Judges 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 the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. No JFB commentary on these verses.

There, to wit, on the top of the rock, as is evident from , and especially from , 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.

Judges 6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it [is] yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.Ver. 24. And called it Jehovah-shalom,] i.e., The Lord of peace, or the peace of the Lord. Christ had said unto him, Peace be unto thee: he therefore honoureth Christ by this name given to his newly built altar. We should write upon our hearts Jehovah-tsidkenu, Jehovah-shalom - The Lord our righteousness, the Lord our peace. "The Lord of peace himself give us peace always by all means." Such an inscription there would answer all our doubts, and cheer up our spirits above belief.

(24) Built an altar.—Altars, like the altar Ed (Joshua 22:34), built by the Transjordanic tribes, were not always intended for purposes of sacrifices, but to witness some great event or Divine appearance (Genesis 31:48, Genesis 26:25; Exodus 17:15). Jehovah-shalom.—“The Lord is peace.” We find similar names in Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide” (Genesis 22:14); Jehovah-nissi, “the Lord my banner” (Exodus 17:15); and Jehovah-tsidkenn, “the Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6). (Comp. Ezekiel 48:35.) See Pearson on the Creed, Art. 2.

Verse 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, Judges 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 Judges 6:26, and is spoken of here merely by anticipation.

24. built an altar there] where the Deity had appeared; the patriarchs observed this custom, see Genesis 12:7; Genesis 26:25; Genesis 35:1. The altar with its name Jehovah is peace, i.e. well-disposed, commemorated the revelation; cf. the naming of an altar in Genesis 33:20; Genesis 35:7, Exodus 17:15 (all E). For Kittel’s interpretation of the episode see on Judges 13:19. Perhaps Gideon’s experience conveyed to his mind a new religious idea. According to primitive belief, the Deity dwelt in a sacred tree or stone; but not in the terebinth or rock at Ophrah; the Messenger of Jehovah has no such dwelling; He comes as a traveller from some region that no one knows. Whether the burning of the sacrifice marked a change in religious practice is more doubtful. The foregoing narrative presents several difficulties. The inconsistent use of Jehovah in Judges 6:14; Judges 6:16 may be accounted for by a lapse from strict dramatic fitness on the part of the writer; but the expressions in Judges 6:14; Judges 6:16-17 which imply that Gideon recognized the Angel before Judges 6:22, cannot perhaps be explained in this way. It has been suggested (1) that these expressions have been inserted by a later editor to emphasize from the first the divine nature of Gideon’s Visitor and the sacrificial character of the meal; or (2) that the confusion is due to a double version, Judges 6:14 b do not I send thee, Judges 6:16-17 b being assigned to E, the rest belonging to J. But the distinction between the sources cannot be made out with much success. It is possible to explain the difficulty in Judges 6:17 b in the way attempted in the note; but we must allow that the present form of the narrative cannot be original.

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 Genesis 22:14, and of Moses (Exodus 17:15, when he named the altar Jehovah-nissi).

24. Jehovah-shalom — That is, Jehovah is peace. He erected this altar both in gratitude to God for his mercy in remembering Israel, and as a memorial and witness of the blessed peace which was in that spot granted unto him.