Judges 6

Israel again turns from God and is crushed by Midianite raiders until the people cry out. God answers by calling Gideon, a fearful and unlikely man, and promising to be with him. Gideon first tears down his own father’s idol altar, then asks God for signs, and God patiently gives them.

Judges 6:1

The cycle in Judges starts again: Israel does evil, and God hands them over to an enemy. The seven years of oppression are not random. They are the painful result of leaving the God who had rescued them.

BSA: delivered (“gave, handed over”): God lets His people have what they chose, so that the trouble itself drives them back to Him.

See also: Judges 2:11-15.

Judges 6:2

Midian grew so strong that Israel abandoned their homes and lived like hunted animals in mountain hideouts. The people God had planted in a good land were reduced to hiding in caves and forts.

BSA: prevailed (“was strong, gained the upper hand”): Midian held the stronger hand, and Israel could do nothing to resist.

Judges 6:3-4

The raiders came at harvest time, after Israel had done the work of planting. They camped on the land, ate and trampled the crops, and killed or took the animals. The enemy reached as far as Gaza, near the Mediterranean coast, so no part of the land was safe.

BSA: destroying (“ruining, laying waste to”): The raiders did more than steal. They left the land ruined and unable to feed anyone.

Judges 6:5

The invaders came in numbers too great to count, with camels and tents. Camels were used in raids on a large scale at this time, which made the Midianites fast and hard to stop. Israel felt as helpless as a field before a locust cloud.

Hebrew: אַרְבֶּה (arbeh, H697) — “locust.” This is the word for the swarming locust, which strips a field bare. The picture is of enemies who eat up everything in their path.

Judges 6:6-7

Only when Israel was brought very low did the people cry out to the LORD. Their trouble finally turned them toward the One they had forgotten. God hears such a cry, even from a people who have not yet fully repented.

BSA: cried out (“to cry out for help, publicly announcing their need”): It is an open, loud plea. Israel stopped hiding their need and brought it to God.

See also: Psalm 107:6.

Judges 6:8-10

Before God sends a rescuer, He sends a prophet to say why the trouble came. God reminds Israel of the Exodus and of the land He gave them, and He names their sin: they feared the gods of the Amorites and did not obey Him. He tells the truth first, and then He helps.

BSA: obey (“listen to, heed”): The word means more than hearing. Israel heard God’s voice and did not take it to heart.

See also: Exodus 20:2-3.

Judges 6:11

The angel of the LORD sits quietly under an oak while Gideon beats out wheat in a winepress. Threshing was normally done in the open, where the wind could blow the chaff away. Gideon works in a cramped pit so the Midianites will not see the grain.

Hebrew: חֹבֵט (chovet, H2251) — “beating out.” The word means to beat or knock out grain with a stick. Gideon is doing this work in secret, in a small space, because he is afraid.

Judges 6:12

The angel greets a frightened man as a mighty warrior. He is calling out what God will make of Gideon, not describing how Gideon feels. The greeting also holds the real secret of the chapter: the LORD is with him.

BSA: mighty (“strong, courageous”): God names Gideon by the courage He will put in him, not by the fear Gideon now shows.

Hebrew: גִּבּוֹר הֶחָיִל (gibbor hechayil, H1368) — “mighty man of strength or valor.” This was a title for a proven warrior or a man of standing. It sounds out of place for a man threshing in hiding, and that is the point.

Judges 6:13

Gideon answers with honest complaint. If God is with them, why this suffering? Where are the wonders their fathers told of? He is speaking from real pain, and it is a mix of faith and doubt. He still believes the Exodus was real, but he does not see that same God at work now.

BSA: forsaken (“left, abandoned”): Gideon feels left alone by God, though the prophet has just shown that Israel was the one who left first.

Judges 6:14

The LORD does not answer the complaint. He turns to Gideon and sends him. The strength Gideon already has is enough, because God is the one sending him. God’s commission is the reason Gideon can go.

BSA: save (“rescue, deliver”): Gideon is called to be a rescuer, but the real Deliverer is the one who sends him.

Hebrew: כֹּחַ (koach, H3581) — “strength, power.” The word means plain strength. God does not ask for greater power than Gideon has. He asks him to go, and God supplies what is lacking.

Judges 6:15

Gideon points to his smallness: his clan is poor and he is the youngest at home. This is real humility, though it is also a way of avoiding the call. God often chooses people with nothing to boast about, so that the victory will plainly be His.

Hebrew: דַּל (dal, H1800) — “poor, low, weak.” The Hebrew says his clan is the poorest in Manasseh. Gideon sees himself as having no wealth, rank or power.

See also: 1 Corinthians 1:27-29.

Judges 6:16

God does not argue with Gideon about his weakness. He answers with a promise: I will be with you. That promise is what makes the victory sure. Because God is with him, Gideon can face many enemies as if they were one man.

BSA: with (“together, in accompaniment”): God promises to go along beside Gideon, not just to send help from far away.

Hebrew: אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh, H1961) — “I will be.” This is the same word God used when He promised Moses, ‘I will be with you.’ Gideon is being placed in the same line as Moses.

See also: Exodus 3:12.

Judges 6:17-18

Gideon wants to be sure that he is truly speaking with God. He asks for a sign and offers a gift of food. The LORD does not scold him. He agrees to wait, showing patience with a man who is still learning to trust.

BSA: sign (“miracle, wonder”): Gideon wants something visible that proves the message is really from God.

Judges 6:19-20

Gideon prepares a young goat, broth and a large amount of flour for unleavened bread. That was a costly meal for a family in a time of famine. The angel then tells him to lay the food on the rock and pour out the broth, turning a meal into an offering.

See also: Genesis 18:1-8.

Judges 6:21

The angel touches the food with his staff. Fire comes up from the rock and burns it all, and then the angel is gone. The sign answers Gideon’s request. It also shows that God accepts what is offered to Him.

BSA: vanished (“departed, went away”): The messenger leaves suddenly, so Gideon knows he has been dealing with more than an ordinary traveler.

Judges 6:22-23

Gideon realizes whom he has met and fears for his life. Many in Israel believed that seeing God’s face meant death. The LORD speaks at once with comfort, telling him to have peace and not to fear, for he will live.

BSA: Peace (“shalom, completeness and wellness”): God’s word of peace means far more than calm feelings. It means Gideon is whole and safe in His presence.

Hebrew: שָׁלוֹם (shalom, H7965) — “peace, wholeness, well-being.” The word covers more than the end of conflict. It means everything is well between God and Gideon.

See also: Exodus 33:20.

Judges 6:24

Gideon builds an altar and names it The LORD Is Peace. The name records what he learned in that place, that God had spoken peace to him. Gideon’s first act after meeting God is worship, and the altar remained there as a reminder.

Hebrew: יְהוָה שָׁלוֹם (Yahweh shalom, H3068) — “The LORD is peace.” The name joins God’s personal name with the word for peace. It says that peace comes from the LORD Himself.

Judges 6:25-26

Gideon’s first task is at home. Before he fights Midian, he must remove the Baal altar his own father built. God also tells him to build a proper altar to the LORD and to offer a bull there. The land’s real problem was idolatry, not just Midian.

BSA: burnt offering (“a step of dedication, a complete surrender”): This offering was burned whole, a sign that everything is given to God.

Hebrew: אֲשֵׁרָה (Asherah, H842) — “a wooden pole or tree set up for the goddess Asherah.” Asherah was a Canaanite goddess worshipped alongside Baal. Her wooden pole stood beside his altar. Gideon is ordered to chop it down and use it as firewood for the LORD’s sacrifice.

See also: Exodus 34:13.

Judges 6:27

Gideon obeys, but he works by night because he is afraid of his family and neighbors. His fear is real, and he still does what God says. God can use obedience that is done trembling.

BSA: afraid (“feared, stood in awe”): Gideon fears the people around him, yet he still carries out God’s order.

Judges 6:28-30

In the morning the town finds the altar down, the pole felled and a sacrifice smoking on a new altar. They ask around and learn it was Gideon. The people then demand his death, which shows how deeply they had come to depend on Baal and not on the LORD.

See also: Deuteronomy 13:6-9.

Judges 6:31

Joash, who built the altar, now defends his son with sharp logic. If Baal is a real god, he can defend himself. A god who needs people to protect him is no god. Joash’s words show the weakness of idols.

BSA: contend (“fight, argue”): Baal is told to take up his own case, and he does nothing.

See also: 1 Kings 18:27.

Judges 6:32

Gideon gets a new name that turns the insult around. Baal is invited to fight Gideon himself, and nothing happens. The name keeps the memory that the one who tore down the false god was left unharmed.

Hebrew: יְרֻבַּעַל (Yerubba’al, H3378) — “Let Baal contend.” The name takes Joash’s challenge and makes it Gideon’s second name. It was a standing question about whether Baal could answer for himself.

Judges 6:33

The enemy gathers once more. Midian, Amalekites and the eastern peoples cross the Jordan and camp in the broad Valley of Jezreel. The test Gideon has been waiting for is now close, and a very large force stands ready.

BSA: gathered together (“assembled, united”): The enemies come together as one force, which shows how great the threat was.

Judges 6:34-35

God’s Spirit takes hold of Gideon, and the man who hid in a winepress now blows the ram’s horn and calls out the clan. He then sends messengers to four tribes. His courage does not come from him but from the Spirit.

BSA: Spirit (“the breath of life”): The Spirit of the LORD is God’s own living power at work in Gideon.

Hebrew: לָבְשָׁה (lavshah, H3847) — “clothed.” The Hebrew says the Spirit clothed Gideon, as if putting him on like a garment. The Spirit takes Gideon over and acts through him.

See also: Judges 3:10.

Judges 6:36-37

Gideon asks for a further sign with a fleece on the threshing floor: dew on the fleece alone, with dry ground around it. God had already promised him victory, so Gideon is asking for more assurance. Christians differ on whether this is a model to copy. Here it shows how gently God deals with a nervous man.

BSA: threshing floor (“a place of separation, where grain is separated from chaff”): The place where grain is sorted is now where Gideon seeks certainty about God’s word.

Judges 6:38

It happens just as Gideon asked. In the morning he wrings a full bowl of water out of the fleece while the floor around it is dry. God answers his request exactly, without rebuke.

BSA: dew (“moisture, gentle rain”): The dew was a gift from the sky that soaked the fleece and left the rest of the ground dry.

Judges 6:39-40

Gideon asks a second time, but now he reverses the sign: the fleece dry and the ground wet. He knows he is pushing, and he asks God not to be angry. God does it again that night. The chapter ends with a God who is patient with weak faith and keeps His promise.

BSA: test (“trial, proof”): Gideon asks for a proof to settle his doubts, and God allows it.