Text -- Judges 7:1-24 (NET)

Gideon Reduces the Ranks

7:1 Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and his men got up the next morning and camped near the spring of Harod. The Midianites were camped north of them near the hill of Moreh in the valley. 7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. Israel might brag, ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’ 7:3 Now, announce to the men, ‘Whoever is shaking with fear may turn around and leave Mount Gilead.’” Twenty-two thousand men went home; ten thousand remained. 7:4 The Lord spoke to Gideon again, “There are still too many men. Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more. When I say, ‘This one should go with you,’ pick him to go; when I say, ‘This one should not go with you,’ do not take him.” 7:5 So he brought the men down to the water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water as a dog laps from those who kneel to drink.” 7:6 Three hundred men lapped; the rest of the men kneeled to drink water. 7:7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will deliver the whole army and I will hand Midian over to you. The rest of the men should go home.” 7:8 The men who were chosen took supplies and their trumpets. Gideon sent all the men of Israel back to their homes; he kept only three hundred men. Now the Midianites were camped down below in the valley.

Gideon Reassured of Victory

7:9 That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up! Attack the camp, for I am handing it over to you. 7:10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with Purah your servant 7:11 and listen to what they are saying. Then you will be brave and attack the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to where the sentries were guarding the camp. 7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east covered the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels could not be counted; they were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore. 7:13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. The man said, “Look! I had a dream. I saw a stale cake of barley bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard it knocked it over and turned it upside down. The tent just collapsed.” 7:14 The other man said, “Without a doubt this symbolizes the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God is handing Midian and all the army over to him.”

Gideon Routs the Enemy

7:15 When Gideon heard the report of the dream and its interpretation, he praised God. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up, for the Lord is handing the Midianite army over to you!” 7:16 He divided the three hundred men into three units. He gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them. 7:17 He said to them, “Watch me and do as I do. Watch closely! I am going to the edge of the camp. Do as I do! 7:18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow your trumpets all around the camp. Then say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’” 7:19 Gideon took a hundred men to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guards. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars they were carrying. 7:20 All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 7:21 They stood in order all around the camp. The whole army ran away; they shouted as they scrambled away. 7:22 When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused the Midianites to attack one another with their swords throughout the camp. The army fled to Beth Shittah on the way to Zererah. They went to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. 7:23 Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh answered the call and chased the Midianites.

Gideon Appeases the Ephraimites

7:24 Now Gideon sent messengers throughout the Ephraimite hill country who announced, “Go down and head off the Midianites. Take control of the fords of the streams all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.” When all the Ephraimites had assembled, they took control of the fords all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jdg 7:1

¹ tn Heb “and all the people who were with him.”

² sn The name Harod means, ironically, “trembling.”

³ tn Heb “Midian.” The LXX reads “and Amalek” (cf. v. 12; 6:33).

NET Notes: Jdg 7:2

¹ tn Heb “the people who are with you are too numerous for me to give Midian into their hand.”

² tn Heb “might glorify itself against me.”

³ tn Heb “my hand has delivered me.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:3

¹ tn Heb “call into the ears of the people.”

² tn Heb “afraid and shaking.”

³ tc Many interpreters reject the MT reading “and leave Mount Gilead” for geographical reasons. A possible alternative, involving rather radical emendation of the Hebrew text, would be, “So Gideon tested them” (i.e., thinned the ranks in this manner).

⁴ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because warriors are in view, and in ancient Israelite culture these would be only males. (This is also the case in vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.)

⁵ tn Or “turned around, back.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:4

¹ tn Heb “too many people.”

² tn Heb “test them for you there.”

³ tn Heb “he should go with you.”

⁴ tn Heb also has “to you.”

⁵ tn Heb “he should not go.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:5

¹ tn Heb “the people.”

² tn Heb “Everyone who laps with his tongue from the water, as a dog laps, put him by himself, as well as the one who gets down on his knees to drink.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:6

¹ tc The Hebrew text adds, “with their hands to their mouths,” This makes no sense in light of v. 5, which distinguishes between dog-like lappers (who would not use their hands to drink) and those who kneel (who would use their hands). It seems likely that the words “with their hands to their mouths” have been misplaced from v. 6. They fit better at the end of v. 5 or v. 6. Perhaps these words were originally a marginal scribal note which was later accidentally inserted into the text in the wrong place.

² tn Heb “the people.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:7

¹ tn Heb “you.” The Hebrew pronoun is masculine plural, probably referring to the entire army.

² tn The Hebrew pronoun here is singular.

³ tn Heb “All the people should go, each to his place.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:8

¹ tn Heb “The people.”

² tn The words “who were chosen” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

³ tn The Hebrew text has “in their hands.”

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gideon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “tents.”

⁶ tn Heb “Midian.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “him” (i.e., Gideon).

NET Notes: Jdg 7:9

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

² tn Heb “Go down against.”

³ tn The Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, emphasizing the certainty of the promise.

NET Notes: Jdg 7:11

¹ tn Heb “your hands will be strengthened.”

² tn Heb “to the edge of the ones in battle array who were in the camp.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:12

¹ tn Heb “Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east were falling in the valley like locusts in great number.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:13

¹ tn Heb “And Gideon came, and, look, a man was relating to his friend a dream.”

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man mentioned in the previous clause) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “Look!” The repetition of this interjection, while emphatic in Hebrew, would be redundant in the English translation.

⁴ tn Heb “It came to the tent and struck it and it fell. It turned it upside down and the tent fell.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:14

¹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

² tn Heb “This can be nothing but.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:15

¹ tn Heb “he bowed down” or “worshiped.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:16

¹ tn Heb “heads.”

² tn Heb “the jars.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“them”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

sn They hid the torches inside the earthenware jars to disguise their approach and to keep the torches from being extinguished by the breeze.

NET Notes: Jdg 7:17

¹ tn Or “look.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:19

¹ tn Heb “Gideon went, along with the hundred men who were with him, to the edge of the camp.”

² tn Heb “that were in their hands.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:20

¹ tn The Hebrew text adds, “in order to blow [them].” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

NET Notes: Jdg 7:21

¹ tn Heb “each in his place.”

² tn Or “fled.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:22

¹ tn Heb “the Lord set the sword of each one against his friend.”

² tc MT has “and throughout the camp,” but the conjunction (“and”) is due to dittography and should be dropped. Compare the ancient versions, which lack the conjunction here.

³ tn The words “they went” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

NET Notes: Jdg 7:23

¹ tn Heb “Midian.”

NET Notes: Jdg 7:24

¹ tn Heb “to meet Midian.”

² tn Heb “capture before them the waters.”

³ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification (also later in this verse).

⁴ tn Heb “And all the men of Ephraim were summoned.”

⁵ tn Heb “they captured the waters.”