Judges 7

Gideon's 300 Chosen Men

1 Then ¹Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon ) and all the people who were with him, rose early and camped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of ²Moreh in the valley.

2 The LORD said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, ³for Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'

3 "Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, '⁴Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.' " So 22,000 * * people returned, but 10,000 * remained.

4 ⁵Then the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."

5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels * to drink."

6 Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 * men; but all the rest of the people kneeled * to drink water.

7 The LORD said to Gideon, "I will deliver you ⁶with the 300 * men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home."

8 So the 300 men took the people's provisions and their trumpets into their hands. And Gideon sent all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 * men; and the camp of Midian was below * him in the valley.

9 Now the same night it came about that the LORD said to him, "Arise, go down against the camp, ⁷for I have given it into your hands.

10 "But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp,

11 and you will hear what they say; and ⁸afterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp." So he went with Purah his servant down to the outposts of the army that was in the camp.

12 Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley ⁹as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, ¹⁰as numerous as the sand on the seashore *.

13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, "Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat."

14 His friend replied, "This is nothing less * than * the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp ¹¹into his hand."

15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hands."

16 He divided the 300 * men into three companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.

17 He said to them, "Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.

18 "When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, 'For the LORD and for Gideon.' "

Confusion of the Enemy

19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

20 When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!"

21 Each stood in his place around the camp; and ¹²all the army ran, crying out as they fled.

22 When they blew 300 * trumpets, the ¹³LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of ¹⁴Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.

23 The men of Israel were summoned from ¹⁵Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.

24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against Midian and ¹⁶take the waters before them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan." So all the men of Ephraim were summoned and they took the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.

25 They captured the two leaders of Midian, ¹⁷Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon ¹⁸from across the Jordan.

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Judges 7 Commentary

Chapter 7

Gideon's army reduced. (1-8) Gideon is encouraged. (9-15) The defeat of the Midianites. (16-22) The Ephraimites take Oreb and Zeeb. (23-25)

1-8. God provides that the praise of victory may be wholly to himself, by appointing only three hundred men to be employed. Activity and prudence go with dependence upon God for help in our lawful undertakings. When the Lord sees that men would overlook him, and through unbelief, would shrink from perilous services, or that through pride they would vaunt themselves against him, he will set them aside, and do his work by other instruments. Pretences will be found by many, for deserting the cause and escaping the cross. But though a religious society may thus be made fewer in numbers, yet it will gain as to purity, and may expect an increased blessing from the Lord. God chooses to employ such as are not only well affected, but zealously affected in a good thing. They grudged not at the liberty of the others who were dismissed. In doing the duties required by God, we must not regard the forwardness or backwardness of others, nor what they do, but what God looks for at our hands. He is a rare person who can endure that others should excel him in gifts or blessings, or in liberty; so that we may say, it is by the special grace of God that we regard what God says to us, and not look to men what they do.

Verses 9-15 The dream seemed to have little meaning in it; but the interpretation evidently proved the whole to be from the Lord, and discovered that the name of Gideon had filled the Midianites with terror. Gideon took this as a sure pledge of success; without delay he worshipped and praised God, and returned with confidence to his three hundred men. Wherever we are, we may speak to God, and worship him. God must have the praise of that which encourages our faith. And his providence must be acknowledged in events, though small and seemingly accidental.

Verses 16-22 This method of defeating the Midianites may be alluded to, as exemplifying the destruction of the devil's kingdom in the world, by the preaching of the everlasting gospel, the sounding that trumpet, and the holding forth that light out of earthen vessels, for such are the ministers of the gospel, 2Co. 4:6, 2Co. 4:7 . God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, a barley-cake to overthrow the tents of Midian, that the excellency of the power might be of God only. The gospel is a sword, not in the hand, but in the mouth: the sword of the Lord and of Gideon; of God and Jesus Christ, of Him that sits on the throne and the Lamb. The wicked are often led to avenge the cause of God upon each other, under the power of their delusions, and the fury of their passions. See also how God often makes the enemies of the church instruments to destroy one another; it is a pity that the church's friends should ever act like them.

Verses 23-25 Two chief commanders of the host of Midian were taken and slain by the men of Ephraim. It were to be wished that we all did as these did, and that where help is needed, that it were willingly and readily performed by another. And that if there were any excellent and profitable matter begun, we were willing to have fellow-labourers to the finishing and perfecting the same, and not, as often, hinder one another.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 18

1. Judges 6:32
2. Genesis 12:6; Deuteronomy 11:30
3. Deuteronomy 8:17, 18
4. Deuteronomy 20:8
5. 1 Samuel 14:6
6. 1 Samuel 14:6
7. Joshua 2:24; Joshua 10:8; Joshua 11:6
8. Judges 7:15; 1 Samuel 14:9, 10
9. Judges 6:5; Judges 8:10
10. Joshua 11:4
11. Joshua 2:9
12. 2 Kings 7:7
13. 1 Samuel 14:20
14. 1 Kings 4:12; 1 Kings 19:16
15. Judges 6:35
16. Judges 3:28
17. Psalms 83:11; Isaiah 10:26
18. Judges 8:4

Footnotes 19

[a]. Or "En-Harod"
[b]. Lit "him"
[c]. Lit "glorify itself against me"
[d]. Lit "hand"
[e]. Or "please"
[f]. Lit "place"
[g]. Lit "they"
[h]. Lit "he"
[i]. Lit "extremity of the battle array"
[j]. Lit "dreamed"
[k]. Lit "and behold, a loaf"
[l]. Lit "upwards"
[m]. Lit "heads"
[n]. Lit "it shall come about that just as I do, so you shall do"
[o]. Lit "heads"
[p]. Or "camp"
[q]. Or "camp"
[r]. Or "camp"
[s]. Lit "to meet"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 7

In this chapter we have an account of the army under Gideon gathered out of several tribes, which from 32,000 were reduced to three hundred, and we are told by what means this was done, Jud 7:1-8 and how he was directed to go into the host of the Midianites, where he heard one of them telling his dream to his fellow, which greatly encouraged him to believe he should succeed, Jud 7:9-15 also we are told the form and manner in which he disposed of his little army to attack the Midianites, and the orders he gave them to observe, which had the desired effect, and issued in the total rout of that large body of people, Jud 7:16-22 and those that were not destroyed were pursued by persons gathered out of several tribes, and the passages of Jordan were taken by the Ephraimites, so that those that attempted their escape into their own country, there fell into their hands, Jud 7:23-25.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible