The message God sent them by a prophet, by convincing them of sin, to prepare them for deliverance (Jdg 6:7-10). III. The raising up of Gideon to be their deliverer. 1. A commission which God sent him by the hand of an angel, and confirmed by a sign (Jdg 6:11-24). 2. The first-fruits of his government in the reform of his father's house (Jdg 6:25-32). 3. The preparations he made for a war with the Midianites, and the encouragement given him by a sign (Jdg 6:33-40).

Constable: Judges (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title

The English title, Judges, comes to us from the Latin translation (Vulgate) that the Greek translation (Septuagint) influenced. In all three languages the title means "judges." This title is somewhat misleading, however, because most English-speaking people associate the modern concept of a judge with Israel's judges. As we shall see, judges then were very different from judges now. The Hebrew title is also Judges (Shophetim). The book received its name from its principle characters, as the Book of Joshua did.

The judge in Israel was not a new office during the period of history that this book records. Moses ordered the people to appoint judges in every Israelite town to settle civil disputes (Deut. 16:18). In addition, there was to be a chief justice at the tabernacle who would, with the high priest, help settle cases too difficult for the local judges (Deut. 17:9). Evidently there were several judges at the tabernacle who served as a supreme court (Deut. 19:17).

When Joshua died God did not appoint a man to succeed him as the military leader of the entire nation of Israel. Instead each tribe was to proceed to conquer and occupy its allotted territory. As the need arose God raised up several different individuals who were judges in various parts of Israel at various times to lead segments of the Israelites against local enemies. These judges were similar to modern mayors of towns. God endowed them with certain qualities and identified them in various ways as being those He had chosen to lead His people. This leadership sometimes involved military command. As God had raised up Moses and Joshua, and as he would raise up David (1 Sam. 16:13), so He also raised up the judges. The writer also described Yahweh as a judge in Judges (11:27). This points out the fact that the judges were God's agents in Israel who judged under Him at this period in the nation's history.

"Though the judge enjoyed great prestige, he was in no sense a king. His authority was neither absolute, nor permanent, nor in any case hereditary; it rested solely in those personal qualities (the charisma) that gave evidence that he was the man of Yahweh's spirit. It was a type of authority perfectly expressive of the faith and constitution of early Israel: the God-King's direct leadership of his people through his spirit-designated representative. . . .

"The judges were by no means men of identical character. Some (e.g., Gideon) rose to their task at the behest of a profound experience of divine vocation; one (Jephthah) was no better than a bandit who knew how to strike a canny bargain; one (Samson) was an engaging rogue whose fabulous strength and bawdy pranks became legendary. None, so far as we know, ever led a united Israel into battle. All, however, seem to have had this in common: they were men who, stepping to the fore in times of danger, by virtue only of those personal qualities (charisma) which gave evidence to their fellows that Yahweh's spirit was upon them, rallied the clans against the foe."¹

Judges is the second book of the Former Prophets section of the Hebrew Old Testament. As I pointed out in the notes on Joshua, the fact that the Hebrews placed the book in this section of their canon is significant. It demonstrates that they recognized it as God's selective history of the period designed to teach spiritual lessons more than simply to record historical facts. God revealed Himself through the events of life and history as well as through the sermons of the prophets.

Date and Writer

Internal references help us locate the approximate date of composition of this book. The clause, "In those days there was no king in Israel," (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25) suggests that someone wrote Judges during the monarchical period that followed the period of rule by judges (amphictyony). Someone probably wrote it after 1051 B.C. when Saul became king. However at the time of writing Jerusalem was still in the hands of the Jebusites (1:21). David captured Jerusalem about 1004 B.C. Therefore the writing of Judges seems to date between 1051 and 1004 B.C.

Jewish tradition suggests that Samuel wrote Judges.² This was the opinion of the writers of the Talmud, the collection of Jewish writings that grew up around revealed Scripture beginning very early in Israel's history. Samuel is a likely writer because of his role in Israel when someone wrote Judges. Samuel's ministry began about 1090 B.C. and apparently ended a few years before Saul's death (ca. 1021 B.C.). If Samuel wrote Judges, he probably did so between 1051 and about 1021 B.C.

Scope

In contrast to Joshua, which spans only about 35 years, Judges covers a much longer period of Israel's history.

The book opens shortly after the death of Joshua (1:1). God did not give us sufficient information to enable us to fix the date of Joshua's death. Leon Wood figured that he died about 1390 B.C.³ Eugene Merrill calculated his death at about 1366 B.C.⁴ The latest event the writer of Judges recorded is probably the death of Samson (16:30-31). Wood believed Samson died about 1055 B.C.⁵ Merrill wrote that he died near 1084 B.C.⁶ Consequently the Book of Judges records about 300 years of Israel's history (cf. 11:26).⁷ The period of rule by the judges, however, extended beyond the events the Book of Judges records to Saul's coronation in 1050 or 1051 B.C.⁸ According to Wood's chronology this was five years beyond the end of Judges and according to Merrill's it was 33 years beyond.

The judgeships of some of the individual judges apparently overlapped. Some ruled in one area of Israel while one or more others ruled elsewhere in some cases.⁹

The Book of Judges does not record the ministries of all Israel's judges. Eli and Samuel were also judges whose work the writer of 1 Samuel recorded. Only the judges whom the divine Author selected for inclusion appear in this book.

Purpose

Arthur Cundall suggested that one of the purposes of Judges may have been to provide apologetic justification for Israel's monarchy.¹⁰ William Dumbrell believed its purpose was primarily to show the sovereign grace of God in preserving Israel in spite of Israel.¹¹ Leon Wood wrote that its primary purpose was to show why Israel did not experience God's promised blessings.¹² Herbert Wolf believed the primary purpose was to show that Israel's spiritual condition determined its political and material situation.¹³ Daniel Block argued that it was to reveal the Canaanization of Israel in the premonarchic period of Israel's history.¹⁴ All these explanations seem to me to be in harmony with what the book records.

Message¹⁵

Joshua reveals that victory, success, and progress result when God's people trust and obey Him consistently. Judges shows that defeat, failure, and retrogression follow when they fail to trust and obey consistently. In this respect Joshua and Judges are like two sides of one coin. The former is a positive lesson and the latter a negative one.

Judges portrays the deterioration of the nation of Israel: what caused it, the course it followed, and the chaos that resulted.

Israel failed because her heart turned from Yahweh, and then her head forsook His covenant. Keil and Delitzsch wrote, "The writer writes throughout from a prophet's point of view. He applies the standard of the law to the spirit of the age by which the nation was influenced as a whole, and pronounces a stern and severe sentence upon all deviations from the path of rectitude set before it in the law."¹⁶

We could visualize the structure of the book as a descending spiral. Israel departed from God, fell under His discipline, repented, experienced deliverance from her oppressors, dedicated herself anew to Yahweh, experienced His blessing, and then apostatized again. In each cycle Israel seems to have sunk lower than she had been previously even though each cycle included a spiritual revival.

Judges reveals the course and process by which Israel deteriorated as a nation. The same process takes place on the personal level as well as on the national level, but it is easier to observe on the national level in Judges.

The root cause of Israel's deterioration was religious apostasy. The Israelites turned from God. They did not drive out the Canaanites as God had commanded (1:21, 27-33). Instead they made covenants with them (2:1-2). Rather than destroying the pagan altars, the Israelites served idols and forsook the Lord (2:11-12, 17, 19).

Their apostasy began with toleration of things that God had condemned and prohibited. In time the Israelites began to admire these things. Finally they conformed to them.

The story of Micah and the Danites (chs. 17-18) is a short illustration of the religious apostasy in Israel at this time. Chapters 17-21 are an appendix to the book.

Religious apostasy led to political disorganization in Israel. Shortly after Israel departed from God it began to come apart as a nation. The people stopped working together toward their God-given goal of possessing the entire land and began fighting with one another instead. At the beginning of the amphictyony the tribes were fairly united, but by the end of this period of Israel's history anarchy prevailed (21:25).

The government in Israel deteriorated from theocracy (rule by God) to anarchy (no rule or government). Israel became fragmented, weak, and unable to withstand her enemies. This is ironic because after Joshua died Israel was in position to begin to enjoy the benefits of the theocracy in the land for the first time. Until Judges opens, God was preparing Israel to enjoy the theocracy in the land.

There are several examples of tribal jealousies in Judges (e.g., 8:1-3; 12:1-6), but the worst example of political disorganization is the vignette that concludes the book. This is the civil war in which 11 of the tribes almost annihilated the twelfth, Benjamin (chs. 20-21). Instead of destroying the Canaanites, God's people allowed them to live among them while the Israelites proceeded to destroy one another.

Another evidence of Israel's deterioration as a nation was social chaos.

Three characteristics marked the social chaos in Israel during the period of the judges. Lawlessness characterized national life. People were afraid to go out in public and traveled the byways rather than the highways of the land (5:6). People committed violent crimes without fear of punishment (ch. 19). Blindness also characterized the people. They were blind to what was happening in their midst, namely, God using discipline after apostasy to bring them to repentance and deliverance. They were also blind to God's dealings with their ancestors in their history. Third, immorality marked Israel's social life. Even Samson, one of the judges, was a victim of this cancer.

The story of the Levite and his concubine who visited the town of Gibeah (ch. 19) is a slice of life out of the period of the judges that shows the immorality that characterized Israel's social life. The behavior demonstrated in this story was the fruit of departure from God. The sin that had previously characterized the Canaanites of Sodom (Gen. 19) now marked God's people. Chapter 19 is a third part of the appendix to the book.

God revealed this process of deterioration to warn all people. Spiritual apostasy leads to political disorganization and social chaos. Social and governmental evils rise out of spiritual conditions. When the Israelites repented and rededicated themselves to God, God brought political deliverance and restored social order.

Judges not only reveals what causes deterioration, but it also clarifies the steps to restoration. Israel's history during this period resembles a downward spiral. The general trend was downward. Nevertheless there were six revivals of the peoples' faith in God and commitment to him too. These revivals cycled in Israel's history at this time.

Israel began from a privileged position of divine blessing.

In time the people apostatized by turning away from God and His covenant to the gods and practices of the Canaanites.

To bring them back to Himself God disciplined His people by allowing them to fall under the control and domination of their enemies. Israel chose to bow down to idols, so God allowed the idolaters to bend her over in bondage. The Israelites tolerated the Canaanites, but God made the Canaanites intolerant of them. The people with the birthright to the land had to hide in caves and among the rocks fearing to show themselves (6:2). God disciplined them severely for their apostasy. In Joshua God dealt with sin primarily among the Canaanites, but in Judges He dealt with it primarily among the Israelites. However, God's discipline was always remedial. God designed it to bring the Israelites back to a consciousness of sin and their need for God.

When the Israelites cried out to Yahweh in repentance, God heard their cry and delivered them mercifully. I mean "repentance" in the general sense of turning to God, not in the specific sense of cleaning up the life. God did not give deliverance as a reward the people had earned, but as grace in response to their helpless cry, as the text makes clear.

When they truly repented, He delivered them by raising up a judge. In each case, deliverance came at the right moment. It always came by the right instrument. God raised up the right person in each case. In almost every case God used one person, either a man or a woman. Judges reveals how God remarkably works through all types of different individuals to accomplish His purposes. He raised up the judge whom He had prepared for the needs of his time and place. Each judge was just right for his mission. In almost every case God used one single individual to change the whole course of history in Israel. E. M. Bounds wrote, "The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through man. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but people--people of prayer."

As a result of this deliverance the people rededicated themselves anew to Yahweh. Spiritual revival was the result of God's physical deliverance.

The people then began to enjoy God's blessing again. God gave them rest from the oppression of their enemies. Arthur Cundall labeled these stages "sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation."¹⁷

God's methods are the same today as they were in the days of the judges.

The fact that the writer repeated this cycle of events six times in Judges points to its timeless quality and its universality. Charles Feinberg wrote, "If ever there were history with a purpose it is here."¹⁸

I would state the message of the Book of Judges therefore as follows. Apostasy leads to disorganization and chaos, but repentance results in deliverance and blessing. This is true nationally and personally.

Constable: Judges (Outline)

Outline

I. The reason for Israel's apostasy 1:1-3:6

A. Hostilities between the Israelites and the Canaanites after Joshua's death 1:1-2:5

1. Initial successes and failures ch. 1

2. The announcement of God's discipline 2:1-5

B. Israel's conduct toward Yahweh and Yahweh's treatment of Israel in the period of the judges 2:6-3:6

1. Review of Joshua's era 2:6-10

2. The pattern of history during the judges' era 2:11-23

3. God's purposes with Israel 3:1-6

II. The record of Israel's apostasy 3:7-16:31

A. The first apostasy 3:7-11

B. The second apostasy 3:12-31

1. Oppression under the Moabites and deliverance through Ehud 3:12-30

2. Oppression under the Philistines and deliverance through Shamgar 3:31

C. The third apostasy chs. 4-5

1. The victory over Jabin and Sisera ch. 4

2. Deborah's song of victory ch. 5

D. The fourth apostasy 6:1-10:5

1. The story of Gideon 6:1-8:32

2. Israel's departure from Yahweh 8:33-35

3. The story of Abimelech ch. 9

4. The judgeships of Tola and Jair 10:1-5

E. The fifth apostasy 10:6-12:15

1. Renewed oppression 10:6-7

2. Oppression under the Ammonites 10:8-18

3. Deliverance through Jephthah 10:1-12:7

4. The judgeships of Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon 12:8-15

F. The sixth apostasy chs. 13-16

1. Samson's birth ch. 13

2. Samson's intended marriage to the Timnite ch. 14

3. Samson's vengeance on the Philistines ch. 15

4. Samson's final fatal victory ch. 16

III. The results of Israel's apostasy ch. 17-21

A. The idolatry of Micah and the Danites ch. 17-18

1. The idolatry of Micah ch. 17

2. The apostasy of the Danites ch. 18

B. The immorality of Gibeah and the Benjamites chs. 19-21

1. The atrocity in Gibeah ch. 19

2. The civil war in Israel ch. 20

3. The preservation of Benjamin ch. 21

Constable: Judges

Judges

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Kallai, Z. "The Conquest of Northern Palestine in Joshua and Judges." Proceedings of the Fifth World Congress of Jewish Studies. Vol I. Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1969.

Keil, C. F., and Franz Delitzsch. Joshua, Judges, Ruth. Translated by James Martin. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. N.p.; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., n.d.

Kitchen, Kenneth A. Ancient Orient and Old Testament. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1966.

_____. "The Old Testament in its Context: 3 From Joshua to Solomon." Theological Students' Fellowship Bulletin 61 (1971):5-14.

Klein, L. R. The Triumph of Irony in the Book of Judges. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement 68. Sheffield, England: Almond Press, 1987.

Lasine, Stuart. "Guest and Host in Judges 19: Lot's Hospitality in an Inverted World." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 29 (1984):37-59.

Laughlin, John C. H. "Dan." Biblical Illustrator 9:4 (Summer 1983):40-46.

Lawhead, Alvin S. "Grace in the Book of Judges." Preacher's Magazine 58:3 (March-May 1983):25-27.

Lewis, Arthur H. Judges and Ruth. Everyman's Bible Commentary series. Chicago: Moody Press, 1979.

Lindars, Barnabas. "Deborah's Song: Women in the Old Testament." Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 65:2 (Spring 1983):158-75.

Lindsey, F. Duane. "Judges." In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, pp. 373-414. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

MacIntosh, A. A. "The Meaning of MKLYM in Judges XVIII 7." Vetus Testamentum 35:1 (January 1985):68-76.

Malamat, A. "The Danite Migration and the Pan-Israelite Exodus-Conquest: A Biblical Narrative Pattern." Biblica 51 (1970):1-16.

Manor, Dale W. "The Topography and Geography of the Jezreel Valley as they Contribute to the Battles of Deborah and Gideon." Near Eastern Archaeology Society Bulletin NS28 (Winter 1987):25-32.

Margalith, Othniel. "The Legends of Samson/Heracles." Vetus Testamentum 37:1 (January 1987):63-70.

_____. "More Samson Legends." Vetus Testamentum 36:4 (October 1986):397-405.

_____. "Samson's Foxes." Vetus Testamentum 35:2 (April 1985):224-29.

_____. "Samson's Riddle and Samson's Magic Locks." Vetus Testamentum 36:2 (April 1986):225-34.

Matthews, Victor H. "Hospitality and Hostility in Judges 4." Biblical Theology Bulletin 21 (Spring 1991):13-21.

Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible 10,000-586 B.C.E. New York: Doubleday, 1990.

_____. "Bronze Bull Found in Israelite High place' From the Time of the Judges." Biblical Archaeology Review 9:5 (September-October 1983):34-40.

_____. "On Cult Places and Early Israelites: A Response to Michael Coogan." Biblical Archaeology Review 15:4 (July-August 1988):45.

_____ "A Philistine Temple at Tell Qasile." Biblical Archaeologist 36 (1973):43-48.

Merrill, Eugene H. Kingdom of Priests. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987.

_____. "Paul's Use of About 450 Years' in Acts 13:20." Bibliotheca Sacra 138:551 (July-September 1981):246-57.

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_____. 2nd ed. S.v. "Mesopotamia," by D. J. Wiseman.

_____. 2nd ed. S.v. "Mill, Millstone," by A. R. Millard.

_____. 2nd ed. S.v. "Number," by R. A. H. Gunner.

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_____. The Theme of the Jephthah Story (Judges 10:6-12:7)." Reformed Theological Review 45:2 (May-August 1986):34-43.

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Judges (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION.

THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

This Book is called Judges, because it contains the history of what passed under the government of the judges, who ruled Israel before they had kings. The writer of it, according to the more general opinion, was the prophet Samuel. (Challoner) --- Some are of opinion, that the judges might have each left records of their respective administration, (Menochius) which might be put in order by Samuel. The author of this book seems to have lived under the reign of Saul, before David had expelled the Jebusites, chap. xviii. 31. (Du Hamel) --- The captivity, which is mentioned [in] ver. 30, must be understood of that when the ark of God, as well as the idol Micha, and may of the people were taken by the Philistines. (Huet) --- Many passages of the Psalms, &c., are taken from this book, which shew its antiquity, Psalm lxvii. 8., and 2 Kings xi. 21. The divine Providence is here displayed in a very striking manner. (Du Hamel) --- The theocracy still subsisted and God generally chose these judges to be his ministers, and to deliver the people, on their repentance, from some dreadful calamity. (Haydock) --- They exercised a supreme power, yet without bearing the insignia of regal authority, or imposing taxes, or making any alteration in the established laws. The Suffetes, who were Carthaginian magistrates, seem to have taken their name from these Ssuptim. (Du Hamel) --- When God did not raise up judges, in an extraordinary manner, a kind of ananchy prevailed. (Haydock) --- Each of the tribes regarded only their own affairs, and the republic was dissolved. (Grotius) --- Prosperous and unfortunate days succeeded each other, in proportion as the people gave themselves up to repentance or to dissolution. Sicut se habebant peccata populi & misericordia Dei, alternaverunt prospera & adversa bellorum. (St. Augustine, City of God xviii. 23.) St. Jerome (ep. ad Eust. & ad Paulin.) exhorts us to penetrate the spiritual sense of the historical books, and he regards "the judges as so many figures" of the apostles, who established the church of Christ. Though some of them had been noted for their misconduct, they were reclaimed by the grace of God. Then all the judges, every one by name, whose heart was not corrupted, who turned not away from the Lord, that their memory might be blessed, &c., Ecclesiasticus xlvi. 13, 14. (Worthington) --- St. Paul mentions four of them, though the conduct of Jephte and of Samson might have been regarded as more exceptionable than that of Othoniel, who is said to have been filled with the spirit of the Lord, chap. iii. 10. Serarius doubts not but they are all in heaven. Salien (in the year of the world 2640,) supposes that the transactions recorded in the five last chapters, took place before this 40th year from the death of Josue, which was the last of Othoniel. With respect to the chronology of these times, there are many opinions. Houbigant endeavours to shew that the system of Usher is inadmissible, as well as that of Petau. Marsham maintains that many of the captivities, and of the Judges, related only to some tribes, so that the different years which are specified, must be referred to the same period of time. Thus while Jephte ruled over those on the east side of the Jordan, and fought against the Ammonites, other judges endeavoured to repel the armies of the Philistines on the west. See 3 Kings vi. 1., and Judges xi. 16. By this expedient, he finds no difficulty in shewing that 480 years elapsed from the departure out of Egypt till the building of the temple, and that the Israelites had occupied the country of the Ammonites during the space of 300 years. (Haydock) --- Houbigant seems to adopt this system in some respects, and he thinks that errors have crept into some of the numbers, so that Aod procured a peace of only 20 instead of 80 years, &c. He observes that the name of judge here designates, 1. A warrior, like Samson; 2. a person who passes sentence according to the law, which was the office of Heli; 3. one divinely commissioned to exercise the sovereign authority, as Samuel did, even after Saul had been elected king. (Proleg. Chronol.) Others have compared the power of these judges with that of the Roman Dictators, or the Archontes of Athens. (Serarius) --- They were properly God's lieutenants. Their revenue seems to have been very precarious, and their exterior deportment modest and unassuming. They were guided by the declarations of the high priests, when arrayed with the Urim and Thummim; and their business was to promote the observance of the true religion, and to defend the people of God. This book concludes with the history of Samson, describing the transactions of 317 years, (Calmet) according to the calculation of Usher, which has met with the approbation of many of the learned, and is therefore chiefly inserted in this edition, as it was in that which was published in 1791, at Dublin, by the care of the Rev. B. Mac Mahon, who seems to have made some alterations. It is not indeed free from many serious difficulties. But we have not leisure to examine them at present. See chap. iii. 11, 30. We shall only subjoin the chronological table of Houbigant, which is not very common, that the reader may perceive where they are chiefly at variance. Moses governed 40 years, Josue 20, the Ancients 20, king of Mesopotamia 8, Othoniel 40, Moabites 18, Aod 20, Samgar 0, the Chanaanites 20, Debora and Barac 40, Madianites 7, Gedeon 40, Abimelech 3, Thola 23, Ammonites 0, Jair 22, Jephte 6, Abesan 7, Ahialon 10, Abdon 8, Philistines 0, Samson 20, and with Heli 20, Heli and Samuel 25, Samuel and Saul 20, David 40, Solomon 3. In the 4th year of his reign the temple was begun, 480 years after the liberation from Egypt. Those to whom no years are assigned, lived at the same time with others whose years enter into the calculation. Thus Samgar gained a victory over the Philistines, while the Chanaanites held the Israelites in subjection, chap. iii. 31. For other particulars we must refer to the author. (Chron. sacra.) (Haydock)

Gill: Judges (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES

The title of this book in the Hebrew copies is Sepher Shophetim, the Book of Judges; but the Syriac and Arabic interpreters call it,

"the Book of the Judges of the Children of Israel;''

and the Septuagint only Judges; so called, not because it was written by them, though some think it was compiled out of annals and diaries kept by them; but it seems to be the work of one person only: the true reason of its name is, because it treats of the judges of Israel, gives an account of their lives and actions, and especially such as concerned their office; which office was different from that of kings, and seems only to have been occasional, and chiefly lay in delivering the people out of the hands of their enemies, when oppressed, distressed, or carried captive by them; in protecting them in the enjoyment of their country, rights, and liberties; in leading out their armies against their enemies when needful; and in settling differences, judging law suits, and administering justice. The government of the nation, during their time, was a theocracy. It is not certain who was the penman of this book; some ascribe it to King Hezekiah, others to Ezra; but the Jewish writers ^a are generally of opinion that it was written by Samuel, which is most likely, who was the last of the judges; and it seems plainly to be written before the times of David, us appears from a speech of Joab, 2Sa 11:21; and from some passages in Psa 68:8, which seem to refer or allude to Jdg 5:4; and from Jerusalem being called Jebus, which shows it to be inhabited by the Jebusites in the time of the writer of this book, whereas it was taken out of their hands by David; besides, Samuel himself refers to the annals of this book; 1Sa 12:9; and from whose testimonies, as well as from others in the New Testament, there is no doubt to be made of its being genuine and authentic, and written by divine inspiration; as is evident from the use the Apostle Paul, and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, have made of it, Act 13:20; it is useful as an history, and without which the history of the people of Israel would not be complete; it containing an account of all their judges, excepting the two last, Eli and Samuel, of whom an account is given in the following books, and of some facts incidental to those times, related in an appendix at the end of it, concerning the idol of Micah, and the war of Benjamin; and furnishes out many useful moral observations concerning God's displeasure at sin in his own people Israel, and his corrections for it; and about his providential care of them in raising up for them deliverers in their time of need, as well as points at various virtues and excellencies in great and good men, worthy of imitation. It contains, according to Piscator, Dr. Lightfoot, and others, an history of two hundred ninety and nine years.

Gill: Judges 6 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 6

In this chapter we have an account of the distressed condition Israel was in through the Midianites, Jdg 6:1, of a prophet being sent unto them to reprieve them for their sins, Jdg 6:7 of an angel appearing to Gideon, with an order to him to go and save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, Jdg 6:11 and of a sign given him by the angel, whereby he knew this order was of God, Jdg 6:17, and of the reformation from idolatry in his father's family he made upon this, throwing down the altar of Baal, and building one for the Lord, Jdg 6:25, and of the preparation he made to fight the Midianites and others, Jdg 6:33, but first desired a sign of the Lord, that Israel would be saved by his hand, which was granted and repeated, Jdg 6:36.