Judges 7

7 9 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down into the camp; for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Purah thy servant down to the camp: and thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down into the camp. Then went he down with Purah his servant unto the outermost part of the armed men that were in the camp. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is upon the sea shore for multitude. And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came unto the tent, and smote it that it fell, and turned it upside down, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand God hath delivered Midian, and all the host. 15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped; and he returned into the camp of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets, and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers. And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, For the LORD and for Gideon. 19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal; and they cried, The sword of the LORD

21 and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp. and all the 22 host ran; and they shouted, and put them to flight. And they blew the three hundred trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, and against all the host: and the host fled as far as Bethshittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abelmeholah, by 23 Tabbath. And the men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, 24 and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian. And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the waters, as far as Beth-barah, even Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together, 25 and took the waters as far as Beth-barah, even Jordan. And they took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to 26 1 Gideon beyond Jordan. And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with Midian? And they did chide with him sharply. And he said unto them, What have I now done in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing. And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. And the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army? And Gideon said, Therefore when the LORD hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers. And he went up thence to Penuel, and spake unto them in like manner: and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. And he spake also unto the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower. Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thou- sand men, all that were left of all the host of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword. And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbebah, and smote the host; for the host was secure. And Zebah and Zalmunna fled; and he pursued after them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and discomfited all the host. And Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. And he caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him: and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and the elders thereof, seventy and seven men. And he came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom ye did taunt me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary? And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. And he brake down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city. Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king. And he said, They were my brethren, the sons of my mother: as the LORD liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you. And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks. Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast saved us out of the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you. And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his spoil. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmael- ites) And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his spoil. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains

27 that were about their camels’ necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went a whoring after it there: and it became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house. So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

29. And Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house. And Gideon had three-30, 31 score and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives. And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

9-11. Gideon had asked signs of God—and had been forgiven; and now, again, God gives him another sign suited to strengthen his faith—beautifully illustrating the Divine consideration for the frailty of man. He receives an intimation to go down by night to the very camp of the Midianites, and he is told to take with him Phurah his armor-bearer. Kd.—He is bidden to go down and hearken to what they said, that he might the more firmly believe what God said. H.

12-14. There is such pictorialness and truthfulness of detail about all this narrative, that we almost seem to see the events enacted before us. That camp of Bedouins, like locusts in number—with their wives, children, and camels, like the sand by the sea-shore; then the watch-fire by which they keep guard; the talk over the camp fire; the dream so peculiarly Bedouin, and its rapid interpretation no less characteristically Eastern—and yet the while all ordered and arranged of God—while that small band of three hundred Israelites lies concealed on the neighboring height, and Gideon and his “young man” are close by, behind the great shadows which the watch fire casts, hidden perhaps in the long grass! Then the dream itself! It was all quite natural, and yet most unnatural. The Midianites—especially the advanced-guard that lay nearest to Israel, could not be ignorant that Gideon and his host occupied yonder height. Fame would spread, probably exaggerate, the “mighty valor” of Gideon and the valor of his followers—while the diminished numbers of Gideon would not be known, as they had retired by circuitous routes. Moreover, the Midianites must also have been aware that this was to Israel a religious war; nor can they have been ignorant of the might of Jehovah. The fears which all this inspired appear in the interpretation of the dream. But the dream itself was the result of the same feelings. Barley-bread was deemed the poorest food; yet a loaf of this despised provision of slaves rolls itself into Midian’s camp, strikes the tent of the leader, turns it upside down, and it falls! Here is a dream-picture of Israel and its victory—all quite natural, yet marvellously dreamed and told just at that peculiar time. Throughout this history how often what seemed to happen quite naturally was used by God miraculously, and how the supernatural linked itself to what, more or less, had its counterpart in the ordinary course of nature. It had been so in the history of Moses and of Israel; it was so when Joshua defeated the allied kings before Gideon, and when Barak encountered the invincible chariots of Sisera. In each case it was the Lord, who gave miraculous victory through terrific tempest. A. E.

15. He gave God the glory of it; he worshipped immediately, bowed his head, thanked God for the victory he was now sure of, and for this encouragement to expect it. H.

16-18. Now, when we would look that Gideon should give charge of whetting swords and sharpening spears, he only gives order for empty pitchers and lights and trumpets. The cracking of these pitchers shall break in pieces this Midianitish clay: the kindling of these lights shall extinguish the light of Midian: these trumpets sound no other than a soul-peal to all the host of Midian: there shall need nothing but noise and light to confound this innumerable army. Bp. H.

19-22. In that night not Israel, but Jehovah is to fight. In one hand each man holds a trumpet, in the other, concealed in a pitcher, a burning torch. Each is to do exactly as the leader. Silently they creep round to three different parts of Midian’s camp, and “stood every man in his place.” The guard has just been relieved, and the new watchers have settled quietly by the watch-fire. Suddenly a single trumpet is heard, then three hundred—here, there, everywhere the sound of war is raised. Now with loud crash three hundred pitchers are broken; three hundred torches flash through the darkness; three hundred voices shout: “The sword for Jehovah and for Gideon!” Then is the enemy all around the camp! No one can say in what numbers. Again and again rings the trumpet-sound; wave the torches. The camp is roused. Men, women, children, camels rush terror-stricken through the dark night. No one knows but that the enemy is in the very midst of them, and that the neighbor whom he meets is an Israelite, for all around still sounds the war-trumpet, flash the torches, and rises the war-cry. Each man’s sword is turned against his neighbor. Multitudes are killed or trampled down, a hopeless panic ensues, and ere morning light the site of the camp and the paths of the fugitives toward Jordan are strewed with the slain. A. E.

The overthrow of the hosts of Midian was manifestly the effect of the power of God fighting on their behalf. But yet what marvellous heroism was there in those three hundred! what strength of purpose, what iron-firmness of nerve, to see above thirty thousand of their comrades leave them in the face of the myriads of their foes; to remain quietly at their post, and, when the time came, to leave their camp and pour down into the plain. Their self-possession and self-restraint and absence of self-indulgence in the matter of the water was a true index of the unequalled qualities which they displayed in the sequel. A. C. H.

22-24. The graphic description of the midnight attack can be most readily realized on the spot. The immediate flight of the nomadic horde is easily traced on the map. “The host fled to Beth-shittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abel-meholah,” a course directly down the main road to Jordan and to Bethshan. Thus the immediate pursuit drove the enemy some ten or fifteen miles toward the Jordan banks. A systematic advance immediately followed. Messengers went south two days’ journey to Mount Ephraim, and the men of Ephraim descended to the lower fords of Jordan at Beth-barah, which was in all probability situate at the traditional site of the Bethabara of the New Testament,—the pilgrims’ bathing-place east of Jericho. C. R. Conder.

25. If we follow the account of the flight of the Midianites, we see that Gideon, after clearing the Bethshan valley of the invaders, crossed the Jordan near Succoth, while a part of the Midianites, thus cut off, fled down the west side to cross by the lower fords near Jericho. Here they were intercepted by the men of Ephraim, summoned from the highlands by Gideon’s messengers, and “they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the wine-press of Zeeb, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.” In the situation required by the narrative, down the Jordan Valley, overlooking the broad plain north of Jericho, is a sharp peak, still known as

Ash el Ghorab, “the Raven’s, or Oreb’s peak.” Two miles northwest of this is a wady and mound, known as Tuwayl el Diab, “the Wolf’s Den,” Oreb and Zeeb being simply the Hebrew words for raven and wolf. As the rock and wine-press of Oreb and Zeeb were on the west side of Jordan, there is every reason to accept this identification. H. B. T. (See map, p. 110.)

8:1-3. The pique here expressed originated in a state of jealous feeling, existing on the part of Ephraim toward Manasseh. Ephraim was brother to Manasseh, the tribe from which Gideon sprung. Their complaint was evidently unjust, as Gideon had acted throughout under Divine direction. Moreover, if so disposed, they had the amplest opportunities to signalize themselves in behalf of the common interest. They knew their country was suffering under foreign oppression, and that forces were raising with a view to resist it and shake off the yoke. What then prevented them from nobly coming forward and volunteering in the enterprise? Bush.—Those seek themselves more than God who stand upon a point of honor to excuse themselves from doing real service to God and their generation. H.—There are persons who really feel hurt if they are not asked to help in every good work, and persons who when a good work is in its infancy make no movement to join it, but as soon as it becomes popular come forward and loudly complain that they were never asked to join.

2,3. We notice the admirable self-command and tact displayed in Gideon’s answer to Ephraim. “What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer? My household has cut the first-fruits, but what is our harvest in comparison with these rich clusters, the heads of Oreb and Zeeb, the princes of Midian which you have gleaned?” Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that. Dods.—Gideon’s character comes out splendidly in this answer. Indisposed to glory, he was willing to give the Ephraimites full credit for their share in the great victory; prudent, and a lover of his country, he saw the immense importance of union among themselves, and the danger of intestine divisions and discord, and so at once met Ephraim’s taunts by the soft answer which turneth away wrath. Hervey.

4. Came to Jordan. The narrative goes back to ch. 7:24, to follow up the personal history of Gideon, from which the writer had been diverted to relate the result of Gideon’s message to the Ephraimites, which is told in verses 24 and 25, and ch. 8 : 1-3. A. C. H.

Faint, yet pursuing. Gideon’s was no easy work in this battle. His limbs were weary running; his hand was weary slaying; the way was long and the sun high and hot, when he arrived with his three hundred followers panting and exhausted at Jordan’s shore. Bent on their purpose they dashed right into the waters, and stemming the flood passed over, “he and the three hundred men, faint yet pursuing.” “Faint, yet pursuing,” be that our chosen motto. An.—The grand word of the text is “pursuing.” To pursue in weakness is even better than to pursue in strength. It shows that the life-purpose has taken full possession of the soul, and that God Himself is inspiring it. Raleigh.—It is so weary to go through, day after day, the same resolutions, the same efforts, the same failures, the same repentances. Faint we all of us must often be who are striving with any earnestness against sin, and who are concerned for the numberless varieties of distress exhibited by our fellow-men. But though faint, let us still be pursuing; not yielding to natural love of ease, nor wearying of the perpetual labor; but remembering that these wearisome conflicts and efforts ought to be gone through and must be gone through, if we are to be and do what we ought; remembering how our Lord endured the contradiction of sinners, and resisted unto blood, striving against sin; and remembering the promises of God, which assure us that in due time we shall reap, if we faint not. Dods.

Gideon was not satisfied with imperfect results. He was not stopped in his career by either successes or difficulties. True, he had driven the children of the east across the Jordan. There had been a great slaughter at the rock Oreb, the kings were fugitives, the power of Midian was broken. But Gideon had the future in view. He would not have the plain of Jezreel again the prey to those locusts from the east. And so Midian must be crushed. But could his strength and the strength of his three hundred hold out any longer? The long and hurried march, the hand-to-hand fights, the heat, their hunger and thirst, had nearly exhausted their powers; they were weary and faint; might they not now stop and rest? No, their work was not complete; so though faint they must still pursue. Methinks that as we read this stirring tale of energy and perseverance we must feel ashamed of our own faint-heartedness; we must feel rebuked at our own readiness to succumb to hindrances or to be concontent with half successes; we must resolve that we will put more energy into our daily work or extraordinary tasks, and that in spite of weariness and discouragement, in the face of hindrances and opposition, we will persevere and carry through to the end whatever work we have in hand of which we are convinced that it is right to do it. This is the lesson here given to us by Gideon—faint, yet pursuing. A. C. H.

5-9. Their crime was great. Gideon, with a handful of feeble folk, was pursuing the common enemy, to complete the deliverance of Israel; his way leads him through the city of Succoth first, and afterward of Penuel; he only begs some necessary food for his soldiers that were ready to faint for want, who had done great service to their country, and were now doing more; who were fighting God’s battles and Israel’s nothing could be more just than that they should furnish them with the best provisions their city afforded. But the princes of Succoth refused to answer the just demands of him whom God had raised up to save them, affronted him, despised the success he had already been honored with, despaired of the success of his present undertaking, did what they could to discourage him in prosecuting the war, and were very willing to believe that the remaining forces of Midian, which they had now seen march through their country, would be too hard for him. The men of Penuel gave the same answer to the same request, defying the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

10,11. He took none with him but his three hundred, who now betook themselves to their swords and spears. God had said, By these three hundred men will I save you, and confiding in that promise Gideon kept to them only. He expected more from three hundred men supported by a particular promise than from so many thousands supported only by their own valor. He made a very long march by the way of them that dwelt in tents, because that was a road in which he would be least expected, and therefore it would be the greater surprise to them. Now he found it an advantage to have his three hundred men, such as could bear hunger, and thirst, and toil. It should seem he set upon them by night as he had done before, for the host was secure. H.

12-17. Gideon returned victorious; and, fulfilling a threat he had made as he passed in the full confidence of faith—destroyed the tower of Penuel, and chastised the princes of Succoth with the thorny branches of the acacia groves of their valley. The “day of Midian” continued long to be memorable in the history of Israel. In the Psalms (83 : 9-11), two or three centuries after, we find the discomfiture of the host of Midian, and especially the destruction of Oreb and Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunna referred to as among the most astounding of God’s judgments on his enemies. Even at the interval of five hundred years, the prophet Isaiah drew from the day of Midian (ch. 9 : 4) and the rock of Oreb (ch. 10 : 26) an emblem of the destruction that was to be brought upon the terrible hosts of Assyria. Gideon is celebrated in the Epistle to the Hebrews as one of those heroes of faith whose reliance on the arm of Jehovah was the secret of their glorious success. W. G. B.

18,19. An incident not before related is here brought to light, that on some unknown occasion Zebah and Zalmunna had put to death Gideon’s brothers. We may observe in passing how characteristic this is of a true narrative in which everything that happened cannot possibly be related. A. C. H.

What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? The inference is that these brothers of Gideon, during the seven years’ oppression of Midian, when the children of Israel had been compelled to make themselves dens in the mountains, had taken shelter in Mount Tabor, where they were found by these two kings and killed in cold blood. Bush.

21. As “judgment began” with the men of Succoth and Penuel, who were of Israel, “the house of God;” so it next fell with heaviest weight on the godless heathen enemy. Zebah and Zalmunna paid with their own blood for the innocent blood which they had shed long previously. A. R. F.

22,23. He was mindful of what they had forgotten; and to their invitation, “Rule thou over us,” his prompt answer—in the true spirit of the theocracy, was, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.” Considering that the love of power is one of the strongest passions in man, and that Gideon was the father of a large family of promising sons whose advancement might seem a reasonable object of paternal solicitude—this refusal, solely on principle, to become the first monarch of the Hebrew state, deserves to be ranked with the most illustrious examples of patriotic self-denial which history has recorded. Kit.—There is no greater example of modesty than Gideon. When the angel spake to him, he abased himself below all Israel; when the Ephraimites contended with him, he prefers their gleanings to his vintage and casts his honor at their feet; and now when Israel proffers him that kingdom which he had merited, he refuses it. He that in overcoming would allow them to cry, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon,” in governing, will have none but “the sword of the Lord.” Bp. H.

24-27. Gideon’s costly ephod. Presuming, probably, on his having been permitted to build an altar and to offer sacrifice, he made a jewelled ephod, adorned with seventeen hundred shekels of gold, which the people gave him from their share of the spoils of Midian, besides the ornaments he had taken from off the kings and their camels. The Israelites came from all quarters to consult the ephod, and Gideon and his house were thus enticed into a system of idolatrous worship. P. S.—Even in his lifetime, it unquestionably had the effect of withdrawing the attention of the people, east of the Jordan, from the tabernacle at Shiloh, and so far tended to pave the way for that decline into positive idolatry, which took place after his death. Bush.

This oracle of Gideon’s own contrivance, made out of the golden amulets of idolaters, was a bad return to make for the Divine favor in granting him victory. It “became a snare unto Gideon” himself, by lessening his zeal for the house of God in Shiloh. Still more so to his family.

30,31. Besides his error in making an ephod, he committed another evil in multiplying wives; and worse even than this, in connecting himself with a concubine and a Canaanites. She it was, probably, who moved him to call their son by the name of the Canaanite king, Abimelech—a presage of the kingship which she coveted for her son. A. R. F.

This notice helps us to fill up the picture of Gideon’s state after the Midianitish victory. He was judge over Israel for forty years, with a household like a great prince, living in his paternal city, with the ephod set up there, himself the centre round which the powers of Church and State gathered; directing the affairs of his country, both civil and ecclesiastical, with eminent success. The good government by which he gave rest to the land for forty years, and the continued repression of Baal-worship as long as he lived, are all evidences that he maintained his integrity before God, and never forfeited his claim to be a servant of God; and it is in entire agreement with this view that we read that he “died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father,” words by which the sacred historian evidently means to set before us the picture of one who under God’s favor, was happy in his death, as he had been in his life. The faith in God which had carried him down to the Midianite camp, though it may have been dimmed, was never extinct. The communion with God, if less fresh and less constant, was never wholly interrupted. He remains to us as one of the most remarkable characters of the Old Testament, not without faults and blemishes and not wholly unspoiled by prosperity, but still a great man, and an eminent servant of God. A. C. H.

Matters changed immediately upon his death. Presently the worship of Baalim becomes again common, and especially that of the “Covenant-Baal” (Baalberith). There is a sad lesson here. If Gideon had made a spurious ephod, his people now chose a false “covenant-god.” And, having first forsaken the Covenant-Jehovah, they next turned in ingratitude from their earthly deliverer, “neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal.” Thus sin ever brings its own punishment. A. E.

ABIMELECH MADE KING BY SHECHEMITES. FABLE AND CURSE OF JOTHAM. THE WICKEDNESS OF ABIMELECH AND OF THE MEN OF SHECHEM RE-QUIITED BY GOD.