1 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.
3 And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;
4 And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
5 For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.
6 And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.
7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites,
8 That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;
9 And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land;
10 And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.
11 And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
14 And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?
15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me.
18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.
19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.
20 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.
21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.
22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O LORD God! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.
23 And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.
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.
25 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:
26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.
29 And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.
30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.
31 And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.
32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar.
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.
34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him.
35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,
37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
38 And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
1 And the children H1121 of Israel H3478 did H6213 evil H7451 in the sight H5869 of the LORD: H3068 and the LORD H3068 delivered H5414 them into the hand H3027 of Midian H4080 seven H7651 years. H8141
2 And the hand H3027 of Midian H4080 prevailed H5810 against Israel: H3478 and because H6440 of the Midianites H4080 the children H1121 of Israel H3478 made H6213 them the dens H4492 which are in the mountains, H2022 and caves, H4631 and strong holds. H4679
3 And so it was, when Israel H3478 had sown, H2232 that the Midianites H4080 came up, H5927 and the Amalekites, H6002 and the children H1121 of the east, H6924 even they came up H5927 against them;
4 And they encamped H2583 against them, and destroyed H7843 the increase H2981 of the earth, H776 till thou come H935 unto Gaza, H5804 and left H7604 no sustenance H4241 for Israel, H3478 neither sheep, H7716 nor ox, H7794 nor ass. H2543
5 For they came up H5927 with their cattle H4735 and their tents, H168 and they came H935 H935 as H1767 grasshoppers H697 for multitude; H7230 for both they and their camels H1581 were without number: H4557 and they entered H935 into the land H776 to destroy H7843 it.
6 And Israel H3478 was greatly H3966 impoverished H1809 because H6440 of the Midianites; H4080 and the children H1121 of Israel H3478 cried H2199 unto the LORD. H3068
7 And it came to pass, when the children H1121 of Israel H3478 cried H2199 unto the LORD H3068 because H182 of the Midianites, H4080
8 That the LORD H3068 sent H7971 a prophet H376 H5030 unto the children H1121 of Israel, H3478 which said H559 unto them, Thus saith H559 the LORD H3068 God H430 of Israel, H3478 I brought you up H5927 from Egypt, H4714 and brought you forth H3318 out of the house H1004 of bondage; H5650
9 And I delivered H5337 you out of the hand H3027 of the Egyptians, H4714 and out of the hand H3027 of all that oppressed H3905 you, and drave them out H1644 from before H6440 you, and gave H5414 you their land; H776
10 And I said H559 unto you, I am the LORD H3068 your God; H430 fear H3372 not the gods H430 of the Amorites, H567 in whose land H776 ye dwell: H3427 but ye have not obeyed H8085 my voice. H6963
11 And there came H935 an angel H4397 of the LORD, H3068 and sat H3427 under an oak H424 which was in Ophrah, H6084 that pertained unto Joash H3101 the Abiezrite: H33 and his son H1121 Gideon H1439 threshed H2251 wheat H2406 by the winepress, H1660 to hide H5127 it from H6440 the Midianites. H4080
12 And the angel H4397 of the LORD H3068 appeared H7200 unto him, and said H559 unto him, The LORD H3068 is with thee, thou mighty H1368 man of valour. H2428
13 And Gideon H1439 said H559 unto him, Oh H994 my Lord, H113 if H3426 the LORD H3068 be with us, why then is all this befallen H4672 us? and where be all his miracles H6381 which our fathers H1 told H5608 us of, saying, H559 Did not the LORD H3068 bring us up H5927 from Egypt? H4714 but now the LORD H3068 hath forsaken H5203 us, and delivered H5414 us into the hands H3709 of the Midianites. H4080
14 And the LORD H3068 looked H6437 upon him, and said, H559 Go H3212 in this thy might, H3581 and thou shalt save H3467 Israel H3478 from the hand H3709 of the Midianites: H4080 have not I sent H7971 thee?
15 And he said H559 unto him, Oh H994 my Lord, H136 wherewith H4100 shall I save H3467 Israel? H3478 behold, my family H504 H505 is poor H1800 in Manasseh, H4519 and I am the least H6810 in my father's H1 house. H1004
16 And the LORD H3068 said H559 unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite H5221 the Midianites H4080 as one H259 man. H376
17 And he said H559 unto him, If now I have found H4672 grace H2580 in thy sight, H5869 then shew H6213 me a sign H226 that thou talkest H1696 with me.
18 Depart H4185 not hence, I pray thee, until I come H935 unto thee, and bring forth H3318 my present, H4503 and set H3240 it before H6440 thee. And he said, H559 I will tarry H3427 until thou come again. H7725
19 And Gideon H1439 went in, H935 and made ready H6213 a kid, H5795 H1423 and unleavened cakes H4682 of an ephah H374 of flour: H7058 the flesh H1320 he put H7760 in a basket, H5536 and he put H7760 the broth H4839 in a pot, H6517 and brought it out H3318 unto him under the oak, H424 and presented H5066 it.
20 And the angel H4397 of God H430 said H559 unto him, Take H3947 the flesh H1320 and the unleavened cakes, H4682 and lay H3240 them upon this H1975 rock, H5553 and pour out H8210 the broth. H4839 And he did H6213 so.
21 Then the angel H4397 of the LORD H3068 put forth H7971 the end H7097 of the staff H4938 that was in his hand, H3027 and touched H5060 the flesh H1320 and the unleavened cakes; H4682 and there rose up H5927 fire H784 out of the rock, H6697 and consumed H398 the flesh H1320 and the unleavened cakes. H4682 Then the angel H4397 of the LORD H3068 departed H1980 out of his sight. H5869
22 And when Gideon H1439 perceived H7200 that he was an angel H4397 of the LORD, H3068 Gideon H1439 said, H559 Alas, H162 O Lord H136 GOD! H3069 for because H3651 I have seen H7200 an angel H4397 of the LORD H3068 face H6440 to face. H6440
23 And the LORD H3068 said H559 unto him, Peace H7965 be unto thee; fear H3372 not: thou shalt not die. H4191
24 Then Gideon H1439 built H1129 an altar H4196 there unto the LORD, H3068 and called H7121 it Jehovahshalom: H3073 unto this day H3117 it is yet in Ophrah H6084 of the Abiezrites. H33
25 And it came to pass the same night, H3915 that the LORD H3068 said H559 unto him, Take H3947 thy father's H1 young H6499 bullock, H7794 even the second H8145 bullock H6499 of seven H7651 years old, H8141 and throw down H2040 the altar H4196 of Baal H1168 that thy father H1 hath, and cut down H3772 the grove H842 that is by it:
26 And build H1129 an altar H4196 unto the LORD H3068 thy God H430 upon the top H7218 of this rock, H4581 in the ordered place, H4634 and take H3947 the second H8145 bullock, H6499 and offer H5927 a burnt sacrifice H5930 with the wood H6086 of the grove H842 which thou shalt cut down. H3772
27 Then Gideon H1439 took H3947 ten H6235 men H582 of his servants, H5650 and did H6213 as the LORD H3068 had said H1696 unto him: and so it was, because he feared H3372 his father's H1 household, H1004 and the men H582 of the city, H5892 that he could not do H6213 it by day, H3119 that he did H6213 it by night. H3915
28 And when the men H582 of the city H5892 arose early H7925 in the morning, H1242 behold, the altar H4196 of Baal H1168 was cast down, H5422 and the grove H842 was cut down H3772 that was by it, and the second H8145 bullock H6499 was offered H5927 upon the altar H4196 that was built. H1129
29 And they said H559 one H376 to another, H7453 Who hath done H6213 this thing? H1697 And when they enquired H1875 and asked, H1245 they said, H559 Gideon H1439 the son H1121 of Joash H3101 hath done H6213 this thing. H1697
30 Then the men H582 of the city H5892 said H559 unto Joash, H3101 Bring out H3318 thy son, H1121 that he may die: H4191 because he hath cast down H5422 the altar H4196 of Baal, H1168 and because he hath cut down H3772 the grove H842 that was by it.
31 And Joash H3101 said H559 unto all that stood H5975 against him, Will ye plead H7378 for Baal? H1168 will ye save H3467 him? he that will plead H7378 for him, let him be put to death H4191 whilst it is yet morning: H1242 if he be a god, H430 let him plead H7378 for himself, because one hath cast down H5422 his altar. H4196
32 Therefore on that day H3117 he called H7121 him Jerubbaal, H3378 saying, H559 Let Baal H1168 plead H7378 against him, because he hath thrown down H5422 his altar. H4196
33 Then all the Midianites H4080 and the Amalekites H6002 and the children H1121 of the east H6924 were gathered H622 together, H3162 and went over, H5674 and pitched H2583 in the valley H6010 of Jezreel. H3157
34 But the Spirit H7307 of the LORD H3068 came H3847 upon Gideon, H1439 and he blew H8628 a trumpet; H7782 and Abiezer H44 was gathered H2199 after H310 him.
35 And he sent H7971 messengers H4397 throughout all Manasseh; H4519 who also was gathered H2199 after H310 him: and he sent H7971 messengers H4397 unto Asher, H836 and unto Zebulun, H2074 and unto Naphtali; H5321 and they came up H5927 to meet H7125 them.
36 And Gideon H1439 said H559 unto God, H430 If thou wilt H3426 save H3467 Israel H3478 by mine hand, H3027 as thou hast said, H1696
37 Behold, I will put H3322 a fleece H1492 of wool H6785 in the floor; H1637 and if the dew H2919 be on the fleece H1492 only, and it be dry H2721 upon all the earth H776 beside, then shall I know H3045 that thou wilt save H3467 Israel H3478 by mine hand, H3027 as thou hast said. H1696
38 And it was so: for he rose up early H7925 on the morrow, H4283 and thrust H2115 the fleece H1492 together, H2115 and wringed H4680 the dew H2919 out of the fleece, H1492 a bowl H5602 full H4393 of water. H4325
39 And Gideon H1439 said H559 unto God, H430 Let not thine anger H639 be hot H2734 against me, and I will speak H1696 but this once: H6471 let me prove, H5254 I pray thee, but this once H6471 with the fleece; H1492 let it now be dry H2721 only upon the fleece, H1492 and upon all the ground H776 let there be dew. H2919
40 And God H430 did H6213 so that night: H3915 for it was dry H2721 upon the fleece H1492 only, and there was dew H2919 on all the ground. H776
1 And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah: and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
3 And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them;
4 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
5 For they came up with their cattle and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it.
6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried unto Jehovah.
7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto Jehovah because of Midian,
8 that Jehovah sent a prophet unto the children of Israel: and he said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;
9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land;
10 and I said unto you, I am Jehovah your God; ye shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. But ye have not hearkened unto my voice.
11 And the angel of Jehovah came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him, and said unto him, Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh, my lord, if Jehovah is with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Jehovah bring us up from Egypt? but now Jehovah hath cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.
14 And Jehovah looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent thee?
15 And he said unto him, Oh, Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
16 And Jehovah said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
17 And he said unto him, If now I have found favor in thy sight, then show me a sign that it is thou that talkest with me.
18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and lay it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.
19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.
20 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.
21 Then the angel of Jehovah put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Jehovah departed out of his sight.
22 And Gideon saw that he was the angel of Jehovah; and Gideon said, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! forasmuch as I have seen the angel of Jehovah face to face.
23 And Jehovah said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.
24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto Jehovah, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 And it came to pass the same night, that Jehovah said unto him, Take thy father's bullock, even the second bullock seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the Asherah that is by it;
26 and build an altar unto Jehovah thy God upon the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt-offering with the wood of the Asherah which thou shalt cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Jehovah had spoken unto him: and it came to pass, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.
29 And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.
30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die, because he hath broken down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the Asherah that was by it.
31 And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye contend for Baal? Or will ye save him? he that will contend for him, let him be put to death whilst `it is yet' morning: if he be a god, let him contend for himself, because one hath broken down his altar.
32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, because he hath broken down his altar.
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
34 But the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him.
35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast spoken,
37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the ground, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast spoken.
38 And it was so; for he rose up early on the morrow, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.
39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once: let me make trial, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
1 And the sons of Israel do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and Jehovah giveth them into the hand of Midian seven years,
2 and the hand of Midian is strong against Israel, from the presence of Midian have the sons of Israel made for themselves the flowings which `are' in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
3 And it hath been, if Israel hath sowed, that Midian hath come up, and Amalek, and the sons of the east, yea, they have come up against him,
4 and encamp against them, and destroy the increase of the land till thine entering Gaza; and they leave no sustenance in Israel, either sheep, or ox, or ass;
5 for they and their cattle come up, with their tents; they come in as the fulness of the locust for multitude, and of them and of their cattle there is no number, and they come into the land to destroy it.
6 And Israel is very weak from the presence of Midian, and the sons of Israel cry unto Jehovah.
7 And it cometh to pass when the sons of Israel have cried unto Jehovah, concerning Midian,
8 that Jehovah sendeth a man, a prophet, unto the sons of Israel, and he saith to them, `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, I -- I have brought you up out of Egypt, and I bring you out from a house of servants,
9 and I deliver you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all your oppressors, and I cast them out from your presence, and I give to you their land,
10 and I say to you, I `am' Jehovah your God, ye do not fear the gods of the Amorite in whose land ye are dwelling: -- and ye have not hearkened to My voice.'
11 And the messenger of Jehovah cometh and sitteth under the oak which `is' in Ophrah, which `is' to Joash the Abi-Ezrite, and Gideon his son is beating out wheat in the wine-press, to remove `it' from the presence of the Midianites;
12 and the messenger of Jehovah appeareth unto him, and saith unto him, `Jehovah `is' with thee, O mighty one of valour.'
13 And Gideon saith unto him, `O, my lord -- and Jehovah is with us! -- and why hath all this found us? and where `are' all His wonders which our fathers recounted to us, saying, Hath not Jehovah brought us up out of Egypt? and now Jehovah hath left us, and doth give us into the hand of Midian.'
14 And Jehovah turneth unto him and saith, `Go in this -- thy power; and thou hast saved Israel out of the hand of Midian -- have not I sent thee.'
15 And he saith unto him, `O, my lord, wherewith do I save Israel? lo, my chief `is' weak in Manasseh, and I the least in the house of my father.'
16 And Jehovah saith unto him, `Because I am with thee -- thou hast smitten the Midianites as one man.'
17 And he saith unto Him, `If, I pray Thee, I have found grace in Thine eyes, then Thou hast done for me a sign that Thou art speaking with me.
18 Move not, I pray Thee, from this, till my coming in unto Thee, and I have brought out my present, and put it before Thee;' and he saith, `I -- I do abide till thy return.'
19 And Gideon hath gone in, and prepareth a kid of the goats, and of an ephah of flour unleavened things; the flesh he hath put in a basket, and the broth he hath put in a pot, and he bringeth out unto Him, unto the place of the oak, and bringeth `it' nigh.
20 And the messenger of God saith unto him, `Take the flesh and the unleavened things, and place on this rock -- and the broth pour out;' and he doth so.
21 And the messenger of Jehovah putteth forth the end of the staff which `is' in His hand, and cometh against the flesh, and against the unleavened things, and the fire goeth up out of the rock and consumeth the flesh and the unleavened things -- and the messenger of Jehovah hath gone from his eyes.
22 And Gideon seeth that He `is' a messenger of Jehovah, and Gideon saith, `Alas, Lord Jehovah! because that I have seen a messenger of Jehovah face to face!'
23 And Jehovah saith to him, `Peace to thee; fear not; thou dost not die.'
24 And Gideon buildeth there an altar to Jehovah, and calleth it Jehovah-Shalom, unto this day it `is' yet in Ophrah of the Abi-Ezrites.
25 And it cometh to pass, on that night, that Jehovah saith to him, `Take the young ox which `is' to thy father, and the second bullock of seven years, and thou hast thrown down the altar of Baal which `is' to thy father, and the shrine which `is' by it thou dost cut down,
26 and thou hast built an altar to Jehovah thy God on the top of this stronghold, by the arrangement, and hast taken the second bullock, and caused to ascend a burnt-offering with the wood of the shrine which thou cuttest down.'
27 And Gideon taketh ten men of his servants, and doth as Jehovah hath spoken unto him, and it cometh to pass, because he hath been afraid of the house of his father, and the men of the city, to do `it' by day, that he doth `it' by night.
28 And the men of the city rise early in the morning, and lo, broken down hath been the altar of Baal, and the shrine which is by it hath been cut down, and the second bullock hath been offered on the altar which is built.
29 And they say one to another, `Who hath done this thing?' and they inquire and seek, and they say, `Gideon son of Joash hath done this thing.'
30 And the men of the city say unto Joash, `Bring out thy son, and he dieth, because he hath broken down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the shrine which `is' by it.'
31 And Joash saith to all who have stood against him, `Ye, do ye plead for Baal? ye -- do ye save him? he who pleadeth for him is put to death during the morning; if he `is' a god he himself doth plead against him, because he hath broken down his altar.'
32 And he calleth him, on that day, Jerubbaal, saying, `The Baal doth plead against him, because he hath broken down his altar.'
33 And all Midian and Amalek and the sons of the east have been gathered together, and pass over, and encamp in the valley of Jezreel,
34 and the Spirit of Jehovah hath clothed Gideon, and he bloweth with a trumpet, and Abi-Ezer is called after him;
35 and messengers he hath sent into all Manasseh, and it also is called after him; and messengers he hath sent into Asher, and into Zebulun, and into Naphtali, and they come up to meet them.
36 And Gideon saith unto God, `If Thou art Saviour of Israel by my hand, as Thou hast spoken,
37 lo, I am placing the fleece of wool in the threshing-floor: if dew is on the fleece alone, and on all the earth drought -- then I have known that Thou dost save Israel by my hand, as Thou hast spoken;'
38 and it is so, and he riseth early on the morrow, and presseth the fleece, and wringeth dew out of the fleece -- the fulness of the bowl, of water.
39 And Gideon saith unto God, `Let not Thine anger burn against me, and I speak only this time; let me try, I pray Thee, only this time with the fleece -- let there be, I pray Thee, drought on the fleece alone, and on all the earth let there be dew.'
40 And God doth so on that night, and there is drought on the fleece alone, and on all the earth there hath been dew.
1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand of Mid'ian seven years.
2 And the hand of Mid'ian prevailed over Israel; and because of Mid'ian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves and the strongholds.
3 For whenever the Israelites put in seed the Mid'ianites and the Amal'ekites and the people of the East would come up and attack them;
4 they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or ass.
5 For they would come up with their cattle and their tents, coming like locusts for number; both they and their camels could not be counted; so that they wasted the land as they came in.
6 And Israel was brought very low because of Mid'ian; and the people of Israel cried for help to the LORD.
7 When the people of Israel cried to the LORD on account of the Mid'ianites,
8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel; and he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage;
9 and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you, and gave you their land;
10 and I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; you shall not pay reverence to the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.' But you have not given heed to my voice."
11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Jo'ash the Abiez'rite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Mid'ianites.
12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor."
13 And Gideon said to him, "Pray, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this befallen us? And where are all his wonderful deeds which our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Mid'ian."
14 And the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Mid'ian; do not I send you?"
15 And he said to him, "Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manas'seh, and I am the least in my family."
16 And the LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall smite the Mid'ianites as one man."
17 And he said to him, "If now I have found favor with thee, then show me a sign that it is thou who speakest with me.
18 Do not depart from here, I pray thee, until I come to thee, and bring out my present, and set it before thee." And he said, "I will stay till you return."
19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them.
20 And the angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them." And he did so.
21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and there sprang up fire from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD; and Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face."
23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die."
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it, The LORD is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiez'rites.
25 That night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Ba'al which your father has, and cut down the Ashe'rah that is beside it;
26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order; then take the second bull, and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Ashe'rah which you shall cut down."
27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had told him; but because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.
28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Ba'al was broken down, and the Ashe'rah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered upon the altar which had been built.
29 And they said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And after they had made search and inquired, they said, "Gideon the son of Jo'ash has done this thing."
30 Then the men of the town said to Jo'ash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Ba'al and cut down the Ashe'rah beside it."
31 But Jo'ash said to all who were arrayed against him, "Will you contend for Ba'al? Or will you defend his cause? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been pulled down."
32 Therefore on that day he was called Jerubba'al, that is to say, "Let Ba'al contend against him," because he pulled down his altar.
33 Then all the Mid'ianites and the Amal'ekites and the people of the East came together, and crossing the Jordan they encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.
34 But the Spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon; and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiez'rites were called out to follow him.
35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manas'seh; and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zeb'ulun, and Naph'tali; and they went up to meet them.
36 Then Gideon said to God, "If thou wilt deliver Israel by my hand, as thou hast said,
37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that thou wilt deliver Israel by my hand, as thou hast said."
38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.
39 Then Gideon said to God, "Let not thy anger burn against me, let me speak but this once; pray, let me make trial only this once with the fleece; pray, let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew."
40 And God did so that night; for it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
1 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them;
4 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey.
5 For they came up with their cattle and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it.
6 Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.
7 It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian,
8 that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel: and he said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;
9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land;
10 and I said to you, I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not listened to my voice.
11 The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor.
13 Gideon said to him, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.
14 Yahweh looked at him, and said, Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent you?
15 He said to him, Oh, Lord, with which shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
16 Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.
17 He said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.
18 Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you. He said, I will wait until you come again.
19 Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.
20 The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so.
21 Then the angel of Yahweh put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight.
22 Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, Alas, Lord Yahweh! because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face.
23 Yahweh said to him, Peace be to you; don't be afraid: you shall not die.
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it Yahweh-shalom: to this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Take your father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it;
26 and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
28 When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built.
29 They said one to another, Who has done this thing? When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.
30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it.
31 Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? he who will contend for him, let him be put to death while [it is yet] morning: if he be a god, let him contend for himself, because one has broken down his altar.
32 Therefore on that day he named him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar.
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
34 But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him.
35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
36 Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken,
37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken.
38 It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39 Gideon said to God, Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once: Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.
40 God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
1 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them up into the hand of Midian for seven years.
2 And Midian was stronger than Israel; and because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made holes for themselves in the mountains, and hollows in the rocks, and strong places.
3 And whenever Israel's grain was planted, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them;
4 And put their army in position against them; and they took all the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, till there was no food in Israel, or any sheep or oxen or asses.
5 For they came up regularly with their oxen and their tents; they came like the locusts in number; they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land for its destruction.
6 And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord.
7 And when the cry of the children of Israel, because of Midian, came before the Lord,
8 The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you up from Egypt, out of the prison-house;
9 And I took you out of the hands of the Egyptians and out of the hands of all who were cruel to you, and I sent them out by force from before you and gave you their land;
10 And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; you are not to give worship to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but you did not give ear to my voice.
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it.
12 And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said to him, The Lord is with you, O man of war.
13 Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the Lord is with us why has all this come on us? And where are all his works of power, of which our fathers have given us word, saying, Did not the Lord take us out of Egypt? But now he has given us up, handing us over to the power of Midian.
14 And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have I not sent you?
15 And he said to him, O Lord, how may I be the saviour of Israel? See, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
16 Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you, and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man.
17 So he said to him, If now I have grace in your eyes, then give me a sign that it is you who are talking to me.
18 Do not go away till I come with my offering and put it before you. And he said, I will not go away before you come back.
19 Then Gideon went in and made ready a young goat, and with an ephah of meal he made unleavened cakes: he put the meat in a basket and the soup in which it had been cooked he put in a pot, and he took it out to him under the oak-tree and gave it to him there.
20 And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them down on the rock over there, draining out the soup over them. And he did so.
21 Then the angel of the Lord put out the stick which was in his hand, touching the meat and the cakes with the end of it; and a flame came up out of the rock, burning up the meat and the cakes: and the angel of the Lord was seen no longer.
22 Then Gideon was certain that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, I am in fear, O Lord God! for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.
23 But the Lord said to him, Peace be with you; have no fear: you are in no danger of death.
24 Then Gideon made an altar there to the Lord, and gave it the name Yahweh-shalom; to this day it is in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 The same night the Lord said to him, Take ten men of your servants and an ox seven years old, and after pulling down the altar of Baal which is your father's, and cutting down the holy tree by its side,
26 Make an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this rock, in the ordered way and take the ox and make a burned offering with the wood of the holy tree which has been cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had said to him; but fearing to do it by day, because of his father's people and the men of the town, he did it by night.
28 And the men of the town got up early in the morning, and they saw the altar of Baal broken down, and the holy tree which was by it cut down, and the ox offered on the altar which had been put up there.
29 And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after searching with care, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing.
30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, Make your son come out to be put to death, for pulling down the altar of Baal and cutting down the holy tree which was by it.
31 But Joash said to all those who were attacking him, Will you take up the cause of Baal? will you be his saviour? Let anyone who will take up his cause be put to death while it is still morning: if he is a god, let him take up his cause himself because of the pulling down of his altar.
32 So that day he gave him the name of Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal take up his cause against him because his altar has been broken down.
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east, banding themselves together, went over and put up their tents in the valley of Jezreel.
34 But the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon; and at the sound of his horn all Abiezer came together after him.
35 And he sent through all Manasseh, and they came after him; and he sent to Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up and were joined to the others.
36 Then Gideon said to God, If you are going to give Israel salvation by my hand, as you have said,
37 See, I will put the wool of a sheep on the grain-floor; if there is dew on the wool only, while all the earth is dry, then I will be certain that it is your purpose to give Israel salvation by my hand as you have said.
38 And it was so: for he got up early on the morning after, and twisting the wool in his hands, he got a basin full of water from the dew on the wool.
39 Then Gideon said to God, Do not be moved to wrath against me if I say only this: let me make one more test with the wool; let the wool now be dry, while the earth is covered with dew.
40 And that night God did so; for the wool was dry, and there was dew on all the earth round it.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Judges 6
Commentary on Judges 6 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
2. The Times of Gideon and His Family, and of the Judges Tola and Jair - Judges 6-10:5
In this second stage of the period of the judges, which did not extend over an entire century (only ninety-five years), Israel was only punished for its apostasy from the Lord, it is true, with a seven years' oppression by the Midianites; but the misery which these enemies, who allied themselves with Amalekites and other Arabian hordes, brought upon both land and people, so far surpassed the pressure of the previous chastisements, that the Israelites were obliged to take refuge from the foe in ravines, caves, and strongholds of the mountains. But the more heavily the Lord punished His rebellious nation, the more gloriously did He set forth His nearness to help, and also the way which would lead to a lasting peace, and to true deliverance out of every trouble, in the manner in which He called and fitted Gideon to be its deliverer, and gave him the victory over the innumerable army of the hostile hordes, with only 300 chosen warriors. But the tendency to idolatry and to the worship of Baal had already become so strong in Israel, that even Gideon, that distinguished hero of God, who had been so marvellously called, and who refused the title of king when offered to him from genuine fidelity to the Lord, yielded to the temptation to establish for himself an unlawful worship, in a high-priestly ephod which had been prepared for his use, and thus gave the people an occasion for idolatry. For this reason his house was visited with severe judgments, which burst upon it after his death, under the three years' reign of his son Abimelech; although, notwithstanding the deep religious and moral depravity which was manifested in the doings of Abimelech, the Lord gave His people rest for forty-five years longer after the death of Abimelech under two judges, before He punished their apostasy with fresh hostile oppressions.
The history of Gideon and his family is related very fully, because the working of the grace and righteousness of the faithful covenant God was so obviously displayed therein, that it contained a rich treasure of instruction and warning for the church of the Lord in all a Ges. The account contains such an abundance of special notices of separate events and persons, as can only be explained on the supposition that the author made use of copious records which had been made by contemporaries and eye-witnesses of the events. At the same time, the separate details do not contain any such characteristic marks as will enable us to discover clearly, or determine with any certainty, the nature of the source or sources which the author employed. The only things peculiar to this narrative are the use of the prefix שׁ for אשׁר , not only in reports of the sayings of the persons engaged (Judges 6:17), but also in the direct narrative of facts (Judges 7:12; Judges 8:26), and the formula לבשׁה יהוה רוּח (Judges 6:34), which only occurs again in 1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 24:20. On the other hand, neither the interchange of ha-Elohim (Judges 6:36, Judges 6:39; Judges 7:14) and Elohim (Judges 6:40; Judges 8:3; Judges 9:7, Judges 9:9,Judges 9:13, Judges 9:23, Judges 9:56-57) with Jehovah , nor the use of the name Jerubbaal for Gideon (Judges 6:32; Judges 7:1; Judges 8:29; Judges 9:1-2, Judges 9:5,Judges 9:16, Judges 9:19, Judges 9:24, Judges 9:28), nor lastly the absence of the “theocratical pragmatism” in Judg 9, contains any proof of the nature of the source employed, or even of the employment of two different sources, as these peculiarities are founded upon the contents and materials of the narrative itself.
(Note: Even Bertheau , who infers from these data that two different sources were employed, admits that ha-Elohim in the mouth of the Midianites (Judges 7:14) and Elohim in Jotham's fable, where it is put into the mouth of the trees, prove nothing at all, because here, from the different meanings of the divine names, the author could not have used anything but Elohim . But the same difference is quite as unmistakeable in Judges 8:3; Judges 9:7, Judges 9:23, Judges 9:56-57, since in these passages, either the antithesis of man and God, or the idea of supernatural causality, made it most natural for the author to use the general name of God even it did not render it absolutely necessary. There remain, therefore, only Judges 6:20, Judges 6:36, Judges 6:39-40, where the use of ha-Elohim and Elohim instead of Jehovah may possibly have originated with the source made use of by the author. On the other hand, the name Jerubbaal , which Gideon received in consequence of the destruction of the altar of Baal (Judges 6:32), is employed with conscious reference to its origin and meaning, not only in Judges 7:1; Judges 8:29, Judges 8:35, but also throughout Judg 9, as we may see more especially in Judges 9:16, Judges 9:19, Judges 9:28. And lastly, even the peculiarities of Judg 9 - namely, that the names Jehovah and Gideon do not occur there at all, and that many historical circumstances are related apparently without any link of connection, and torn away from some wider context, which might have rendered them intelligible, and without which very much remains obscure, - do not prove that the author drew these incidents from a different source from the rest of the history of Gideon, - such, for example, as a more complete history of the town of Shechem and its rulers in the time of the judges, as Bertheau imagines. For these peculiarities may be explained satisfactorily enough from the intention so clearly expressed in Judges 8:34-35, and Judges 9:57, of showing how the ingratitude of the Israelites towards Gideon, especially the wickedness of the Shechemites, who helped to murder Gideon's sons to gratify Abimelech, was punished by God. And no other peculiarities can be discovered that could possibly establish a diversity of sources.)
Renewed Apostasy of the Nation, and Its Punishment . - Judges 6:1. As the Israelites forsook Jehovah their God again, the Lord delivered them up for seven years into the hands of the Midianites. The Midianites , who were descendants of Abraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:2), and had penetrated into the grassy steppes on the eastern side of the country of the Moabites and Ammonites (see at Numbers 22:4), had shown hostility to Israel even in the time of Moses, and had been defeated in a war of retaliation on the part of the Israelites (Num 31). But they had afterwards recovered their strength, so that now, after an interval of 200 years, the Lord used them as a rod of chastisement for His rebellious people. In Judges 6:1, Judges 6:2, Judges 6:6, they alone are mentioned as oppressors of Israel; but in Judges 6:3, Judges 6:33, and Judges 7:12, the Amalekites and children of the east are mentioned in connection with them, from which we may see that the Midianites were the principal enemies, but had allied themselves with other predatory Bedouin tribes, to make war upon the Israelites and devastate their land. On the Amalekites , those leading enemies of the people of God who had sprung from Esau, see the notes on Genesis 36:12 and Exodus 17:8. “ Children of the east ” (see Job 1:3) is the general name for the tribes that lived in the desert on the east of Palestine, “like the name of Arabs in the time of Josephus (in Ant. v. 6, 1, he calls the children of the east mentioned here by the name of Arabs), or in later times the names of the Nabataeans and Kedarenes” ( Bertheau ). Hence we find in Judges 8:10, that all the enemies who oppressed the Israelites are called “children of the east.”
Judges 6:2-5
The Oppression of Israel by Midian and Its Allies . Their power pressed so severely upon the Israelites, that before (or because of) them the latter “ made them the ravines which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds, ” sc., which were to be met with all over the land in after times (viz., at the time when our book was written), and were safe places of refuge in time of war. This is implied in the definite article before מנהרות and the following substantives. The words “ they made them ” are not at variance with the fact that there are many natural caves to be found in the limestone mountains of Palestine. For, on the one hand, they do not affirm that all the caves to be found in the land were made by the Israelites at that time; and, on the other hand, עשׂה does not preclude the use of natural caves as places of refuge, since it not only denotes the digging and making of caves, but also the adaptation of natural caves to the purpose referred to, i.e., the enlargement of them, or whatever was required to make them habitable. The ἁπ. λεγ. מנהרות does not mean “light holes” ( Bertheau ), or “holes with openings to the light,” from נהר , in the sense of to stream, to enlighten ( Rashi, Kimchi , etc.), but is to be taken in the sense of “ mountain ravines ,” hollowed out by torrents (from נהר , to pour), which the Israelites made into hiding-places. מצדות , fortresses , mountain strongholds. These ravines, caves, and fortresses were not merely to serve as hiding-places for the Israelitish fugitives, but much more as places of concealment for their possessions, and necessary supplies. For the Midianites, like genuine Bedouins, thought far more of robbing and plundering and laying waste the land of the Israelites, than of exterminating the people themselves. Herodotus (i. 17) says just the same respecting the war of the Lydian king Alyattes wit the Milesians.
Judges 6:3-5
When the Israelites had sown, the Midianites and their allies came upon them, encamped against them, and destroyed the produce of the land (the fruits of the field and soil) as far as Gaza, in the extreme south-west of the land (“till thou come,” as in Genesis 10:19, etc.). As the enemy invaded the land with their camels and flocks, and on repeated occasions encamped in the valley of Jezreel (Judges 6:33), they must have entered the land on the west of the Jordan by the main road which connects the countries on the east with Palestine on the west, crossing the Jordan near Beisan, and passing through the plain of Jezreel; and from this point they spread over Palestine to the sea-coast of Gaza. “ They left no sustenance (in the shape of produce of the field and soil) in Israel, and neither sheep, nor oxen, nor asses. For they came on with their flocks, and their tents came like grasshoppers in multitude. ” The Chethibh יבאוּ is not to be altered into וּבאוּ , according to the Keri and certain Codd . If we connect ואהליהם with the previous words, according to the Masoretic pointing, we have a simple asyndeton. It is more probable, however, that ואהליהם belongs to what follows: “ And their tents came in such numbers as grasshoppers .” כּדי , lit . like a multitude of grasshoppers, in such abundance. “ Thus they came into the land to devastate it .”
Judges 6:6
The Israelites were greatly weakened in consequence ( ידּל , the imperf . Niphal of דּלל ), so that in their distress they cried to the Lord for help.
Judges 6:7-10
But before helping them, the Lord sent a prophet to reprove the people for not hearkening to the voice of their God, in order that they might reflect, and might recognise in the oppression which crushed them the chastisement of God for their apostasy, and so be brought to sincere repentance and conversion by their remembrance of the former miraculous displays of the grace of God. The Lord God, said the prophet to the people, brought you out of Egypt, the house of bondage, and delivered you out of the hand of Egypt (Exodus 18:9), and out of the hand of all your oppressors (see Judges 2:18; Judges 4:3; Judges 10:12), whom He drove before you (the reference is to the Amorites and Canaanites who were conquered by Moses and Joshua); but ye have not followed His commandment, that ye should not worship the gods of the Amorites. The Amorites stand here for the Canaanites, as in Genesis 15:16 and Joshua 24:15.
Call of Gideon to Be the Deliverer of Israel . - As the reproof of the prophet was intended to turn the hearts of the people once more to the Lord their God and deliverer, so that manner in which God called Gideon to be their deliverer, and rescued Israel from its oppressors through his instrumentality, as intended to furnish the most evident proof that the help and salvation of Israel were not to be found in man, but solely in their God. God had also sent their former judges. The Spirit of Jehovah had come upon Othniel, so that he smote the enemy in the power of God ( Judges 3:10). Ehud had put to death the hostile king by stratagem, and then destroyed his army; and Barak had received the command of the Lord, through the prophetess Deborah, to deliver His people from the dominion of their foes, and had carried out the command with her assistance. But Gideon was called to be the deliverer of Israel through an appearance of the angel of the Lord, to show to him and to all Israel, that Jehovah, the God of the fathers, was still near at hand to His people, and could work miracles as in the days of old, if Israel would only adhere to Him and keep His covenant. The call of Gideon took place in two revelations from God. First of all the Lord appeared to him in the visible form of an angel, in which He had already made himself known to the patriarchs, and summoned him in the strength of God to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Midianites (Judges 6:11-24). He then commanded him, in a dream of the night, to throw down his father's altar of Baal, and to offer a burnt-offering to Jehovah his God upon an altar erected for the purpose (Judges 6:25-32). In the first revelation the Lord acknowledged Gideon; in the second He summoned Gideon to acknowledge Him as his God.
Judges 6:11-24
Appearance of the Angel of the Lord . - Judges 6:11. The angel of the Lord, i.e., Jehovah, in a visible self-revelation in human form (see Pentateuch, pp. 106ff.), appeared this time in the form of a traveller with a staff in his hand (Judges 6:21), and sat down “ under the terebinth which (was) in Ophrah , that (belonged) to Joash the Abi-ezrite .” It was not the oak, but Ophrah, that belonged to Joash, as we may see from Judges 6:24, where the expression “Ophrah of the Abi-ezrite” occurs. According to Joash Judges 17:2 and 1 Chronicles 7:18, Abiezer was a family in the tribe of Manasseh, and according to Judges 6:15 it was a small family of that tribe. Joash was probably the head of the family at that time, and as such was the lord or owner of Ophrah , a town (Judges 8:27; cf. Judges 9:5) which was called “Ophrah of the Abi-ezrite,” to distinguish it from Ophrah in the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:23). The situation of the town has not yet been determined with certainty. Josephus (Ant. v. 6, 5) calls it Ephran . Van de Velde conjectures that it is to be found in the ruins of Erfai , opposite to Akrabeh, towards the S.E., near the Mohammedan Wely of Abu Kharib, on the S.W. of Janun (Me. pp. 337-8), close to the northern boundary of the tribe-territory of Ephraim, if not actually within it. By this terebinth tree was Gideon the son of Joash “ knocking out wheat in the wine-press. ” חבט does not mean to thresh, but to knock with a stick. The wheat was threshed upon open floors, or in places in the open field that were rolled hard for the purpose, with threshing carriages or threshing shoes, or else with oxen, which they drove about over the scattered sheaves to tread out the grains with their hoofs. Only poor people knocked out the little corn that they had gleaned with a stick (Ruth 2:17), and Gideon did it in the existing times of distress, namely in the pressing-tub, which, like all wine-presses, was sunk in the ground, in a hole that had been dug out or hewn in the rock (for a description of cisterns of this kind, see Rob . Bibl. Res. pp. 135-6), “ to make the wheat fly ” (i.e., to make it safe) “ from the Midianites ” ( הנים as in Exodus 9:20).
Judges 6:12
While he was thus engaged the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and addressed him in these words: “ Jehovah (is) with thee, thou brave hero .” This address contained the promise that the Lord would be with Gideon, and that he would prove himself a mighty hero through the strength of the Lord. This promise was to be a guarantee to him of strength and victory in his conflict with the Midianites.
Judges 6:13
But Gideon, who did not recognise the angel of the Lord in the man who was sitting before him, replied doubtingly, “ Pray, sir, if Jehovah is with us, why has all this befallen us? ” - words which naturally recall to mind the words of Deuteronomy 31:17, “Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?” “ And where ,” continued Gideon, “ are all His miracles, of which our fathers have told us? ... But now Jehovah hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. ” Gideon may have been reflecting, while knocking the wheat, upon the misery of his people, and the best means of delivering them from the oppression of the enemy, but without being able to think of any possibility of rescuing them. For this reason he could not understand the address of the unknown traveller, and met his promise with the actual state of things with which it was so directly at variance, namely, the crushing oppression of his people by their enemies, from which he concluded that the Lord had forsaken them and given them up to their foes.
Judges 6:14
“ Then Jehovah turned to him and said, Go in this thy strength, and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have not I sent thee? ” The writer very appropriately uses the name Jehovah here, instead of the angel of Jehovah; for by his reply the angel distinctly manifested himself as Jehovah, more especially in the closing words, “ Have not I sent thee? ” ( הלא , in the sense of lively assurance), which are so suggestive of the call of Moses to be the deliverer of Israel (Exodus 3:12). “ In this thy strength, ” i.e., the strength which thou now hast, since Jehovah is with thee-Jehovah, who can still perform miracles as in the days of the fathers. The demonstrative “ this ” points to the strength which had just been given to him through the promise of God.
Judges 6:15
Gideon perceived from these words that it was not a mere man who was speaking to him. He therefore said in reply, not “pray sir” ( אדני ), but “ pray, Lord ” ( אדני , i.e., Lord God), and no longer speaks of deliverance as impossible, but simply inquires, with a consciousness of his own personal weakness and the weakness of his family, “ Whereby (with what) shall I save Israel? Behold, my family (lit., ' thousand ,' equivalent to mishpachah : see at Numbers 1:16) is the humblest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house (my family).”
Judges 6:16
To this difficulty the Lord replies, “ I will be with thee (see Exodus 3:12; Joshua 1:5), and thou wilt smite the Midianites as one man, ” i.e., at one blow, as they slay a single man (see Numbers 14:15).
Judges 6:17-19
As Gideon could no longer have any doubt after this promise that the person who had appeared to him was speaking in the name of God, he entreated him to assure him by a sign ( אות , a miraculous sign) of the certainty of his appearance. “ Do a sign that thou art speaking with me, ” i.e., that thou art really God, as thou affirmest. שׁאתּה , or אתּה אשׁר , is taken from the language of ordinary life. At the same time he presents this request: “ Depart not hence till I (go and) come to thee, and bring out my offering and set it before thee; ” and the angel at once assents. Minchah does not mean a sacrifice in the strict sense ( θυσία , sacrificium ), nor merely a “gift of food,” but a sacrificial gift in the sense of a gift presented to God, on the acceptance of which he hoped to receive the sign, which would show whether the person who had appeared to him was really God. This sacrificial gift consisted of such food as they were accustomed to set before a guest whom they wished especially to honour. Gideon prepared a kid of the goats ( עשׂה is used to denote the preparation of food, as in Genesis 18:7-8, etc.), and unleavened cakes of an ephah (about 221/2 lbs.) of meal, and brought the flesh in a basket and the broth in a pot out to the terebinth tree, and placed it before him.
Judges 6:20-21
The angel of the Lord then commanded him to lay the flesh and the cakes upon a rock close by, and to pour the broth upon it; that is to say, to make use of the rock as an altar for the offering to be presented to the Lord. When he had done this, the angel touched the food with the end of his staff, and fire came out of the rock and consumed the food, and the angel of the Lord vanished out of Gideon's sight. “ This rock,” i.e., a rocky stone that was lying near. The departure of the angel from his eyes it to be regarded as a sudden disappearance; but the expression does not warrant the assumption that the angel ascended to heaven in this instance, as in Judges 13:19-20, in the flame of the sacrifice.
Judges 6:22
In this miracle Gideon received the desired sign, that the person who had appeared to him was God. But the miracle filled his soul with fear, so that he exclaimed, “ Alas, Lord Jehovah! for to this end have I seen the angel of the Lord face to face .” יהוה אדני אההּ is an exclamation, sometimes of grief on account of a calamity that has occurred (Joshua 7:7), and sometimes of alarm caused by the foreboding of some anticipated calamity (Jeremiah 1:6; Jeremiah 4:10; Jeremiah 32:17; Ezekiel 4:14, etc.). Here it is an expression of alarm, viz., fear of the death which might be the necessary consequence of his seeing God (see Exodus 20:16-19, and the remarks on Genesis 16:13). The expression which follows, “ for to this end ,” serves to account for the exclamation, without there being any necessity to assume an ellipsis, and supply “that I may die.” כּי־על־כּן is always used in this sense (see Genesis 18:5; Genesis 19:8; Genesis 33:10, etc.).
Judges 6:23-24
But the Lord comforted him with the words, “ Peace to thee; fear not: thou wilt not die. ” These words were not spoken by the angel as he vanished away, but were addressed by God to Gideon, after the disappearance of the angel, by an inward voice. In gratitude for this comforting assurance, Gideon built an altar to the Lord, which he called Jehovah-shalom , “the Lord is peace.” The intention of this altar, which was preserved “unto this day,” i.e., till the time when the book of Judges was composed, is indicated in the name that was given to it. It was not to serve as a place of sacrifice, but to be a memorial and a witness of the revelation of God which had been made to Gideon, and of the proof which he had received that Jehovah was peace, i.e., would not destroy Israel in wrath, but cherished thoughts of peace. For the assurance of peace which He had given to Gideon, was also a confirmation of His announcement that Gideon would conquer the Midianites in the strength of God, and deliver Israel from its oppressors.
The theophany here described resembles so far the appearance of the angel of the Lord to Abram in the grove of Mamre (Gen 18), that he appears in perfect human form, comes as a traveller, and allows food to be set before him; but there is this essential difference between the two, that whereas the three men who came to Abraham took the food that was set before them and ate thereof - that is to say, allowed themselves to be hospitably entertained by Abraham - the angel of the Lord in the case before us did indeed accept the minchah that had been made ready for him, but only as a sacrifice of Jehovah which he caused to ascend in fire. The reason for this essential difference is to be found in the different purpose of the two theophanies. To Abraham the Lord came to seal that fellowship of grace into which He had entered with him through the covenant that He had made; but in the case of Gideon His purpose was simply to confirm the truth of His promise, that Jehovah would be with him and would send deliverance through him to His people, or to show that the person who had appeared to him was the God of the fathers, who could still deliver His people out of the power of their enemies by working such miracles as the fathers had seen. But the acceptance of the minchah prepared for Him as a sacrifice which the Lord himself caused to be miraculously consumed by fire, showed that the Lord would still graciously accept the prayers and sacrifices of Israel, if they would but forsake the worship of the dead idols of the heathen, and return to Him in sincerity. (Compare with this the similar theophany in Judg 13.)
Judges 6:25-32
Gideon Set Apart as the Deliverer of His People . - In order to be able to carry out the work entrusted to him of setting Israel free, it was necessary that Gideon should first of all purify his father's house from idolatry, and sanctify his own life and labour to Jehovah by sacrificing a burnt-offering.
Judges 6:25-26
“ In that night ,” i.e., the night following the day on which the Lord appeared to him, God commanded him to destroy his father's Baal's altar, with the asherah-idol upon it, and to build an altar to Jehovah, and offer a bullock of his father's upon the altar. “ Take the ox-bullock which belongs to thy father, and indeed the second bullock of seven years, and destroy the altar of Baal, which belongs to thy father, and throw down the asherah upon it. ” According to the general explanation of the first clauses, there are two oxen referred to: viz., first , his father's young bullock; and secondly , an ox of seven years old, the latter of which Gideon was to sacrifice (according to Judges 6:26) upon the altar to be built to Jehovah, and actually did sacrifice, according to Judges 6:27, Judges 6:28. But in what follows there is no further allusion to the young bullock, or the first ox of his father; so that there is a difficulty in comprehending for what purpose Gideon was to take it, or what use he was to make of it. Most commentators suppose that Gideon sacrificed both of the oxen-the young bullock as an expiatory offering for himself, his father, and all his family, and the second ox of seven years old for the deliverance of the whole nation (see Seb. Schmidt ). Bertheau supposes, on the other hand, that Gideon was to make use of both oxen, or of the strength they possessed for throwing down or destroying the altar, and (according to Judges 6:26) for removing the מערכה and the האשׁרה עצי to the place of the new altar that was to be built, but that he was only to offer the second in sacrifice to Jehovah, because the first was probably dedicated to Baal, and therefore could not be offered to Jehovah. But these assumptions are both of them equally arbitrary, and have no support whatever from the text. If God had commanded Gideon to take two oxen, He would certainly have told him what he was to do with them both. But as there is only one bullock mentioned in Judges 6:26-28, we must follow Tremell . and others, who understand Judges 6:25 as meaning that Gideon was to take only one bullock, namely the young bullock of his father, and therefore regard שׁ שׁ השּׁני וּפר as a more precise definition of that one bullock ( vav being used in an explanatory sense, “and indeed,” as in Joshua 9:27; Joshua 10:7, etc.). This bullock is called “the second bullock,” as being the second in age among the bullocks of Joash. The reason for choosing this second of the bullocks of Joash for a burnt-offering is to be found no doubt in its age (seven years), which is mentioned here simply on account of its significance as a number, as there was no particular age prescribed in the law for a burnt-offering, that is to say, because the seven years which constituted the age of the bullock contained an inward allusion to the seven years of the Midianitish oppression. For seven years had God given Israel into the hands of the Midianites on account of their apostasy; and now, to wipe away this sin, Gideon was to take his father's bullock of seven years old, and offer it as a burnt-offering to the Lord. To this end Gideon was first of all to destroy the altar of Baal and of the asherah which his father possessed, and which, to judge from Judges 6:28, Judges 6:29, was the common altar of the whole family of Abiezer in Ophrah. This altar was dedicated to Baal, but there was also upon it an asherah , an idol representing the goddess of nature, which the Canaanites worshipped; not indeed a statue of the goddess, but, as we may learn from the word כּרת , to hew down , simply a wooden pillar (see at Deuteronomy 16:21). The altar therefore served for the two principal deities of the Canaanites (see Movers , Phönizier, i. pp. 566ff.). Jehovah could not be worshipped along with Baal. Whoever would serve the Lord must abolish the worship of Baal. The altar of Baal must be destroyed before the altar of Jehovah could be built. Gideon was to build this altar “ upon the top of this stronghold, ” possibly upon the top of the mountain, upon which the fortress belonging to Ophrah was situated. בּמּערכה , “ with the preparation; ” the meaning of this word is a subject of dispute. As בּנה occurs in 1 Kings 15:22 with בּ , to denote the materials out of which (i.e., with which) a thing is built, Stud . and Berth . suppose that maaracah refers to the materials of the altar of Baal that had been destroyed, with which Gideon was to build the altar of Jehovah. Stud . refers it to the stone foundation of the altar of Baal; Bertheau to the materials that were lying ready upon the altar of Baal for the presentation of sacrifices, more especially the pieces of wood. But this is certainly incorrect, because maaracah does not signify either building materials or pieces of wood, and the definite article attached to the word does not refer to the altar of Baal at all. The verb ערך is not only very frequently used to denote the preparation of the wood upon the altar (Genesis 22:9; Leviticus 1:7, etc.), but is also used for the preparation of an altar for the presentation of sacrifice (Numbers 23:4). Consequently maaracah can hardly be understood in any other way than as signifying the preparation of the altar to be built for the sacrificial act, in the sense of build the altar with the preparation required for the sacrifice. This preparation was to consist, according to what follows, in taking the wood of the asherah , that had been hewn down, as the wood for the burnt-offering to be offered to the Lord by Gideon. האשׁרה עצי are not trees, but pieces of wood from the asherah (that was hewn down).
Judges 6:27
Gideon executed this command of God with ten men of his servants during the night, no doubt the following night, because he was afraid to do it by day, on account of his family (his father's house), and the people of the town.
Judges 6:28-29
But on the following morning, when the people of the town found the altar of Baal destroyed and the asherah upon it hewn down, and the bullock sacrificed upon the (newly) erected altar (the bullock would not be entirely consumed), they asked who had done it, and soon learned that Gideon had done it all. The accusative חשּׁני הפּר את is governed by the Hophal העלה (for העלה see Ges . s. 63, Anm. 4), according to a construction that was by no means rare, especially in the earlier Hebrew, viz., of the passive with את (see at Genesis 4:18). “ They asked and sought ,” sc., for the person who had done it; “ and they said ,” either those who were making the inquiry, according to a tolerably safe conjecture, or the persons who were asked, and who were aware of what Gideon had done.
Judges 6:30-31
But when they demanded of Joash, “ Bring out (give out) thy son, that he may die ,” he said to all who stood round, “ Will ye, ye, fight for Baal, or will he save him? ('ye' is repeated with special emphasis). “ whoever shall fight for him (Baal), shall be put to death till the morning. ” עד־הבּקר , till the (next) morning, is not to be joined to יוּומת , in the sense of “very speedily, before the dawning day shall break” ( Bertheau ), - a sense which is not to be found in the words: it rather belongs to the subject of the clause, or to the whole clause in the sense of, Whoever shall fight for Baal, and seek to avenge the destruction of his altar by putting the author of it to death, shall be put to death himself; let us wait till to-morrow, and give Baal time to avenge the insult which he has received. “ If he be God, let him fight for himself; for they have destroyed his altar, ” and have thereby challenged his revenge. Gideon's daring act of faith had inspired his father Joash with believing courage, so that he took the part of his son, and left the whole matter to the deity to decide. If Baal were really God, he might be expected to avenge the crime that had been committed against this altar.
Judges 6:32
From this fact Gideon received the name of Jerubbaal , i.e., “ let Baal fight (or decide,” since they said, “ Let Baal fight against him, for he has destroyed his altar .” ירבּעל , is formed from ירב = ירב or יריב and בּעל . This surname very soon became an honourable title for Gideon. When, for example, it became apparent to the people that Baal could not do him any harm, Jerubbaal became a Baal-fighter, one who had fought against Baal. In 2 Samuel 11:21, instead of Jerubbaal we find the name Jerubbesheth , in which Besheth = Bosheth is a nickname of Baal, which also occurs in other Israelitish names, e.g., in Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 2:8.) for Eshbaal (1 Chronicles 8:33; 1 Chronicles 9:39). The name Jerubbaal is written Ἱεροβάαλ by the lxx, from which in all probability Philo of Byblus, in his revision of Sanchuniathon, has formed his Ἱερόμβαλος , a priest of the god Ἰεύω .
Equipment of Gideon for the Battle. - When the Midianites and their allies once more invaded the land of Israel, Gideon was seized by the Spirit of God, so that he gathered together an army from the northern tribes of Israel (Judges 6:33-35), and entreated God to assure him by a sign of gaining the victory over the enemy (Judges 6:36-40).
Judges 6:33-35
The enemy gathered together again, went over (viz., across) the Jordan in the neighbourhood of Beisan (see at Judges 7:24 and Judges 8:4), and encamped in the valley of Jezreel (see at Joshua 17:16). “ And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon ” ( לבשׁה , clothed , i.e., descended upon him, and laid itself around him as it were like a coat of mail, or a strong equipment, so that he became invulnerable and invincible in its might: see 1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 24:20, and Luke 24:49). Gideon then blew the trumpet, to call Israel to battle against the foe (see Judges 3:27); “ and Abiezer let itself be summoned after him. ” His own family, which had recognised the deliverer of Israel in the fighter of Baal, who was safe from Baal's revenge, was the first to gather round him. Their example was followed by all Manasseh, i.e., the Manassites on the west of the Jordan (for the tribes on the east of the Jordan took no part in the war), and the neighbouring tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali on the north, which had been summoned by heralds to the battle. “ They advanced to meet them: ” i.e., to meet the Manassites, who were coming from the south to the battle, to make war upon the enemy in concert with them and under the guidance of Gideon. עלה is used to denote their advance against the enemy (see at Joshua 8:2), and not in the sense of going up, since the Asherites and Naphtalites would not go up from their mountains into the plain of Jezreel, but could only go down.
Judges 6:36-37
But before Gideon went into the battle with the assembled army, he asked for a sign from God of the success of his undertaking. “ If Thou, ” he said to God, “ art saving Israel through my hand, as Thou hast said, behold, I lay this fleece of wool upon the floor; if there shall be dew upon the fleece only, and dryness upon all the earth (round about), I know (by this ) that Thou wilt save, ” etc. הצּמר גּזּת , the shorn of the wool; i.e., the fleece, the wool that had been shorn off a sheep, and still adhered together as one whole fleece. The sign which Gideon asked for, therefore, was that God would cause the dew to fall only upon a shorn fleece, which he would spread the previous night upon the floor, that is to say, upon some open ground, and that the ground all round might not be moistened by the dew.
Judges 6:38
God granted the sign. “ And so it came to pass; the next morning, Gideon pressed the fleece together ( יזר from זוּר ), and squeezed ( ימץ from מצה ) dew out of the fleece a vessel full of water ” ( מלוא as in Numbers 22:18, and ספל as in Judges 5:25). So copiously had the dew fallen in the night upon the fleece that was exposed; whereas, as we may supply from the context, the earth all round had remained dry.
Judges 6:39-40
But as this sign was not quite a certain one, since wool generally attracts the dew, even when other objects remain dry, Gideon ventured to solicit the grace of God to grant him another sign with the fleece, - namely, that the fleece might remain dry, and the ground all round be wet with dew. And God granted him this request also. Gideon's prayer for a sign did not arise from want of faith in the divine assurance of a victory, but sprang from the weakness of the flesh, which crippled the strength of the spirit's faith, and often made the servants of God so anxious and despondent, that God had to come to the relief of their weakness by the manifestation of His miraculous power. Gideon knew himself and his own strength, and was well aware that his human strength was not sufficient for the conquest of the foe. But as the Lord had promised him His aid, he wished to make sure of that aid through the desired sign.
(Note: “From all these things, the fact that he had seen and heard the angel of Jehovah, and that he had been taught by fire out of the rock, by the disappearance of the angel, by the vision of the night, and by the words addressed to him there, Gideon did indeed believe that God both could and would deliver Israel through his instrumentality; but this faith was not placed above or away from the conflict of the flesh by which it was tested. And it is not strange that it rose to its greatest height when the work of deliverance was about to be performed. Wherefore Gideon with his faith sought for a sign from God against the more vehement struggle of the flesh, in order that his faith might be the more confirmed, and might resist the opposing flesh with the great force. And this petition for a sign was combined with prayers for the strengthening of his faith.” - Seb. Schmidt .)
And “the simple fact that such a man could obtain the most daring victory was to be a special glorification of God” ( O. v. Gerlach ). The sign itself was to manifest the strength of the divine assistance to his weakness of faith. Dew in the Scriptures is a symbol of the beneficent power of God, which quickens, revives, and invigorates the objects of nature, when they have been parched by the burning heat of the sun's rays. The first sign was to be a pledge to him of the visible and tangible blessing of the Lord upon His people, the proof that He would grant them power over their mighty foes by whom Israel was then oppressed. The woollen fleece represented the nation of Israel in its condition at that time, when God had given power to the foe that was devastating its land, and had withdrawn His blessing from Israel. The moistening of the fleece with the dew of heaven whilst the land all round continued dry, was a sign that the Lord God would once more give strength to His people from on high, and withdraw it from the nations of the earth. Hence the second sign acquires the more general signification, “that the Lord manifested himself even in the weakness and forsaken condition of His people, while the nations were flourishing all around” ( O. v. Gerl .); and when so explained, it served to confirm and strengthen the first, inasmuch as it contained the comforting assurance for all times, that the Lord has not forsaken His church, even when it cannot discern and trace His beneficent influence, but rules over it and over the nations with His almighty power.