1And the sons of Israel will do evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and Jehovah will give them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2And the hand of Midian will be strong upon Israel: from the face of Midian the sons of Israel made to them clefts which are in the mountains, and caves and fastnesses. 3And it was if Israel sowed, and Midian came up, and Amalek, and the sons of the east, and they came up against him: 4And they will encamp against them, and they will destroy the produce of the land even to thy coming to Gaza; and they will not leave means of life in Israel, and sheep and ox and ass. 5For they and their cattle will come up, and their tents will come, as an abundance of locusts for multitude; and to them and to their camels no number: and they will come into the land to destroy it 6And Israel will be enfeebled from the face of Midian; and the sons of Israel will cry to Jehovah. 7And it will be when the sons of Israel cried to Jehovah on account of Midian, 8And Jehovah will send forth a man, a prophet, to the sons of Israel, and he will say to them, Thus said Jehovah the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and I will bring you out of the house of servants; 9And I will deliver you from the hand of Egypt, and from the hand of all pressing you, and I will drive them out from your face, and I will give to you their land; 10And saying to you, I am Jehovah your God; ye shall not fear the Gods of the Amorites which ye will dwelll in their land: and ye heard not to my voice. 11And a messenger of Jehovah will come and sit under an oak which is in Ophrah, which is to Joash, father of Ezri: and Gideon his son threshed wheat in the wine press to place in safety from the face of Midian. 12And the messenger of Jehovah will be seen to him, and he will say to him, Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty of strength. 13And Gideon will say to him With leave, my Lord, and Jehovah be; with us, and wherefore did all this find us? and where all his wonderful things which our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not Jehovah bring us up out of Egypt? and now Jehovah cast us off, and he will give us into the hand of Midian. 14And Jehovah will turn to him and say, Go in this thy strength and save Israel from the hand of Midian: did I not send thee? 15And he will say to him, With leave, my Lord, by what shall I save Israel? behold, my thousand destitute in Manasseh, and I the least in my father's house. 16And Jehovah will say to him, For I will be with thee, and strike thou Midian as one man. 17And he will say to him, If now I found grace in thine eyes, and do to me a sign that thou speakest with me. 18Now thou shalt not depart from here till my coming to thee, and I brought forth my gift and set it before thee. And he will say, I will remain till thy turning back 19And Gideon went in, and he will do a kid of the goats, and an ephah of flour of unleavened: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and he will bring forth to him under the oak and will bring near. 20And the messenger of God will say to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened and lay upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he will do so. 21And the messenger of Jehovah will stretch forth the extremity of the staff which in his hand, and will touch upon the flesh and on the unleavened; and fire will rise up from the rock and will consume the flesh and the unleavened. And the messenger of Jehovah went from his eyes. 22And Gideon will see that he a messenger of Jehovah; and Gideon will say, Ah, Lord Jehovah! for on account that I saw a messenger of Jehovah face to face. 23And Jehovah will say to him, Peace to thee; thou shalt not fear; thou shalt not die. 24And Gideon will build there an altar to Jehovah, and he will call to him Jehovah-peace: till this day and it yet in Ophrah of the father of Edrei. 25And it will be in that night Jehovah will say to him, Take a bullock of the oxen which is to thy father, and the second bullock of seven years, and break in pieces the altar of Baal, which is to thy father, and the wooden pillar which is upon it thou shalt cut down; 26And build an altar to Jehovah thy God upon the head of this strong place, in order, and take the second bullock and bring up a burnt-offering upon the wood of the wooden pillar which thou shalt cut down. 27And Gideon will take ten men of his servants, and he will do as Jehovah spake to him: and it will be as he will fear the house of his father and the men of the city doing in the day, and he will do in the night 28And the men of the city will rise early in the morning, and behold, the altar of Baal thrown down, and the wooden pillar which is upon it cut down, and the second bullock brought up upon the altar having been built 29And they will say a man to his neighbor, Who did this word? And they will enquire and search, and they will say, Gideon, son of Joash did this word. 30And the men of the city will say to Joash, Bring forth thy son and he shall die: for he threw down the altar of Baal, and because he cut down the wooden pillar which is upon it. 31And Joash will say to all who stood against him, Will ye contend for Baal? or will ye save him? whoever will contend for him shall die during the morning: if he is a god he will be mighty for himself, for he threw down his altar. 32And he will call to him in that day, Baal will be powerful, saying, Baal will be mighty against him because he threw down his altar. 33And all Midian and Amalek, and the sons of the east were gathered together, and they will pass over and they will encamp in the valley of Jezreel. 34And the spirit of Jehovah clothed Gideon, and he will strike upon the trumpet; and Abiezer will be called after him. 35And he sent messengers in all Manasseh; and he also will be called after him: and he sent messengers in Asher, and in Zebulon, and in Naphtali; and they will come up to meet them. 36And Gideon will say to God, If thou art saving Israel by my hand, as thou spakest, 37Behold me putting a fleece of wool in the threshing-floor, and if the dew shall be upon the fleece only, and upon all the earth dryness, and I knew that thou wilt save Israel by my hand. as thou spakest 38And it will be so: and he will rise early upon the morrow, and he will press the fleece together, and the dew will press out from the fleece, a bowl full of water. 39And Gideon will say to God, Thine anger will not kindle against me, and I will speak but this once: I will try now only this once upon the fleece; there shall be dryness to the fleece alone, and upon all the earth shall be dew. 40And God will do so in that night: and there will be dryness to the fleece only, and upon all the earth was dew.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE ISRAELITES, FOR THEIR SINS, OPPRESSED BY MIDIAN. (
Judg 6:1-
Judg 6:6)
and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian--Untaught by their former experiences, the Israelites again apostatized, and new sins were followed by fresh judgments. Midian had sustained a severe blow in the time of Moses (Num. 31:1-18); and the memory of that disaster, no doubt, inflamed their resentment against the Israelites. They were wandering herdsmen, called "children of the East," from their occupying the territory east of the Red Sea, contiguous to Moab. The destructive ravages they are described as at this time committing in the land of Israel are similar to those of the Bedouin Arabs, who harass the peaceful cultivators of the soil. Unless composition is made with them, they return annually at a certain season, when they carry off the grain, seize the cattle and other property; and even life itself is in jeopardy from the attacks of those prowling marauders. The vast horde of Midianites that overran Canaan made them the greatest scourge which had ever afflicted the Israelites.
2 made . . . dens . . . in the mountains and caves--not, of course, excavating them, for they were already, but making them fit for habitation.
8 A PROPHET REBUKES THEM. (
Judg 6:7-
Judg 6:10)
the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel--The curse of the national calamity is authoritatively traced to their infidelity as the cause.
11 AN ANGEL SENDS GIDEON TO DELIVER THEM. (
Judg 6:11-
Judg 6:16)
there came an angel of the Lord--He appeared in the character and equipments of a traveller (
Judg 6:21), who sat down in the shade to enjoy a little refreshment and repose. Entering into conversation on the engrossing topic of the times, the grievous oppression of the Midianites, he began urging Gideon to exert his well-known prowess on behalf of his country. Gideon, in replying, addresses him at first in a style equivalent (in Hebrew) to "sir," but afterwards gives to him the name usually applied to God.
an oak--Hebrew, "the oak"--as famous in after-times.
Ophrah--a city in the tribe of Manasseh, about sixteen miles north of Jericho, in the district belonging to the family of Abiezer (
Josh 17:2).
his son Gideon threshed wheat by the wine-press--This incident tells emphatically the tale of public distress. The small quantity of grain he was threshing, indicated by his using a flail instead of the customary treading of cattle--the unusual place, near a wine-press, under a tree, and on the bare ground, not a wooden floor, for the prevention of noise--all these circumstances reveal the extreme dread in which the people were living.
13 if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?--Gideon's language betrays want of reflection, for the very chastisements God had brought on His people showed His presence with, and His interest in, them.
14 the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might . . . have not I sent thee?--The command and the promise made Gideon aware of the real character of his visitor; and yet like Moses, from a sense of humility, or a shrinking at the magnitude of the undertaking, he excused himself from entering on the enterprise. And even though assured that, with the divine aid, he would overcome the Midianites as easily as if they were but one man, he still hesitates and wishes to be better assured that the mission was really from God. He resembles Moses also in the desire for a sign; and in both cases it was the rarity of revelations in such periods of general corruption that made them so desirous of having the fullest conviction of being addressed by a heavenly messenger. The request was reasonable, and it was graciously granted [
Judg 6:18].
18 GIDEON'S PRESENT CONSUMED BY FIRE. (Jdg. 6:17-32)
Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I . . . bring forth my present--Hebrew, my mincha, or "meat offering"; and his idea probably was to prove, by his visitor's partaking of the entertainment, whether or not he was more than man.
19 Gideon went in, and made ready a kid; . . . the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot--(See on
Gen 18:7). The flesh seems to have been roasted, which is done by cutting it into kobab, that is, into small pieces, fixed on a skewer, and put before the fire. The broth was for immediate use; the other, brought in a hand-basket was intended to be a future supply to the traveller. The miraculous fire that consumed it and the vanishing of the stranger, not by walking, but as a spirit in the fire, filled Gideon with awe. A consciousness of demerit fills the heart of every fallen man at the thought of God, with fear of His wrath; and this feeling was increased by a belief prevalent in ancient times, that whoever saw an angel would forthwith die. The acceptance of Gideon's sacrifice betokened the acceptance of his person; but it required an express assurance of the divine blessing, given in some unknown manner, to restore his comfort and peace of mind.
24 it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him--The transaction in which Gideon is here described as engaged was not entered on till the night after the vision.
25 Take thy father's . . . second bullock--The Midianites had probably reduced the family herd; or, as Gideon's father was addicted to idolatry, the best may have been fattened for the service of Baal; so that the second was the only remaining one fit for sacrifice to God.
throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath--standing upon his ground, though kept for the common use of the townsmen.
cut down the grove that is by it--dedicated to Ashtaroth. With the aid of ten confidential servants he demolished the one altar and raised on the appointed spot the altar of the Lord; but, for fear of opposition, the work had to be done under cover of night. A violent commotion was excited next day, and vengeance vowed against Gideon as the perpetrator. "Joash, his father, quieted the mob in a manner similar to that of the town clerk of Ephesus. It was not for them to take the matter into their own hands. The one, however, made an appeal to the magistrate; the other to the idolatrous god himself" [CHALMERS].
33 THE SIGNS. (
Judg 6:33-
Judg 6:39)
all the Midianites . . . pitched in Jezreel--The confederated troops of Midian, Amalek, and their neighbors, crossing the Jordan to make a fresh inroad on Canaan, encamped in the plains of Esdraelon (anciently Jezreel). The southern part of the Ghor lies in a very low level, so that there is a steep and difficult descent into Canaan by the southern wadies. Keeping this in view, we see the reason why the Midianite army, from the east of Jordan, entered Canaan by the northern wadies of the Ghor, opposite Jezreel.
34 the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon--Called in this sudden emergency into the public service of his country, he was supernaturally endowed with wisdom and energy commensurate with the magnitude of the danger and the difficulties of his position. His summons to war was enthusiastically obeyed by all the neighboring tribes. On the eve of a perilous enterprise, he sought to fortify his mind with a fresh assurance of a divine call to the responsible office. The miracle of the fleece was a very remarkable one--especially, considering the copious dews that fall in his country. The divine patience and condescension were wonderfully manifested in reversing the form of the miracle. Gideon himself seems to have been conscious of incurring the displeasure of God by his hesitancy and doubts; but He bears with the infirmities of His people.
