Judges 7

Judges 7:1

Salvian the Presbyter: Against the Midianites, also, who, as the book of Judges relates, had filled all places like locusts, Gideon was ordered to lead a few men into battle. It was not that he did not have many in his army, but that he was forbidden to lead many into battle, lest the multitude might claim for itself some share of the victory. Hence, when he had gathered thirty thousand armed fighters, the Lord spoke thus to him: “the people with you are too many, and the Midianites shall not be given into their hands.”What happened next? He left only three hundred fighters to the man who was about to fight against countless thousands of barbarians. Indeed, he ordered the line of soldiers to be reduced to the smallest number in order that their fewness would not permit them to realize any credit from the prosecution of the divinely waged war. Why the Lord acted thus, he himself very clearly stated, saying, “lest Israel glory against me and say, ‘I am saved by my own strength.’ ” Let them hear, I say, let all the unjust and the presumptuous hear. Let all the powerful hear what God says when he says, “Lest Israel glory against me and say, ‘I am saved by my own strength.’ ” I say, let them hear, all those who hurl blasphemies and statements contrary to the above, let them who place their hope in human beings hear these things. God says that all who presume they can be liberated by their own strength speak against him. — THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 7.8-9

Judges 7:2

Richard Challoner: Lest Israel: By this we see that God will not choose for his instruments in great achievements, which depend purely on his grace, such as, through pride and self conceit, will take the glory to themselves.

Judges 7:3

Origen of Alexandria: Does not the leader of our army, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, call out now to his soldiers and say, Whoever is “fearful and anxious of heart,” let him not come to war with me? For this is also what he says in the Gospels in other words but with the same meaning: “Whoever does not take his own cross and come after me is not worthy of me,” and again: “Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Is not Christ thus culling out the fearful and anxious and sending them from his camp?… But don’t let such a life of warfare turn you away; there really is nothing difficult, nothing arduous or impossible in it. — HOMILIES ON Judges 9.1

Judges 7:5

Ambrose of Milan: For the same reason was it that when Gideon was about to overcome the Midianites, he commanded three hundred men to take pitchers, and to hold lighted torches inside the pitchers, and trumpets in their right hands. Our predecessors have preserved the explanation received from the apostles, that the pitchers are our bodies, fashioned of clay, which do not know fear if they burn with the fervor of the grace of the Spirit, and bear witness to the passion of the Lord Jesus with a loud confession of the voice. Who, then, can doubt the divinity of the Holy Spirit, since where the grace of the Spirit is, there the manifestation of the divinity appears. By this evidence we infer not a diversity but the unity of the divine power. For how can there be a severance of power, where the effect of the working in all is one? Neither can there be the grace of the sacraments where there is no forgiveness of sins. What, then, is that fire? Not certainly one made up of common twigs or roaring with the burning of the reeds of the woods, but that fire which improves good deeds like gold and consumes sins like stubble. This is undoubtedly the Holy Spirit, who is called both the fire and light of the countenance of God: light as we said above: “The light of your countenance has been sealed upon us, O Lord.” What is, then, the light that is sealed, but that of the seal of the Spirit, believing in whom, “you were sealed,” he says, “with the Holy Spirit of promise.” And as there is a light of the divine countenance, so, too, does fire shine forth from the countenance of God, for it is written: “A fire shall burn in his sight.” For the grace of the day of judgment shines beforehand, that forgiveness may follow to reward the service of the saints. O the great fullness of the Scriptures, which no one can comprehend with human genius! O greatest proof of the divine unity! For how many things are pointed out in these two verses! — On the Holy Spirit 1.143-46

Augustine of Hippo: Dogs are commendable, not abominable. They observe fidelity toward their master, and before his house they bark against enemies. He has not simply said “of dogs” but “of your dog.” Nor are their teeth praised, but their tongue is: for it was not indeed to no purpose, not without a great mystery, that Gideon was bidden to lead those alone who should lap the water of the river like dogs. Of such sort not more than three hundred among so great a multitude were found. In this number is the sign of the cross because of the letter T [tau], which signifies three hundred in the Greek numeral characters. — EXPLANATIONS OF THE Psalms 68.29

Augustine of Hippo: Dogs should not always be taken in an evil sense; otherwise the prophet would not blame “dogs not able to bark and loving to dream.” Doubtless they would be praiseworthy dogs if they both knew how to bark and loved to watch. And certainly those three hundred men—a most sacred number according to the letter of the cross10—would not have been chosen to win the victory because they lapped water as dogs do, unless some great mystery were signified. Good dogs watch and bark to protect their house and their master, their flock and their shepherd. Finally, even here in the praises offered by the church, when a selection is made from this prophecy, it is the tongue of dogs that is mentioned, not their teeth. — LETTER 149

Bede: Just as the six hundred years of life which Noah completed prior to entering the ark designate the perfection of faith and confession of those who approach the church’s sacraments of heavenly grace and perpetual reward, so also does the three hundred and fifty years that he lived after the great flood typify the perfection of those who, having received the sacraments of life, zealously and faithfully serve the Lord until death. For we say that three hundred, because it is denoted in Greek by the letter tau, which is written in the shape of a cross, most aptly signifies those who resolve not to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence Gideon, at the Lord’s command and with his assistance, conquered the innumerable army of the Midianites with three hundred men, thus teaching figuratively that by faith in the Lord’s cross we will be victorious in the wars waged against us both by this world and by our own vices. — Commentary on Genesis 2.9

Evagrius Ponticus: Limiting one’s intake of water helps a great deal to obtain temperance. This was well understood by the three hundred Israelites accompanying Gideon just when they were preparing to attack Midian. — PRAKTIKOS 17

Gregory the Dialogist: And they are brought to the river, to drink the waters; and whoever drank the waters with bended knees, were removed from the struggle of war. For by the waters is designated the doctrine of wisdom, but by the unbended knee righteous conduct. They therefore who are reported to have bent their knees, while drinking the water, retired from the strife of battles, having been forbidden; because Christ proceeds to battle against the enemies of the faith, with those who when they drink the streams of doctrine, distort not the uprightness of their actions. For all are said at that time to have drunk the water, but not all to have stood with unbended knee. And they who bent their knees, while they were drinking the waters, were rejected, because, as the Apostle witnesses, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” For since dissoluteness of conduct is, as we have said, signified by this very bending of the knees, it is rightly again said by Paul, “Lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight steps with your feet.” They therefore proceed, under Christ as their leader, to battle, who exhibit in their conduct that which they profess with their mouths, who drink spiritually the streams of doctrine, and yet are not carnally distorted by wicked works. — Morals on the Book of Job, Book 30.74

Judges 7:7

Richard Challoner: That lapped water: These were preferred that took the water up in their hands, and so lapped it, before them who laid themselves quite down to the waters to drink: which argued a more eager and sensual disposition.

Judges 7:13

Richard Challoner: A dream: Observation of dreams is commonly superstitious, and as such is condemned in the word of God: but in some extraordinary cases, as we here see, God is pleased by dreams to foretell what he is about to do.

Judges 7:15

Gregory the Dialogist: I think it will not be amiss if we consider at greater length this war of the Madianites, which was intentionally introduced by the Prophet in comparison with the coming of the Lord. For in the book of Judges Gedeon is described as having fought against the Madianites. When he was bringing forth the multitude of the army to war, he was ordered by a Divine admonition, to remove from the conflict of battle all whom on coming to the water he beheld drinking the water with bended knees. And the result was, that only three hundred men remained, who had drunk the water in their hands, standing. With these he proceeds to the battle, and he equipped them not with arms, but with trumpets, lamps, and pitchers. For, as is there written, they placed the lighted lamps in the pitchers, and held their trumpets in their right hand, but their pitchers in their left, and on coming close to their enemies, they sounded with the trumpets, they brake the pitchers, the lamps appeared: and their enemies alarmed on one hand with the sound of the trumpets, and on the other by the glittering of the lamps, were turned to flight. Why then is it that such a battle is brought forward by the Prophet, and why is victory in that battle compared to the coming of our Redeemer? Did the Prophet intend to point out to us that that victorious battle under the command of Gedeon was a type of the coming of our Redeemer? Such deeds were doubtless there wrought, which, the more they exceed the usual mode of fighting, are the less removed from the mystery of prophecy. For who ever went forth to battle with pitchers and lamps? Who, when going against arms, ever abandoned his arms? These things would have been truly absurd to us, had they not been terrible to the enemies. But we have learned by the evidence of the victory itself, not to regard these things which were done as of little account. Gedeon, therefore, coming to the battle, signifies to us the coming of our Redeemer, of Whom it is written; Lift up, O princes, your gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. He prophesied of our Redeemer, not only by his doings, but also by his name. For Gedeon is interpreted ‘going about in the womb.’ For our Lord embraces all things by the power of His majesty, and yet He came, through the grace of the dispensation assuming man’s nature in the womb of the Virgin. Who then is He Who goes about in the womb, except Almighty God, redeeming us by His own dispensation, embracing all things by His Godhead, and taking man’s nature in the womb? In which womb He was both Incarnate, and not confined; because He was both within the womb by the substance of His infirmity, and beyond the world by the power of His majesty. — Morals on the Book of Job, Book 30, Section 73

Judges 7:19

Richard Challoner: Their trumpets: In a mystical sense, the preachers of the gospel, in order to spiritual conquests, must not only sound with the trumpet of the word of God, but must also break their earthen pitchers, by the mortification of the flesh and its passions, and carry lamps in their hands by the light of their virtues.

Judges 7:20

Gregory the Dialogist: They go forth therefore to battle with trumpets, with lamps, and with pitchers. This, as we have said, was an unusual order of battle. They sounded with the trumpets, and the pitchers were held in their left hands. But lamps were placed within the pitchers; but, when the pitchers were broken, the lamps appeared, and by their flashing light the affrighted enemies are put to flight. By the trumpets is designated therefore the loud voice of preachers, by the lamps the brightness of their miracles, by the pitchers the frailness of their bodies. For our Leader led forth with Him, to the contest of preaching, such as by making light of their bodily safety, would overthrow their enemies by dying, and would overcome their swords, not by arms, not by words, but by patience. For our Martyrs came armed under their Leader to battle, but armed with trumpets, with pitchers, with lamps. And they sounded with their trumpets, when preaching; they broke their pitchers, when exposing their bodies to dissolution by the swords of the enemy in their suffering; they shone forth with lamps, when after the dissolution of their bodies they flashed forth with miracles. And their enemies were presently put to flight, because, when they beheld the bodies of dead Martyrs glittering with miracles, they were overpowered by the light of truth, and believed that which they had impugned. They sounded therefore with the trumpets, that the pitchers might he broken; the pitchers were broken, that the lamps might appear; the lamps appeared, that the enemies might be put to flight. That is, the Martyrs preached, till their bodies were dissolved in death; their bodies were dissolved in death, that they might shine forth with miracles; they shone forth with miracles, that they might overthrow their enemies with divine light; so that they might no longer stand up and resist God, but submit to, and be afraid of, Him. — Morals on the Book of Job 30.25

Judges 7:25

Jerome: They who were glorying in their army, whose king was the Assyrian and who used to boast “I will scale the heavens,” not only fell down to earth but on the ground became dung.“Make their nobles.” What nobles? Those who fight against your people. “Like Oreb and Zeeb; all their chiefs like Zebah and Zalmunna.” I suppose you have read in the book of Judges the story of Gideon, who is also called Jerubbaal, how he outwitted those four kings while fighting for the people of God and put an end to them. And notice the kind of nobles these Midianites are who abandoned the judgment of God: “Oreb and Zeeb; all their chiefs like Zebah and Zalmunna.” Who would dream that such words contain mysteries of the Savior? The philosophers read them and smile; the rhetoricians read them and sneer. Not only the rhetoricians, however, but the Jews, too; they have not the key to their treasures, for a veil covers their eyes. “Oreb” means a “hole in which a snake lurks”; “Zeeb” equals “wolf.” Mark, now, the names of the chiefs of Christ’s opponents: “Zebah,” “victim or spoil that the wolf will strangle”; and “Zalmunna,” “masters of malice.” See, then, the divine secrets hidden away in names? — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 15 (Psalms 82)

Richard Challoner: Two men: That is, two of their chiefs.